Job Description

Job Title: Associate Director - Data Architect (Development IT)
#LI-Hybrid
Location: Hyderabad, India
Relocation Support: Yes

Imagine shaping the data foundation that accelerates the development of life-changing medicines. As the Associate Director - Data Architect (Development IT), you will play a pivotal role in driving enterprise-wide data architecture and data management strategies across Drug Development. Working at the intersection of business, data, and technology, you will design scalable, compliant, and AI-ready data solutions that empower scientific innovation, improve data quality, and enable critical decision-making across Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Operations, Technical Research & Development, and Patient Safety. This is a unique opportunity to influence how data is structured, governed, and leveraged across Novartis, helping to transform the future of drug development through modern data architecture and advanced analytics.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive adoption of enterprise data architecture and data management standards across Drug Development.
• Design and maintain conceptual and logical data models supporting critical business processes.
• Define taxonomies, semantic relationships, and data standards to enable trusted, consistent data.
• Architect scalable data flows and integration patterns aligned with enterprise technology strategies.
• Lead data architecture reviews and provide guidance on data-related initiatives and solutions.
• Establish reusable data products with embedded governance, metadata, lineage, and quality controls.
• Collaborate with business, architecture, engineering, and governance teams to achieve strategic outcomes.
• Provide architectural leadership across cloud data platforms, Lakehouse environments, and integration services.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and innovative approaches to strengthen data management and AI readiness.
• Influence senior stakeholders to advance the Development data architecture and data management roadmap.

Essential Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related discipline.
• 12+ years of experience in data architecture, including 8+ years in data modeling and data management.
• Strong expertise in pharmaceutical research and development, including Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Operations, and Patient Safety.
• Deep knowledge of data modeling, metadata management, master data management, taxonomy, ontology, and data governance.
• Proven experience designing enterprise-scale data architectures and aligning solutions with business objectives.
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, and influencing skills across business and technology organizations.

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion:
Novartis is committed to building an outstanding, inclusive work environment and diverse teams' representative of the patients and communities we serve.

Accessibility and accommodation
Novartis is 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 recruitment process, or in order to perform the essential functions of a position, please send an e-mail to diversityandincl.india@novartis.com and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Please include the job requisition number in your message

Skills Desired

Business Architecture, Change Management, Consulting, Digital Capabilities, Enterprise Architecture (EA), Influencing Skills, IT Governance, Solution Architecture, Stakeholder Engagement