Experience

• 

  Merck

  Oct 1991 - Dec 2014

  Analysis, design, engineering and operation of virtualization infrastructure based on VMware vSphere, comprising in excess of 1100 hosts supporting >25K VMs at 50+ global, regional and local data centers. Key responsibility for 10 vCenters, SDLC, compliance, knowledge, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery. Particular focus on architecture of SME sized virtualization infrastructure (hosts, storage, networking) supporting pharmaceutical manufacturing and similarly regulated operations.Key Achievements:From joining team with no experience of management of VMware vSphere environment was performing Tier 3 operations/engineering support within 6 months.Developed new Disaster Recovery processes for vCenter that ensured failover of 10 vCenter instances could be completed by one person within half of specified 4 hour RTO.Supported successful transition of Operational activities to Managed Service organization, including development of required process documents, training and ongoing coaching/mentoring.Completion of Engineering and SDLC documentation for upgrade of VMware vSphere, including successful transition of deployment activities to Managed Service Operations team.Coordinated and engineered upgrade of ESX hosts and NetApp storage infrastructure at 11 local data centers. Built on working relationships with local IT across multiple countries, storage engineering and Managed Services to ensure success, in the process developing adaptable migration processes that minimised downtime for the business and stress on the infrastructure.Designed and engineered processes in conjunction with storage engineering for risk based capacity analysis of small vSphere clusters at local sites that helped ensure reduction in capital spend for new projects.Verification of utilization of Nutanix Hyperconverged platform for virtualization operations at core and remote sites. Show less Gained role of Lab Automation Systems Analyst with primary responsibility for LIMS administration gaining experience in front end and some back end administration of Beckman LIMS and AB-SQL*LIMS, whilst maintaining responsibility for site's Chromatography Data Systems and interfaces to LIMS.Seconded part-time during 2008-2010 to site IT department, gaining further experience in server, PC, LAN and application implementation and support.Key Achievements:Selected as site liaison, project manager and implementer for divisional Quality remediation projects, notably those involving computer system remediation (Y2K, 21CFR Part 11 compliance and Windows NT Remediation).Successful implementation of full upgrade of lab Chromatography Data System, with full project management and budgetary responsibility for >$800K of capital spend, plus coordination of vendor installation, site qualification, methods development and user training of approximately 50 analysts. Identified changes in system design that resulted in reduction in validation effort and freed up capital that permitted implementation of larger backup/recovery and SAN solutions that were used to support other projects on site.Successful implementation of a new CDS-LIMS interface using Labtronics LIMSLink, resulting in savings equivalent to 3 FTE over equivalent manual processes.Successfully managed the refresh of in excess of 200 laptop and desktop PCs across the site, coordinating all associated project activities, purchasing, user & vendor liaison and technical migration tasks. Show less Part of small but active projects team providing support for routine QC testing activities, including investigations, method development and validation, instrument sourcing, validation and calibration, analyst training and coaching. Significant experience in HPLC maintenance and validation gained during this period.Key achievements:Development and validation of methods for testing for residues of APIs and cleaning products on manufacturing equipmentResponsibility for leadership of Projects team of 3-4 analysts, generating work plans and providing mentoring to team members, as well as all the activities indicated above.Selected and actively participated in a global corporate project to standardise on HPLC equipment and Chromatography Data Systems from in excess of 10 vendors down to 2, involving development of standard requirements and core functionality validation, plus implementation of one of the systems on site for in excess of 70 HPLC systems. Show less Testing of pharmaceuticals to prescribed specifications to ensure quality and safety prior to release to patients. Included preparation of samples and instrument operation. Required working within a dedicated isolated facility away from the main release laboratories due to safety restrictions imposed on one key product.Additionally performed QA Inspection of blister and bottle packaging lines for the same product.Given extended responsibility above those of other analysts performing a similar role in performing the review of batch documentation for a key product at the site.Key achievement: following move of the rest of Quality Operations to another site, I was entrusted for 6 months to perform all the above activities on a key product prior to transfer of manufacturing to a new facility. This required direct liason with manufacturing operations and management, plus planning and execution of all daily activities required in the running of a release testing laboratory. Show less

  • Infrastructure Management Analyst, Virtualisation Engineering

    Jan 2010 - Dec 2014

  • Lab Automation Systems Analyst

    Jan 2001 - Jan 2010

  • Projects Analyst / Senior Projects Analyst

    Sept 1993 - Jan 2001

  • Quality Control Analyst

    Oct 1991 - Sept 1993
• 

  North of england commissioning support

  May 2015 - now

  IT lead for NECS primary data redaction tools that provides data to commissioners supporting provision of NHS services. Turned around support given to users of the system and indirectly to NECS external customers, resulting in being awarded NECS Corporate Services (Individual) award in 2016, within a year of joining the company.Successfully migrated the data redaction system's infrastructure to new hardware resulting in a 40% reduction in processing time and facilitating increases in workloads from new customers. Further expanded the infrastructure to support in-housing of other similar workflows, resulting in avoidance of ~GBP140Kp.a. in external hosting costs.Introduced several CI tools into the team, resulting in a >50% decrease in open service calls and the Systems team becoming a leading example for the implementation of visual metrics and CI within NECS.Redesign of IT Disaster Recovery plan as part of wider update to Business Continuity Processes for the organisation, including the design and implementation of a new structure for IT based services, systems and infrastructure within the CMDB. Implementation of a new monitoring service across all IT server and storage infrastructure, facilitating the proactive resolution of IT infrastructure issues before they impacted on customer service. This in turn freed up multiple resources within the team from working on reactive incident resolution to proactive improvements and other customer projects.Ongoing responsibility for other IT systems, supporting secondary care organisations and GPs throughout the North of England. Implementation of new SOP system with team to provide greater assurance of standardised processes to customers. Taking on team management role for short periods when primary team management on vacation. Show less

  • Infrastructure Systems Manager

    Aug 2023 - now

  • Infrastructure Systems Lead

    May 2015 - Aug 2023