ICON plc is a world-leading healthcare intelligence and clinical research organisation. From molecule to medicine, we advance clinical research providing outsourced services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and government and public health organisations.

With our patients at the centre of all that we do, we help to accelerate the development of drugs and devices that save lives and improve quality of life.

Our people are our greatest strength, are at the core of our culture, and the driving force behind our success. ICON people have a mission to succeed and a passion that ensures what we do, we do well.

The Role:

The IT Director – Networking will be responsible for assisting in the definition, management, leadership and direction of the Global Networks Group for ICON globally.

• Provide Leadership and management of one of the departments within the overall Networking Function. Set strategic direction for team and input into the wider strategy.
• Ensure appropriate IT service levels are set, agreed and achieved.
• Ensure successful and speedy resolution of all service level issues.
• Work with your team to consistently strive to improve the staff experience of service provided by team. Challenge the status quo to improve IT service provided.
• Use data driven decisions to improve service levels, identify issues with service delivery, perform root cause analysis and identify improvements and measure success.
• Ability to allocate resources effectively to ensure quality service is provided.
• Build relationships with business leaders to understand the IT requirements for their departments and put appropriate support models in place.
• Oversee the coordination and escalation of IT incidents between the various IT teams, regions and/or suppliers and business partners, ensuring minimum downtime to customers.
• Communication of major IT incidents status to end users, business function heads and IT management.
• Ensure teams plan, manage and deliver the technical, network and telecoms infrastructure globally.
• Ongoing management, monitoring and reporting of operations and projects to ensure ROIs are met.
• Work with business and IT stakeholders to evaluate complex situations accurately and identify viable solutions that create successful outcomes for the customer.
• Work effectively with internal and external clients, third party vendors and Executive Management/Senior Management in accomplishing operational and project objectives.
• Ensure IT budgets are tracked and managed to meet agreed targets and continually work to identify areas to reduce IT costs and maximise value to the business in line with organisation objectives.
• Keep up to date on industry and technology best practices and trends.
• Establish and implement people and talent management strategies that identify, secure, develop and retain the resources required by the IT – Digital Operations function.
• Recognise, exemplify and adhere to ICON's values which centre around our commitment to People, Clients and Performance. Ensure team development occurs.
• As a leader, the employee is expected to recognise the importance of and create a culture of process improvement with a focus on streamlining our processes adding value to our business and meeting client needs.
• Embrace new technologies which improve the services provided, particularly automation and seek to automate tasks where possible to ensure a positive outcome for customers and allow team to spend time on more value added activities.
  
  

To be successful in the role, you will ideally have:

• Strong previous senior network engineer who can provide technical leadership and lead a team and has worked in a large multinational enterprise.
• Can develop a network strategy and advise on appropriate networking technologies for ICON to leverage.
• Develop the team on technologies and ensure the team is adequately trained.
• Leverage technologies that ICON has available, assuming they are appropriate.
• Leverage automation to ensure solutions are delivered at machine speed.
• Technologies: Data Centre, WAN & LAN exposure using technologies from vendors such as Cisco (ACI, ICE, Catalyst, Meraki, etc), Fortinet, Cato SASE, Citrix, Viavi, Gigamon, etc.
• A data driven mindset, ability to interpret data or create processes to capture data so that sound decisions can be made.
• 10+ years of experience in strategic and operational management of medium-to-large scale international IT operations functions.
• Significant experience of leading/building a globally distributed, culturally diverse team of IT professionals in delivery of services relevant to this role.
• Proven ability to provide a strategic vision and strategies for the Networking Operations function as well as ensuring day-to-day operational stability.
• Proven ability to successfully deliver large scale programmes of IT change on time and within budget.
• Possess process improvement experience with a focus on continued streamlining of processes.
• Possess customer focused background and display commercial awareness.
• Proven ability to manage agile teams in a rapid growth environment.
• Ability to identify competitive and technology usage trends, to understand their implications and to react accordingly.
• Ability to embrace new and innovative technologies for the benefit of the organisation.
• Ability to present strategies and change initiatives (to technical or non-technical audiences) to secure approval and funding.
• Possess strong interpersonal, relationship management, influencing and negotiation skills.
• Possess outstanding verbal and written communication skills.
• Possess strong analytical capability to identify essential issues in complex technical and business problems.
• Strong ability to establish strong internal and external relationships to facilitate the achievement of strategic and operational objectives.
• Strong leadership skills, applicable at the senior management level. Highly self motivated and able to work effectively with different divisions and levels.
• Ability to motivate and coach a team to take positive action and be accountable for their assigned work.
  
  

Inspirational Leadership: Communication

• Proactively seeks information by listening actively and using effective questioning. Listens to how the story is told and the use of language and voice, to appropriately interpret the message.
  
  

Inspirational Leadership: Living Our Values

• Leads with credibility and conviction and inspires others to act in a similar manner. Accountable for own actions and the actions of those around them.
• Builds commitment through collaboration and consideration of stakeholder impact by identifying and presenting information that is solution focused. Shares stories, analogies, or examples to illustrate a point.
• Reduces uncertainty by ensuring communications include all the information the receiver needs to evaluate its content, solve a problem or make a decision.
• Challenges others when their actions undermine ICON’s values and recognises when others embrace and demonstrate the values through their actions and behaviours.
• Creates a climate that inspires others to actively live the values at every opportunity.
  
  

Inspirational Leadership: Critical Thinking & Decision Making

• Proactively identifies the root cause of problems. Effectively evaluates each potential solution in terms of its consequences.
• Identifies gaps in information and makes sound judgements to continue analysis and/or take action.
• Takes an unbiased approach to decision making by filtering opinions, emotions, expectations, assumptions, and focusing on the facts.
• Builds a broad and diverse internal network to help solve problems and think through ideas and solutions.
• Follows forums and other sources of information to continuously build a breadth of knowledge.
• Understands the wider business context and the nuances of what the different systems do and their impact on the wider operations.
  
  

Influence & Collaboration: Influencing

• Prepares methodically by considering others’ underlying needs, motivation, emotions and concerns, adjusts communication approach and plan accordingly.
• Anticipates objections and plans how to overcome them using new information or approaches, identifies key decision makers, builds alliances, and enlists third party support and outside resources as appropriate.
• Uses compelling arguments to convey ideas and proposals. Delivers message with impact and conviction.
  
  

Influence & Collaboration: Conflict Resolution & Problem Solving

• Anticipates when conflict might arise; uses good judgement and emotional awareness to determine appropriate time, setting and context in which to engage in the conversation. Prepares to address barriers preventing the achievement of a positive outcome; offers strategies to resolve issues.
• Leads others through alignment/consensus process to resolve conflict, restores stakeholder confidence in conflict situations.
• Notices discrepancies and inconsistencies in information related to problems. Asks meaningful and relevant questions to gain deeper insight into problems and potential causes. Challenges others to bring solutions to effectively resolve the conflict.
  
  

Influence & Collaboration: Teamwork/Collaboration

• Leads self and other team members through times of clarity and uncertainty remaining focused on the goal and desired outcome. Persuades others to act in the best interest of the team, organisation and client.
• Motivates others and brings team and others together to achieve collaborative results. Holds others accountable for team performance. Leverages expertise and contacts outside of immediate team to solve problems, gain knowledge or develop new business.
• Promotes diversity, through encouraging others with opposing viewpoints to constructively express their concerns. Ensures all parties have an opportunity to express views in a respectful manner.
  
  

Strategic Direction: Strategic Thinking

• Thinks broader than service line about business problems and opportunities; thinks beyond ICON and makes decisions in the context of the wider external environment.
• Understands how the work and efforts of other ICON teams connect and promote collaboration across ICON to solve customer problems.
• Proactively increases one’s own knowledge/awareness of the business and competitive environment, identifies trends and makes linkages between current business issues and potential opportunities.
  
  

Strategic Direction: Strategic Alignment & Execution

• Translates ICON’s values, mission, vision and strategic objectives into an ambitious plan for teams and communicates this plan regularly.
• Creates strategic alignment between cross-functional teams to help solve customer problems.
• Executes the strategic plan in a coherent and consistent manner, in which teams deliver to a standard of excellence.
• Strategic Direction: Change Management
• Proactively seeks opportunities to implement change initiatives that will drive our business strategy.
• Gains sponsorship from key stakeholders to support change initiatives.
• Plans and leads change initiatives, with clearly defined milestones and timelines, whilst also keeping self and others focused and motivated to achieve the change.
  
  

Competitive Edge: Relationship Management

• Proactively develops and manages relationships with key stakeholders. Recognises that understanding the customers’ organisation improves our ability to solve customer problems.
• Delivers high level service that strives to exceed customer expectations and demands same of team.
  
  

Talent Development: Developing Self

• Role models excellence in emotional intelligence by proactively regulating style to the situation and individual.
• Uses own resilience and experience to motivate and support others who are experiencing setbacks.
• Proactively plans career. Seeks new and challenging assignments to ensure continuous self-development in the pursuit of career goals.
  
  

Talent Development: Developing Others

• Takes ownership for recruiting talent that will build skills and capabilities within ICON.
• Takes responsibility for building succession pipeline for their team and broader organisation by evaluating capabilities, identifying gaps and taking action to help build skills.
• Conducts development discussions in a manner that fosters trust and endeavours to elevate the performance of the individual and team.
  
  

Talent Development: Knowledge Management & Sharing

• Builds social networks that enable knowledge and information flow. Shares knowledge regarding strategy, market and industry trends, developments, experience and good practice.
• Develops and nurtures networks and communities of practice to enable opportunities for knowledge, skills and experience to be shared.
• Drive Performance & Accountability: Delivers Results through Managing Performance (own and/or others)
• Positions ICON for success by establishing challenging yet achievable performance goals, aligning people, systems and processes to deliver on these goals.
• Leads team(s) in the execution of project/work stream timelines. Delivers to milestone KPI’s, setting stretch targets and motivating team(s) to achieve them. Uses resources efficiently, managing competing priorities and dealing with challenges that arise.
• Thinks like an owner, takes accountability for looking around corners to anticipate and mitigate for emerging problems. Involves key stakeholders to effectively solve problems.
  
  

Drive Performance & Accountability: Manages Risk & Quality

• Adept at risk management implementation. Considers internal and external factors that could adversely affect project execution – within and outside of ICON control.
• Proactively identifies challenges whilst meeting deliverables; adjusting project plan throughout the project lifecycle. Serves as a point of escalation in an appropriate and timely manner.
• Completes projects on time, within budget and scope to a high quality. Holds others accountable to project deliverables and timelines.
  
  

Benefits of Working in ICON:

Our success depends on the knowledge, capabilities and quality of our people. That’s why we are committed to developing our employees in a continuous learning culture – one where we challenge you with engaging work and where every experience adds to your professional development.

At ICON, our focus is to provide you with a comprehensive and competitive total reward package that comprises, not only an excellent level of base pay, but also a wide range of variable pay and recognition programs. In addition, our best in class employee benefits, supportive policies and wellbeing initiatives are tailored to support you and your family at all stages of your career - both now, and into the future.

ICON, including subsidiaries, is an equal opportunity and inclusive employer and is committed to providing a workplace free of discrimination and harassment. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.

If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, or in order to perform the essential functions of a position, please let us know through the form below.