Novartis Posted September 9, 2026

IT/OT Senior Lab Specialist

Durham, United States FULL_TIME
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About this opportunity

Join Novartis and play a critical role in enabling cutting-edge laboratory operations that help bring innovative medicines to patients. As an IT/OT Senior Lab Specialist, you will lead the strategy, implementation, and lifecycle management of computerized laboratory systems across GMP and non-GMP environments, ensuring reliability, compliance, and operational excellence. This is an opportunity to work at the intersection of technology, quality, and science, partnering with cross-functional teams to optimize lab performance, drive continuous improvement, and support a highly regulated manufacturing and development environment where your expertise will directly impact business success and patient outcomes.

Key Responsibilities: Lead design, configuration, installation, and maintenance of lab instrumentation/equipment software and associated hardware; including interacting with other teams as necessary, e.g., process engineering.Ensure lab instruments/equipment maintain high availability for lab owners. Work closely with vendors to ensure appropriate instrument/equipment architectures and connectivity are designed and implemented.Manage work order execution to ensure on-time completion of all required maintenance related activities on lab equipment (e.g, user reviews, audit trail reviews).Participate as an SME in health authority and internal inspections ensuring full compliance with applicable procedures.Track and drive to on-time completion of corrective and preventive actions (CAPA), including escalation of issues related to closure of CAPA, as appropriate. Lead lab instrument change controls per applicable procedures.Prepare, review, approve, archive GxP and non-GxP instrument/equipment documentation, e.g., User Requirements (URS), Functional Specification (FS) and Detail Design Specifications (DDS/HDS/SDS).Lead discussions with internal business partners on priorities, timelines and transparent sharing of information.Support operational excellence and continuous improvement. Partner with Quality to ensure a quality and compliant lab environment. Problem solve technical related issues impacting lab operations.Create and update procedures to drive operational efficiency and compliance. Implement and revise SOPs to conform with standards and policies. Support investigations of non-conformances related computerized systems.Participate as active IT/OT team member providing support to other functions as necessary. Support 24x7 site-based operations including rotating on-call responsibilities.Essential Requirement:B.S. degree in Engineering, Computer Science, IT or related technical field.8 years' work experience in pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical-based lab operations, or equivalent work experience (12 years) in pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical-based lab operations.Excellent oral and written communication skills.Experience leading teams installing, configuring and maintaining lab systems in a GMP environment.Experience implementing computerized system in a corporate network environment.Knowledge of FDA regulations particularly 21 CFR part 11 and GMP systems.Knowledge of Quality by Design, six-sigma, and operational excellence tools in creating efficient and high quality processes and end products.Experience working with and leading 3rd parties (both in-sourcing and outsourcing).Desirable Requirement:Ability to support contingency plans and logically work through complex issues in a pressure filled atmosphere.Provide technical support on computerized system lab instrument issues when driving towards issue resolution. Up to 10% travel may be required.Novartis Compensation and Benefit Summary:The salary for this position is expected to range between $108,500 and $201,500.00 annually.The final salary offered is determined based on factors like, but not limited to, relevant skills and experience, and upon joining Novartis will be reviewed periodically. Novartis may change the published salary range based on company and market factors.Your compensation will include a performance-based cash incentive and, depending on the level of the role, eligibility to be considered for annual equity awards.US-based eligible employees will receive a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, life and disability benefits, a 401(k) with company contribution and match, and a variety of other benefits. In addition, employees are eligible for a generous time off package including vacation, personal days, holidays and other leaves.#LI-OnsiteEEO Statement:The Novartis Group of Companies are Equal Opportunity Employers. We do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. We strive to create an inclusive workplace that cultivates bold innovation through collaboration and empowers our people to unleash their full potential.Accessibility and reasonable accommodationsThe Novartis Group of Companies are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, or in order to perform the essential functions of a position, please send an e-mail to tas.nacomms@novartis.com call +1 (877)395-2339 and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Please include the job requisition number in your message.https://www.novartis.com/careers/careers-research/notice-all-applicants-us-job-openingsEEO Statement:The Novartis Group of Companies are Equal Opportunity Employers. We do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. Accessibility and reasonable accommodationsThe Novartis Group of Companies are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, or to perform the essential functions of a position, please send an e-mail to us.reasonableaccommodations@novartis.com or call +1(877)395-2339 and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Please include the job requisition number in your message.

Job details

Seniority
Senior
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Durham, United States
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Manufacturing & CMC role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 485 comparable Senior Manufacturing & CMC roles across 78 biopharma companies.

485Comparable roles tracked
453Currently active
78Companies hiring similar roles
32Countries represented

Salary context

189 of 485 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.

This roleSubject $108,500/yr – $201,500/yr
Lowest disclosed · Associate Director, Digital Scientific Workflows · Merck $0/hr – $0/hr (≈ $0–$0/yr)
Highest disclosed · Senior Principal Scientist, Upstream Process Development Group Lead · Merck $190,800/yr – $300,300/yr
Peer group range $0 – $245,550 (median $146,150)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 485 comparable roles

United States310
India38
Netherlands19
Ireland17
United Kingdom11
Singapore9

+ 26 more countries

Seniority mix

485 of 485 peers have a known seniority level

Senior322
Principal88
Associate Director75

Therapeutic area mix

2 of 485 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Dermatology & Aesthetics1
Oncology1

Similar opportunities

The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.

60%similar
Seagen Inc Washington – Bothell, United States Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Novartis Cambridge (USA), United States Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country

Notify me about similar jobs

Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.

How we calculate "similar"

No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.

Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.

60%
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Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
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Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
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Senior Parenteral Manufacturing Technician
BMS Pharma.Ltd · Manati, United States · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.