Senior Director, Technology Infrastructure and Security Operations

Ardelyx • Waltham, MA

93d • $245,000 - $299,000

About The Position

Ardelyx is a publicly traded commercial biopharmaceutical company founded with a mission to discover, develop and commercialize innovative first-in-class medicines that meet significant unmet medical needs. Ardelyx has two commercial products approved in the United States, IBSRELA® (tenapanor) and XPHOZAH® (tenapanor). Ardelyx has agreements for the development and commercialization of tenapanor outside of the U.S. Kyowa Kirin commercializes PHOZEVEL® (tenapanor) for hyperphosphatemia in Japan. A New Drug Application for tenapanor for hyperphosphatemia has been approved in China with Fosun Pharma. Knight Therapeutics commercializes IBSRELA in Canada. We are seeking a dynamic and strategic Senior Director, Technology Infrastructure and Security Operations to lead our technology foundation in support of a rapidly scaling, publicly traded biopharma company. This role is responsible for ensuring a secure, reliable, and compliant technology environment while enabling business agility and collaboration across R D, clinical, regulatory, commercial, and corporate functions. The successful candidate will combine deep technical expertise with strong leadership and business partnership skills to drive operational excellence, compliance readiness, and innovation in IT services.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree with 12 - 15 years of progressive IT leadership experience, including at least 5 years in senior management roles overseeing infrastructure and security operations or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrated experience in regulated industries (biopharma, biotech, life sciences, or healthcare) with knowledge of GxP, HIPAA, FDA compliance, and validation practices.
• Deep technical expertise in cloud platforms, enterprise infrastructure, security frameworks, and collaboration ecosystems.
• Strong understanding of incident response, risk management, and business continuity in a regulated environment.
• Proven track record building, developing, and retaining high-performing technical teams while driving organizational change.
• Exceptional communication, collaboration, and stakeholder management skills with the ability to translate technology into business value.

Responsibilities

• Own the strategy, design, and operations of global infrastructure (on-premises, cloud, and hybrid), ensuring scalability, availability, and performance to meet the needs of a hyper-growth biopharma.
• Lead the adoption and optimization of cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, SaaS ecosystems), balancing cost efficiency, security, and agility.
• Oversee network architecture, data center strategy, disaster recovery/business continuity planning, and monitoring/alerting frameworks.
• Lead 24x7 global Security Operations, including EDR, SIEM/MDR, firewalls, email security, and incident response processes.
• Ensure alignment to industry frameworks (NIST CSF 2.0, SOC 2, GxP, FDA 21 CFR Part 11) and proactively prepare for regulatory audits.
• Partner with Compliance, Quality, and Legal functions to manage security risks in third-party vendors and clinical/regulated SaaS environments (e.g., Veeva Vault RIM/Quality, Snowflake).
• Build and mature cyber resilience posture, including tabletop exercises, incident response playbooks, and vendor breach scenarios.
• Lead enterprise IT service delivery, including Service Desk, endpoint management, and collaboration platforms (M365, Box, Zoom, Teams).
• Define and measure SLAs to ensure exceptional user experience and productivity support across research labs, clinical operations, field sales, and corporate offices.
• Drive adoption of collaboration and knowledge-sharing tools to enable a connected and compliant workforce, including secure mobile device and identity management.
• Develop and mentor a high-performing team of IT operations, security engineers, and service delivery professionals.
• Establish strong vendor and partner management practices, ensuring accountability, cost optimization, and performance across managed service providers.
• Partner with R D, Commercial, Clinical, and Corporate stakeholders to ensure IT operations accelerate business priorities and regulatory obligations.
• Serve as a key leader in IT transformation, transitioning from fragmented, vendor-led operations to a scalable, in-house center of excellence.

Benefits

• 401(k) plan with generous employer match
• 12 weeks of paid parental leave
• Up to 12 weeks of living organ and bone marrow leave
• Equity incentive plans
• Health plans (medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision)
• Life insurance and disability
• Flexible time off
• Annual Winter Holiday shut down
• At least 11 paid holidays

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Industry: Chemical Manufacturing
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree