Associate Director/Director, IT Infrastructure & Operations

Candel Therapeutics

Needham, MA, USA

Published: 6/14/2022

Technology

Full Time

Job Description

Why Work With Us?

At Candel, our people drive our success. We value diversity, collaboration, and bold thinking in a supportive, mission-driven environment. We are a high performing team; we show up for each other and stay focused on making a difference for patients and families. Our leadership is transparent and empowering, and our culture is built on trust, flexibility, and accountability, encouraging ownership and innovation every day.

Our Science: Advancing Cancer Immunotherapies

Candel is a clinical-stage biopharma company developing off-the-shelf, multimodal immunotherapies that stimulate personalized, systemic anti-tumor responses. Our platforms use genetically modified adenovirus and HSV constructs. With positive Phase 3 results for our lead candidate, it’s an exciting time to join us and help bring transformative cancer treatments to patients. Learn more: www.candeltx.com 

Position Summary
The Director of IT Infrastructure & Operations is both a strategic leader and a hands-on technical expert responsible for ensuring the reliability, scalability, and security of the company’s IT environment. This role oversees infrastructure architecture, systems administration, integrations, and end-user support to meet business needs, including regulatory requirements. The ideal candidate balances tactical execution with visionary planning, driving efficiency, and continuous improvement in a collaborative, fast-paced biotech environment.
This is a hybrid role.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

Develop and execute an enterprise infrastructure roadmap aligned with business functional roadmaps, risk management, and compliance priorities.

Partner with senior leadership to plan IT budgets, assess capacity, and prioritize technology investments.

Identify opportunities for innovation, automation, and cloud optimization to enhance system performance and reliability.

Establish IT technical standards, metrics, and processes to ensure transparency and accountability.

Operational Oversight

Lead the design, implementation, and ongoing management of secure, redundant network and server infrastructure.

Oversee all internal and external IT operations, including managed service providers, to ensure service continuity and user satisfaction.

Implement performance monitoring, incident response, and disaster recovery strategies to minimize downtime and data loss.

Maintain strong vendor partnerships and manage contracts for hardware, software, and service providers.

People & Process Management

Foster a culture of accountability, learning, and proactive problem-solving.

Partner cross-functionally with departments to understand business requirements and translate them into reliable technology solutions.

Define and refine support workflows, escalation procedures, and SLAs for service delivery.

Compliance & Quality Systems

Ensure IT infrastructure meets FDA 21 CFR Part 11, SOX, and GxP regulatory standards.

Support validated systems used in laboratory and on-prem environments by ensuring secure configurations and proper documentation.

Collaborate with Quality and Compliance teams to maintain audit readiness and alignment with GxP practices.

Education and Experience:
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or Information Technology required; advanced degree preferred.
Minimum of 8 years of progressive experience in IT infrastructure and operations, with at least 3 years in leadership or project management.
Experience in FDA 21 CFR Part 11, IT SOX, and GxP-regulated environments; prior exposure to GMP laboratories preferred.
Consulting or small/emerging company experience in the life sciences sector highly desirable.
Strong background in network infrastructure, including routers, firewalls, DNS, load balancers,etc. Palo Alto experience, a plus.

NOTE: Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States on a permanent basis. At this time, the Company does not provide, and will not provide in the future, sponsorship for employment visas.

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