Manager , Data Platforms SRE

Manager Data Platforms SRE

IQVIA Data Platforms Governance Team

Opening Statement

IQVIA is creating a dedicated Governance Team to provide single operational ownership for data platform services, covering access management, incident and request handling, monitoring, maintenance, governance, improvements, automation and reporting.

As a Manager, Data Platforms SRE, you will build and lead this team in India and establish a scalable, measurable operating model aligned to ITIL and managed service principles. This role addresses critical structural inefficiencies where senior engineering talent is heavily involved in operational control and governance-driven activities, reducing time available for high-value engineering and platform innovation. The Governance Team will establish a clear separation between operational ownership and platform engineering, enabling the organization to treat platform operations as a managed service with defined KPIs, SLA/SLO tracking, and continuous improvement. You will partner closely with Platform Engineering for L3 and engineering decisions while owning day-to-day service delivery for Databricks and Snowflake operations.

Job Overview

You will own the day-to-day service delivery for Data Platforms operations (Databricks and Snowflake) and governance activities, while partnering with Platform Engineering for L3 and engineering decisions. This management role requires building the operational foundation for IQVIA's data platform services, moving from a reactive, ad-hoc support model to a predictable, scalable operating model based on ITIL standards. Your leadership will establish the operational gatekeeper function that tracks policy adherence, compliance gaps, and recurring operational risks across the data platform landscape. Success in this role means establishing measurable service KPIs, reporting artifacts tracking volumes and MTTR trends, and driving continuous improvement from reactive support toward managed service delivery with defined SLA/SLO verification.

Key Responsibilities

• Team Leadership and Capability Building: Hire, onboard, coach, and develop an SRE team based in India. Define roles, coverage models, and escalation paths across L1, L2, and L3 support tiers. Build technical capability in Databricks and Snowflake operational domains while fostering a service-oriented mindset aligned to ITIL principles.
• Service Ownership and Intake Model: Establish a centralized intake and execution approach for incidents, requests, and governance work. Enforce disciplined ticket practices including clear evidence trails, professional customer-visible updates, and communication standards that support SLA compliance and audit requirements.
• Governance Delivery: Ensure consistent execution of access and identity management including user onboarding and offboarding, privilege request handling for catalog, schema, table, and external location access, credential resets, and compliance-oriented operational controls.
• Operational Excellence: Oversee platform monitoring and maintenance activities including health checks, restarts, and participation in backups, restores, and upgrades where in scope. Manage environment lifecycle activities including workspace provisioning, resource cleanup, and decommissioning.
• KPI, SLA, SLO and Reporting: Implement measurable service KPIs and reporting artifacts tracking incident volumes, MTTR trends, and recurring issues. Verify SLAs and SLOs, and drive continuous improvement initiatives that transition the team from reactive support toward proactive managed service delivery with preventive controls.
• Stakeholder Management: Act as the operational point of contact for platform users and partner teams including Platform Engineering, Architecture, and product teams. Lead escalations, post-incident reviews, and communications during outages to maintain service transparency and trust.

Required Technical Skills

The following technical skills are required for this management position, reflecting the hands-on knowledge necessary to lead a technical SRE team for enterprise data platforms.

Technology Area

Required Skills

Management Application

Databricks Platform

Platform administration, Unity Catalog management, workspace configuration, cluster optimization

Oversee team handling Databricks governance, troubleshoot escalations, guide best practices for Unity Catalog implementation

Snowflake Platform

Account administration, RBAC configuration, warehouse management, data sharing

Lead team supporting Snowflake operations, manage access control issues, optimize warehouse performance

Cloud Infrastructure

Azure cloud services, Active Directory integration, AWS IAM and resource management

Direct cloud infrastructure support activities, resolve cross-platform integration issues

Data Technologies

SQL query optimization, data warehouse concepts, ETL/ELT fundamentals

Guide team on complex data issues, review query performance problems, ensure data integrity

ITSM & Ticketing

Jira workflow management, ticketing system administration, SLA monitoring

Oversee ticket queue management, establish service delivery standards, track SLA compliance

System Administration

Linux system administration, monitoring and observability tools, troubleshooting methodologies

Coordinate system health monitoring, lead incident response, establish troubleshooting procedures

Infrastructure as Code

Terraform configuration, automation scripting (Python/Bash), version control (Git)

Review infrastructure automation, guide team on IaC best practices, manage code quality

Container & DevOps

Kubernetes fundamentals, Docker basics, CI/CD pipeline concepts

Support team with containerization issues, understand deployment pipelines, collaborate with Platform Engineering

Data Operations

Backup and restore procedures, disaster recovery concepts, data lifecycle management

Ensure backup compliance, establish recovery procedures, manage operational runbooks

Required Qualifications

Candidates must possess strong hands-on experience supporting Databricks and Snowflake platforms in production environments, including troubleshooting job failures, performance degradation, and access or permission issues. This experience should include working with distributed computing frameworks, understanding cluster configurations, and resolving complex data pipeline problems. Experience with operational monitoring and alerting systems is required, including log analysis, metrics interpretation, and structured incident handling following established procedures. The ability to produce clear technical narratives in tickets is essential, documenting symptoms, diagnostic steps, root cause findings, and resolution actions in a format that supports knowledge transfer and future troubleshooting. A demonstrated ownership mindset is critical, including the ability to identify repeat issues, propose preventive controls, and drive standardization across operational processes. Candidates should show evidence of proactive problem-solving, initiative in process improvement, and commitment to operational excellence. Strong communication skills are necessary for coordinating with platform engineering teams, vendors, and business stakeholders during escalation and resolution activities. L2 support engineers must communicate complex technical details in a way that clients can understand, acting as an intermediary between the client and technical team.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience establishing managed service operating models for cloud data platforms with defined SLA and SLO frameworks. Knowledge of FinOps principles and cost governance approaches for cloud platform operations including spend anomaly detection and policy enforcement. Familiarity with IQVIA's data platform ecosystem including DataIQ, Helios/Scion, or similar enterprise analytics and processing platforms. Experience with compliance-oriented operational controls in regulated industries such as pharmaceutical, life sciences, or healthcare. Understanding of Governance-as-Code principles and policy automation approaches. Experience leading teams in India or other offshore locations with demonstrated capability to build cross-cultural collaboration and operational effectiveness. Exposure to platform observability tools and practices that enable proactive incident prevention and capacity planning.

IQVIA is a leading global provider of clinical research services, commercial insights and healthcare intelligence to the life sciences and healthcare industries. We create intelligent connections to accelerate the development and commercialization of innovative medical treatments to help improve patient outcomes and population health worldwide. Learn more at https://jobs.iqvia.com

IQVIA is committed to integrity in our hiring process and maintains a zero tolerance policy for candidate fraud. All information and credentials submitted in your application must be truthful and complete. Any false statements, misrepresentations, or material omissions during the recruitment process will result in immediate disqualification of your application, or termination of employment if discovered later, in accordance with applicable law. We appreciate your honesty and professionalism.