Septerna is a biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, CA on a mission to develop life-changing medicines for patients with the vision to become the industry-leading G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-focused drug discovery company. The company’s Native Complex Platform™ recapitulates GPCRs with their native structure, function, and dynamics outside of the cellular context. This approach enables novel access to modern structural and screening technologies used in industrial-scale drug discovery for the entire class of GPCRs. Septerna has an emerging pipeline of GPCR-targeted small molecule programs with potential for growth to target many GPCRs that have been undruggable and unexploited to date.
We are excited to expand our multidisciplinary team of individuals focused on creating revolutionary medicines to address the unmet needs of patients. At Septerna we strive to embrace diversity of thought, expertise, and background through collaboration. To join our ambitious team, be prepared to bring your real self to work every day; grow and learn from a talented team of drug hunters, scientists, and business professionals; and contribute your passion, creativity, and energy to accomplish our mission. We share a fearless pursuit of ground-breaking innovations and cultivate an environment where our employees succeed by learning from each other and working as a team.
We are committed to the development of meaningful therapeutics for patients with indications of high unmet need. This is a tremendous opportunity to work with talented individuals on the frontlines of therapeutic discovery and development. You will directly help move therapies through preclinical research, positioning them for success in the clinic. The successful candidate will add their passion, unique talents, and expertise to a dynamic team motivated to discover new disease-modifying therapeutics for patients in a fast-paced environment.
For more information see: www.septerna.com.
THE ROLE
We are seeking a highly experienced Senior Manager, IT Services to support our growing clinical-stage biopharmaceutical organization (currently operating two active clinical trials). This role will drive the maturity of our IT service delivery functions, with responsibility spanning change management, procurement management, security risk management, identity and access management, ticket queue oversight, and operational support governance.
The IT operations/help-desk team is separate, but this role will provide oversight, leadership alignment, and escalation management to ensure consistent, high-quality service delivery across the organization. This individual will collaborate closely with Security, Clinical, R&D, and business functions to ensure a secure, compliant, and efficient technology environment.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead and mature the IT service management function, ensuring consistent processes across incident, request, problem, and change workflows
- Oversee change management activities, including risk assessment, approvals, communication, scheduling, documentation, and post-change evaluation
- Manage procurement of IT goods and services: vendor selection, contract negotiation, renewal tracking, license management, and forecasting
- Partner with security teams to assess and mitigate IT operational risks, including vendor risk, access risk, and configuration/change risks
- Oversee service desk ticket queue performance: monitor SLAs, manage escalations, analyze trends, and drive continuous improvement
- Lead all identity and access management activities: user provisioning and de-provisioning, SSO/MFA governance, role-based access mapping, and access reviews
- Provide oversight and partnership with the IT operations/help-desk team, ensuring effective execution, appropriate escalations, and service consistency
- Maintain and improve operational documentation including runbooks, process guides, knowledge base content, service catalogs, and change logs
- Produce regular IT service reporting: SLA performance, ticket metrics, change success rates, vendor performance, security risks, and audit readiness
- Support implementation or optimization of ITSM and IAM tools and workflows
- Act as a cross-functional liaison between IT, security, procurement, clinical operations, R&D, and business stakeholders
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field; or equivalent professional experience
- 10+ years of progressive experience across IT service management, IT operations, change management, ticket/queue management, vendor/procurement, and service delivery
- Strong experience with user identity and access management (IAM): provisioning, de-provisioning, SSO, MFA, RBAC, and audit cycles
- Experience working in a regulated or security-sensitive environment (life sciences, pharma, biotech, medical device, or similar)
- Background in security risk management related to IT operations, vendor management, and access control
- Proven experience providing oversight or leadership to IT operations/help-desk teams
- Strong vendor management, contract negotiation, and license lifecycle management experience
- Demonstrated ability to build and refine processes, implement improvements, and maintain high-quality documentation
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to work cross-functionally and influence without authority
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience supporting GxP, 21 CFR Part 11, HIPAA, or related regulatory frameworks
- Prior experience in clinical-stage biotech or pharmaceutical environments
- Certifications such as PMP, CISSP, or relevant technical/security credentials
- Experience with ITSM platforms (ServiceNow, FreshService, Jira Service Management, BMC Remedy, etc.)
- Familiarity with cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) and modern identity systems such as Okta
The anticipated salary range for candidates who will work in South San Francisco, CA is $160,000 - $180,000. Individual pay may vary based on additional factors, including, and without limitation, job-related skills, experience, work location and relevant education or training. Septerna's compensation package also includes benefits, stock options, and annual target bonus for full-time positions.
Top Skills
Septerna San Francisco, California, USA Office
250 E Grand Ave, San Francisco, CA, United States, 94080
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