DevOps Lead Engineer

Cognizant; Limerick; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking a DevOps Lead Engineer to join a greenfield MES rollout at a biotech site in Limerick, Ireland. The ideal candidate will own the DevOps toolchain, design and optimize CI/CD pipelines, and drive infrastructure-as-code, release governance, and automated testing across dev, test, and production environments.

The role requires strong leadership, experience with MES platforms (Emerson Syncade preferred), and familiarity with regulated pharma environments (GxP/CSV/GAMP5).

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience as a DevOps Lead or Senior DevOps Engineer on complex enterprise programmes.
• Strong CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, automation and scripting skills.
• Experience managing enterprise environments – release and configuration management; infrastructure provisioning.
• Background supporting MES platforms, ideally Emerson Syncade, across deployment and upgrades.
• Experience in regulated pharma/life sciences environments (GxP/CSV/GAMP5) desirable.
• Familiarity with MES integrations into SAP, LIMS and historian systems; containerisation with Docker and Kubernetes.
• Strong problem-solving, communication and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Build, implement, and refine CI/CD pipelines across dev, test, and production.
• Own the DevOps toolchain and environment lifecycle: source control, IaC, configuration management, release governance.
• Provision and manage secure, scalable MES infrastructure with high availability.
• Lead MES platform management (Emerson Syncade) including deployments, config, upgrades, and support.
• Set coding standards, branching, and change control for a regulated manufacturing setting.
• Collaborate with software engineering, QA, MES vendors, SI partners and business stakeholders.
• Implement automated testing and quality gates in CI/CD pipelines.
• Establish monitoring, logging and alerting to ensure platform health.
• Document deployment records for CSV, audit readiness and business continuity.
• Drive continuous improvement and remove deployment bottlenecks with measurable metrics.
• Serve as technical authority for complex infrastructure and deployments.

Skills

DevOps Leadership

CI/CD

Infrastructure as Code

Automation

Scripting

Release Management

Configuration Management

Regulated Environments

MES Integrations

Stakeholder Management

GxP/CSV/GAMP5

Docker

Kubernetes

Emerson Syncade

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Cognizant is a world leader in delivering digital transformation solutions to Life Sciences. Through our knowledge and expertise in Automation, MES & Digital, we deliver stable manufacturing systems that are optimized to improve operational efficiencies, whilst maintaining compliance.

Our specialist engineering teams have the aptitude to deliver and support Pharma 4.0 architectures and solutions covering all IT, OT and IoT applications, infrastructures and services.

Operating across 5 continents and with over 300.000 skilled employees, Cognizant partners with the leading Life Sciences companies globally to provide performance improvements, reduced costs and improve time to market. We are your single end to end partner for consultancy, design implementation, optimization and support for all applications in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Manufacturing stack.

Cognizant is seeking a DevOps Lead Engineer to join a greenfield MES rollout at a biotech manufacturing site in Limerick, Ireland.

We're looking for someone with a strong track record as a Lead or Senior DevOps Engineer, comfortable pushing configuration changes through dev, test, and live production environments, with solid grounding in version control for MES configuration, CI/CD pipeline design, and automated testing support.

Key Responsibilities

• Build, implement, and refine CI/CD pipelines for consistent, dependable deployments across dev, test, and production
• Take ownership of the DevOps toolchain and environment lifecycle: source control, infrastructure-as-code, configuration management, release management, monitoring, and observability
• Provision and manage secure, resilient, scalable infrastructure underpinning MES platforms, keeping availability and performance high
• Manage MES platforms (Emerson Syncade experience preferred) — deployments, configuration, patching, upgrades, and day-to-day operational support
• Set and enforce development standards, branching strategy, code review practice, release governance, and change control suited to a regulated manufacturing setting
• Work alongside software engineering, QA, MES vendors, system integrators, and business stakeholders to deliver automated deployments and infrastructure-as-code
• Build automated testing and quality gates into CI/CD pipelines with QA, pushing shift-left testing and stronger release quality
• Stand up monitoring, logging, and alerting to stay ahead of platform health and performance issues
• Underpin CSV, audit readiness, disaster recovery, and business continuity with compliant documentation and deployment records
• Drive ongoing improvement across the delivery lifecycle, clearing deployment bottlenecks and tracking progress via metrics
• Serve as technical authority and escalation point for complex infrastructure, deployment, and operational issues

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience as a DevOps Lead or Senior DevOps Engineer on complex enterprise programme
• Hands-on development background with a strong grasp of the SDLC and modern DevOps practice
• Solid CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, automation, and scripting skills
• Experience managing enterprise application environments — release management, configuration management, infrastructure provisioning
• Strong background supporting MES platforms, ideally Emerson Syncade, across deployment, configuration, upgrades, and operational support
• Experience in regulated pharma/life sciences environments preferred, with working knowledge of GxP, CSV, and GAMP 5
• Familiarity with MES integrations into SAP, LIMS, and historian systems, plus containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Strong problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills