Associate Director, Data Operations and Issue Mangement Lead

Novartis is unable to offer relocation support or visa sponsorship for this position. The preferred location is East Hanover, New Jersey, with potential for remote work (some legal-entity restrictions may apply). Remote associates are responsible for all home office expenses and travel/lodging costs for periodic on-site meetings in East Hanover. Working hours and travel expectations (domestic and/or international) will be defined by the hiring manager.

About The Role

As the Associate Director, Data Operations & Issue Management, you will lead efforts to ensure enterprise data products remain stable, trusted, and business-ready. In this highly visible role, you'll drive issue resolution, operational governance, and continuous improvement across critical data products, partnering with data engineering, data quality, analytics, and business teams to maintain operational excellence and deliver trusted data at scale.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise data operations and issue management across certified data products and critical data capabilities.
• Manage issue intake, triage, prioritization, escalation, tracking, and resolution to ensure operational stability.
• Monitor service level agreements, issue trends, remediation progress, and operational performance metrics.
• Partner with data engineering teams to resolve pipeline failures, delivery issues, and production incidents.
• Collaborate with data quality teams to address quality issues, root causes, and corrective actions.
• Coordinate cross-functional resolution efforts across business, technology, vendor, and data teams.
• Escalate critical risks, dependencies, and service disruptions to ensure timely leadership visibility.
• Lead operational reviews, issue governance forums, remediation checkpoints, and post-incident follow-ups.
• Produce dashboards and reporting that provide insight into risks, service levels, and operational performance.
• Drive continuous improvement by identifying automation opportunities, reducing recurring issues, and enhancing operational processes.

Requirements

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in Data Management, Information Systems, Business, Computer Science, Engineering, Analytics, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in data operations, issue management, data governance, data quality, data engineering operations, service management, or program operations.
• Experience managing operational issue logs, incident workflows, SLA tracking, escalation routines, and remediation plans.
• Strong understanding of data products, data pipelines, data quality controls, metadata, lineage, data governance, and production support processes.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams across data engineering, governance, analytics, business, vendors, and technology platforms.
• Familiarity with tools such as Jira, ServiceNow, Confluence, Smartsheet, Excel, Power BI, Tableau, or similar.
• Ability to analyze issue trends, root causes, SLA performance, operational risks, and recurring gaps.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with ability to coordinate across teams and influence timely resolution.
• Strong communication skills, including ability to summarize operational risks and issues for leadership.
• Excellent organizational skills, attention to detail, follow-through, and comfort managing multiple priorities.

Desirable

• Experience with post-go-live support, hypercare, incident management, or service transition.
• Familiarity with regulated data environments, pharma commercial data, or compliance-driven operations.

Pay

The salary for this position is expected to range between $152,600 - $283,400 per year. The final salary offered is determined based on factors such as relevant skills and experience. Compensation includes a performance-based cash incentive and eligibility for annual equity awards.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health, life, and disability benefits.
• 401(k) with company contribution and match.
• Generous time off package including vacation, personal days, holidays, and other leaves.