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This role is based at Alderley Park, with the flexibility to work remotely for part of the working week. Medicines Discovery Catapult is a national facility connecting the UK community to accelerate innovative drug discovery. We provide unique scientific capabilities and act as a gateway to UK resources and expertise, supporting UK SMEs to drive the development and industrialisation of new approaches for the discovery of new medicines.

By validating new ways of discovering medicines and driving key talent and expertise across the sector, we will support the UK life sciences industry, SMEs and innovators to deliver growth for the UK economy and maintain the UK’s heritage position as a global leader in medicines R&D. Ultimately, new industrialised technologies are vital for delivering new medicines to patients, faster.

We are looking for the very best people to join the Medicines Discovery Catapult team in driving the UK to the forefront of commercial success for medicines discovery, committing to place the patient at the beginning of discovery and helping the sector move faster to the patient.

The values of the Catapult are:

• Excellence – we continually strive to deliver the best solutions for our partners and for each other. In everything we do, we instil confidence.


• Integrity – Our strong commitment to what we do and why we are here drives us to do the right thing for our partners and each other.


• Community – We’re a strong team, we work well together, and we respect each other.


• Innovation - We’re driven by the need to make a difference. We constantly look for ways to drive change in our sector and how we work.

Role purpose

Reporting to the Head of IT, this role will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the internal IT service to the organisation. The nature of the Catapult’s mission necessitates a responsive, secure, and flexible IT provision. There will always be a large amount of change to manage at any given time, and a fast pace of change.

The Catapult has an internal team comprising of the Head of IT and three engineers. The IT Manager will work closely with the Head of IT to develop a clear strategy to enhance MDC’s IT provision, implement the security strategy, and support the Catapult’s ambitious goals. This role will lead two engineers specialising in Microsoft, networking, and mobile device management. The engineers will handle the bulk of project and support tasks, as well as contributing to the strategy.

We make use of many SaaS products, centred around the Microsoft 365 suite, alongside business applications such as CRM, HR, P3M, Risk Management, and others. MDC also operates a complex infrastructure comprising two physical sites (Office/Labs, Datacentre) and two public clouds (Azure, AWS). Networking is based around FortiNet (FortiGate, FortiEMS, ZTNA, etc.) with Cumulus Linux switching, and Meraki WiFi.

MDC use a combination of Dell, Oracle, Lenovo, Gigabyte, NVIDIA and SuperMicro server hardware, Dell and VAST Data storage, using VMware as the onsite hypervisor, Kubernetes and containerisation, alongside a number of physical ‘bare metal’ servers.

We operate a mixture of Windows, Ubuntu, RedHat, CentOS and Amazon Linux servers and VMs, alongside Windows 10/11, Ubuntu, iOS/iPadOS, Android, and MacOS clients. Alongside traditional IT, the department supports IoT, AV, and (where appropriate) laboratory instruments/PCs on a more OT basis.

Our users include a diverse range, from mobile business development staff to lab-based staff, software engineers, data scientists, and project delivery function. The Catapult is committed to continuous improvement in Cyber Security, holding Cyber Essentials Plus certification, mapping to the CIS standards, and implementing a Zero Trust strategy.

Main duties and responsibilities

• Management of Microsoft, networking and SaaS technology


• Leading and developing a team of engineers


• End user computing – service desk, device management, onboarding/offboarding, training, and support


• Asset management – logical and physical asset tracking, warranties, criticality assessment


• Network management • Infrastructure management


• Setting and managing the related portions of the IT budget


• Managing third party service providers and vendors

Essential qualifications, experience and knowledge

• Extensive knowledge of Microsoft 365 products


• Office 365 (Exchange Online, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint Online, Azure AD, Conditional access)


• Intune (Autopilot, device and app configuration)


• Microsoft Defender


• Experience of using service desk software


• Fortinet (FortiOS, FortiEMS, FortiClient) or extensive experience with firewalls, VPNs, ZTNA


• Networking experience (switches, WiFi)


• VMware experience (ESXi 7+)


• Microsoft Windows


• Windows Server 2019/2022


• Windows 10/11


• Windows services (Group policy, DFS, DNS, DHCP, IIS)


• Working in an IT Manager role or equivalent


• Management of budgets


• Strong interpersonal skills


• Flexible, collaborative, pragmatic approach in order to support innovation


• Analytical, methodical style and excellent troubleshooting skills


• Ability to work well in high pressure situations


• Discretion and diligence when handling sensitive data


• Enthusiastic and eager to learn new technologies


• Strong prioritization skills


• Ability to lead and mentor team members

Desirable qualifications, experience and knowledge

• Manage Engine Endpoint Central & Asset Explorer


• Jira Service Management


• MacOS


• Android


• Apple iOS


• NagiosXI


• Cisco Umbrella


• Egress Defend, Prevent, Protect


• Powershell


• Meraki


• Linux (Cumulus, Ubuntu, RedHat, CentOS, Amazon Linux)


• Experience within life sciences


• Experience with public sector contracting regulations/procurements


• Experience of Cyber Essentials Plus certification


• Experience managing telephony contracts and configuration

Closing date: Friday 10th November 2023

Please note the closing date for applications may be brought forward if a high volume of applications are received.