About Alkem:
Alkem Laboratories Limited is an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Mumbai, that manufactures and sells pharmaceutical generics, formulations and nutraceuticals in India and globally over 50 countries. We have consistently been ranked amongst the top five pharmaceutical companies in India. Our portfolio includes illustrious brands like Clavam, Pan, Pan-D, and Taxim-O, which feature amongst the top 50 pharmaceutical brands in India.
Purpose of the Role:
The incumbent will own the architecture, engineering, operations, security, availability, and lifecycle management of Alkem's on-premise infrastructure, enterprise networks, SD-WAN, internet services, remote access, wireless networks, data centers, plant connectivity, and network security platforms.
This role is responsible for ensuring a secure, scalable, resilient, and high-performing network and infrastructure environment across corporate offices, manufacturing plants, R&D centers, warehouses, distribution locations, and international operations, enabling seamless connectivity for users, applications, cloud platforms, and third-party partners.
Key Responsibilities:
1. Enterprise Network Architecture & Engineering
- Design, develop, and maintain enterprise network architecture, standards, reference designs, IP addressing schemes, routing, segmentation, redundancy, and capacity plans.
- Lead engineering and implementation of LAN, WAN, SD-WAN, MPLS, internet connectivity, DNS, DHCP, IPAM, load balancing, wireless networks, cloud connectivity, and remote access services.
- Conduct technical assessments and reviews for new facilities, plant expansions, data center upgrades, cloud integrations, application onboarding, and network modernization initiatives.
- Maintain current and future-state architecture documentation, network diagrams, configuration standards, dependency maps, and technology roadmaps.
2. Network Operations & Service Assurance
- Manage network availability, performance, utilization, configuration management, backup, patching, and lifecycle management of routers, switches, wireless controllers, access points, and related infrastructure.
- Implement and manage centralized network monitoring, configuration compliance, event management, traffic analytics, log collection, and proactive capacity monitoring.
- Lead resolution of critical incidents, coordinate root cause analysis (RCA), and ensure implementation of corrective and preventive actions.
- Define, monitor, and report network KPIs including availability, latency, packet loss, bandwidth utilization, incident response time, change success rate, and recurring fault trends.
3. Data Center & On-Premise Infrastructure Management
- Manage data center and server-room infrastructure, including racks, power systems, UPS, structured cabling, environmental monitoring, and equipment lifecycle management.
- Coordinate operations of physical servers, virtualization platforms, storage systems, backup appliances, console access, and out-of-band management in collaboration with platform teams.
- Ensure resilient connectivity across primary and disaster recovery data centers, manufacturing plants, branch offices, cloud environments, and strategic partners.
- Support capacity planning, infrastructure refresh programs, relocations, consolidations, commissioning, and decommissioning activities while ensuring proper documentation and governance.
4. Network Security & Segmentation
- Partner with Information Security teams to implement and manage firewalls, VPNs, SASE, Secure Web Access, Network Access Control (NAC), Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), DNS security, and network segmentation controls.
- Maintain appropriate segregation between corporate IT, servers, guest networks, vendor access, laboratories, manufacturing systems, and OT environments based on approved security architecture.
- Manage and periodically review firewall rules, remote access paths, privileged administration access, third-party connectivity, and network security exceptions.
- Ensure integration of network logs, alerts, and security events with enterprise monitoring and Security Operations processes.
5. Plant, OT & Site Connectivity
- Ensure highly available communication services for manufacturing plants, laboratories, warehouses, utilities, serialization systems, automation platforms, and OT environments.
- Coordinate with Engineering, OT, Automation, Quality, Application, and Information Security teams to implement secure connectivity and manage controlled changes in regulated environments.
- Drive last-mile redundancy, link diversity, failover testing, wireless coverage optimization, and site-specific capacity planning initiatives.
- Maintain accurate inventories, network diagrams, telecom circuit records, support contacts, escalation matrices, and disaster recovery procedures for all sites.
6. Telecom, Carrier & Vendor Management
- Manage relationships with telecom carriers, internet service providers, SD-WAN partners, OEMs, system integrators, cabling vendors, and managed service providers.
- Oversee circuit procurement, service activation, bandwidth expansion, contract renewals, inventory reconciliation, billing validation, and service credit management.
- Monitor vendor performance against contractual obligations, SLAs, security requirements, incident response commitments, and improvement plans.
- Support vendor evaluation, technical scope definition, bill-of-material reviews, proof-of-concept activities, and technology selection initiatives.
7. Service Management, Governance & Compliance
- Establish and enforce standard practices for solution deployment, hardening, change management, configuration management, backups, access controls, and documentation.
- Support audits, risk assessments, regulatory inspections, evidence collection, remediation planning, and compliance requirements relevant to pharmaceutical operations.
- Maintain infrastructure asset inventory, warranty and AMC records, software versions, licensing compliance, spares management, and end-of-life remediation plans.
Educational Qualification:
- Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, Electronics & Telecommunications, or a related discipline.
Professional Experience:
- 8-10 years of progressive experience in enterprise networking and on-premise infrastructure management.
- Minimum 5 years of experience in network architecture, engineering, infrastructure operations, or technical leadership roles.
- Experience managing large-scale, multi-site enterprise environments across corporate offices, manufacturing facilities, warehouses, and remote locations.
Preferred Industry Experience:
- Experience in Pharmaceutical, Life Sciences, Chemical, Manufacturing, or other regulated industries is highly preferred.
- Proven exposure to supporting business-critical applications, manufacturing operations, and geographically distributed users.
Technical Competencies:
The incumbent should possess strong expertise in Routing & Switching technologies, including TCP/IP, BGP, and OSPF protocols, along with comprehensive knowledge of LAN, WAN, and SD-WAN environments. The role requires hands-on experience in Wireless Networking, DNS, DHCP, IP Address Management (IPAM), VPN technologies, Network Segmentation, Security Architecture, Network Monitoring, Performance Analysis, and advanced troubleshooting and incident management. The candidate should also have working knowledge of firewalls, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), Network Access Control (NAC) solutions, cloud connectivity, Operational Technology (OT) networking, data center infrastructure, virtualization dependencies, ITIL-based service management practices, vendor and contract management, as well as audit, compliance, and regulatory support activities.