Cloud Platform Lead

Title

Cloud Platform Lead

Company

Ipsen Pharma (SAS)

About Ipsen

Ipsen is a mid-sized global biopharmaceutical company with a focus on transformative medicines in three therapeutic areas: Oncology, Rare Disease and Neuroscience. Supported by nearly 100 years of development experience, with global hubs in the U.S., France and the U.K, we tackle areas of high unmet medical need through research and innovation.

Our passionate teams in more than 40 countries are focused on what matters and endeavor every day to bring medicines to patients in 88 countries. We build a workplace that champions human-centric leadership and fosters a culture of collaboration, excellence and impact. At Ipsen, every individual is empowered to be their true selves, grow and thrive alongside the company’s success. Join us on our journey towards sustainable growth, creating real impact on patients and society!

For more information, visit us at https://www.ipsen.com/ and follow our latest news on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Job Description

POSITION

Job Title

Cloud Platforms Lead

Division / Function

GDIT / OneOps

Manager’s Job Title

Cloud Services & Operations Director

Location

Paris, France / Paddington, UK

WHAT - SUMMARY & PURPOSE OF THE POSITION

The Cloud Platforms Lead is responsible for the governance, architecture, operational excellence, and continuous evolution of Ipsen's cloud platforms, spanning Public Cloud (Azure, AWS).

Acting as both a technical leader and a trusted advisor, the Cloud Platforms Lead ensures that cloud platforms are secure, scalable, resilient, compliant, and aligned with business needs. The role drives platform standardization, automation, service reliability, cost optimization (FinOps), and technology innovation while supporting Ipsen's digital transformation ambitions.

The position provides technical leadership across cloud engineering, operations, security, and governance activities, working closely with cybersecurity, infrastructure, application, data & AI, and business teams. The Cloud Platforms Lead is accountable for defining platform roadmaps, driving adoption of cloud-native capabilities, establishing operational best practices, and ensuring the delivery of high-quality cloud services worldwide.

As a key member of the Cloud Services & Operations organization, the role contributes to strategic initiatives including cloud transformation, automation at scale, M&A integrations, regulatory compliance, and the adoption of emerging technologies such as AI and digital workplace platforms.

WHAT - MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES & TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES

Cloud Platform Strategy & Governance

• Contribute to define, and execute the cloud platform strategy aligned with Ipsen's business, digital, security, and regulatory objectives.
• Establish the technology roadmap for Public Cloud platforms.
• Establish governance frameworks, standards, policies, and operational processes to ensure consistency, compliance, and risk management.
• Drive continuous platform modernization and adoption of emerging cloud technologies.

Cloud Architecture & Platform Engineering

• Lead the design, evolution, and optimization of cloud platforms across Azure, AWS, and any future cloud platforms.
• Ensure solutions are scalable, resilient, secure, and cost-efficient by design.
• Define architectural standards, reference designs, and best practices for cloud services and infrastructure.

Platform Operations & Service Excellence

• Ensure the availability, performance, reliability, and operational excellence of cloud platforms.
• Oversee incident, problem, change, capacity, and lifecycle management processes.
• Drive proactive monitoring, service health management, and operational improvements.
• Provide senior technical leadership and escalation support for complex platform issues.

Public Cloud Services Management

• Govern and optimize Azure and AWS environments, ensuring alignment with security, operational, and financial objectives.
• Promote Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automation, CI/CD, and cloud-native practices.
• Ensure cloud resource management, service catalog governance, and platform scalability.
• Lead FinOps initiatives to optimize cloud consumption and cost efficiency.

Security, Risk & Compliance

• Embed security-by-design principles across all cloud platforms.
• Partner with Cybersecurity teams to ensure compliance with corporate security standards, industry regulations, and audit requirements.
• Lead platform remediation activities, security posture improvements, and technical risk management.
• Support regulated environments by ensuring compliance with applicable GxP and data protection requirements.

Automation & Operational Efficiency, DevOps

• Drive large-scale automation initiatives to reduce manual effort, improve service quality, and increase operational efficiency.
• Promote self-service capabilities, workflow automation, and operational integration across cloud platforms.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence.
• Establish and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) standards across Azure and AWS using technologies such as Terraform, Bicep, ARM templates, and CloudFormation.
• Own cloud platform CI/CD frameworks, deployment pipelines, and release management processes to ensure consistency, quality, and operational efficiency.
• Lead the adoption and governance of GitHub Enterprise, Git-based development practices, source control standards, and platform engineering best practices.
• Define reusable platform components, golden templates, landing zones, and reference architectures to accelerate cloud deployments.
• Drive automation of provisioning, governance, compliance, security controls, monitoring, and operational workflows.
• Ensure robust testing, validation, versioning, and deployment practices through automated pipelines and GitOps methodologies.
• Continuously improve platform reliability, deployment velocity, and operational efficiency through engineering excellence and automation at scale.

Leadership & Team Development

• Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and coaching to cloud engineers and platform specialists.
• Build and maintain a high-performing cloud platform organization.
• Promote innovation, accountability, knowledge sharing, and engineering excellence.
• Drive cross-functional collaboration across global teams.

HOW - KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE

Knowledge & Experience (Essential)

• Minimum 15 years of experience.
• 8+ years of hands-on experience in Azure & AWS Cloud infrastructure and DevOps engineering.
• Ability to design secure, cost-optimized, and scalable architecture on Cloud platforms.
• Excellent problem-solving, troubleshooting, service improvement and automation skills.
• Strong collaboration skills to work across infrastructure, security, and delivery teams.
• DevOps culture and Agile mindset.
• Open-minded, with transparent communication, and comfortable in a changing environment.
• Excellent, all-round communicator.
• Self-motivated and capable of managing multiple priorities and tasks as delegated.
• Team player with the ability to work in a collaborative environment.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, ability to work with diverse personality types.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with high attention to detail.
• Experience in enterprise or regulated environments is a plus.

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience in the healthcare or pharmaceutical industry.
• Knowledge of pharmaceutical industry constraints, GxP compliance, and regulated data environments.

Key Technical Competencies

• Strong expertise in designing, securing, and operating Azure & AWS environments in regulated contexts, leveraging HIPAA-eligible services and core cloud components (IAM, networking, compute, storage, container platforms).
• Hands-on expertise with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), CI/CD tools (e.g. GitHub Actions, CircleCI), and scripting using Shell and Python.
• Experience with monitoring, logging, and observability tools (e.g., CloudWatch).
• Experience with Cloud cost optimization and FinOps practices.
• Prior experience working closely with Databricks platform and AI teams is a plus.

Education / Certifications (Essential)

• Master’s degree or PhD in Computer Science, Cloud Engineering, Software Engineering or a related field.

Language(s) (Essential)

• Fluent in English and French, both written and spoken.

OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION

Key Internal Stakeholders

Global Security team, Workplace team, support teams, Architecture team, Network team, Data & AI team.

Key External Contacts

Managed Service Providers, Editors (Microsoft, Amazon).

Current Working Type Possible for the Position

Hybrid Working

Any contractual obligation related to your place of work is governed by your contract of employment.

In line with Ipsen Hybrid Working Policy.

Nous nous engageons à créer un lieu de travail où chacun se sent écouté, valorisé et soutenu, où nous incarnons « The Real Us*». La valeur que nous accordons aux différentes perspectives et expériences motive notre engagement en faveur de l'inclusion et de l'égalité des chances. Lorsque nous intégrons des modes de pensée diversifiés, nous prenons des décisions plus réfléchies et découvrons des solutions plus innovantes. Ensemble, nous nous efforçons de mieux comprendre les communautés que nous servons. Cela signifie que nous voulons également vous aider à donner le meilleur de vous-même lorsque vous postulez à un poste chez nous. Si vous avez besoin d'aménagements ou d'aide pendant le processus de candidature, veuillez en informer l'équipe de recrutement. Ces informations seront traitées avec soin et n'auront aucune incidence sur le résultat de votre candidature. *Soyons nous-même