Senior Specialist - MES Platform Engineer

At Bristol Myers Squibb, our employees often ask, “Who are you working for?”—a question that fuels collaboration, accountability, and urgency in our work. Our purpose-driven culture inspires us to discover, develop, and deliver innovative medicines to prevail over serious diseases. We offer uniquely interesting and meaningful work, opportunities for growth, and a supportive environment that values inclusion, wellbeing, flexibility, and comprehensive benefits. This is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it.

Position Summary

As part of the Digital Plant department Manufacturing IT Systems & MES for the Leiden Cell Therapy Facility (CTF), the Senior Specialist, MES Platform Engineer is responsible for the administration, maintenance, configuration, and continuous improvement of the Syncade MES (Manufacturing Execution System) environment. The role combines technical system administration responsibilities with recipe authoring expertise to ensure reliable MES operations, GMP compliance, optimal system performance, and efficient execution of manufacturing processes.

The position serves as a key bridge between manufacturing operations, quality, validation, and IT teams by supporting MES infrastructure, user administration, master data management, recipe development, system enhancements, and business process improvements.

Duties / Responsibilities

MES System Administration & Maintenance

• Manage and maintain the MES application environment, including integrations and peripheral devices such as scanners and label printers.
• Monitor MES application health, availability, performance, and underlying hardware components.
• Support installation, configuration, upgrades, patches, and lifecycle management activities.
• Perform routine system reviews and execute corrective and preventive measures to maintain system reliability.
• Collaborate with Shared Services and infrastructure teams to define and manage application versus infrastructure responsibilities.

Recipe Design & Configuration

• Design, configure, document, and maintain Master Recipes using standardized corporate objects and approved building blocks.
• Analyse business requirements and translate operational processes into MES solutions.
• Maintain and enhance existing recipes while ensuring consistency, usability, and compliance.
• Evaluate and implement new objects, templates, and configuration components supporting recipe development and manufacturing improvements.

Master Data & User Administration

• Execute master data management activities to ensure data integrity and consistency within MES.
• Manage MES user access in compliance with approved procedures and regulatory requirements.
• Support periodic access reviews and maintain appropriate segregation of duties.
• Configure and maintain MES system settings supporting manufacturing operations.

Reporting, Labels & Configuration Management

• Create and maintain MES reports, labels, label formats, and related configuration designs.
• Support manufacturing operations through effective reporting and labelling solutions.
• Maintain documentation and traceability related to MES configuration changes.

Testing, Validation & Compliance

• Develop and execute testing activities supporting new recipes, system changes, and MES enhancements.
• Support creation of User Acceptance Test (UAT) scripts and validation deliverables.
• Participate in dry runs, qualification activities, and validation reviews.
• Ensure MES solutions remain compliant with GMP, GxP, Data Integrity, and Computer System Validation requirements.
• Support risk assessments, impact assessments, and change control activities.

System Upgrades & Continuous Improvement

• Support MES upgrade projects, platform enhancements, and technology lifecycle initiatives.
• Identify opportunities to optimize MES processes, improve user experience, and increase manufacturing efficiency.
• Partner with local and global MES teams to implement best practices and standardized solutions.
• Contribute to the long-term MES roadmap and system sustainability initiatives.

Incident & Operational Support

• Provide second-line support for MES incidents, service requests, and operational issues.
• Troubleshoot application, configuration, recipe, integration, and performance issues.
• Restore MES availability in alignment with business continuity requirements, urgency, and severity classifications.
• Participate in investigations and implementation of corrective actions related to MES events and deviations.

Collaboration & Leadership Support

• Work closely with Manufacturing, QA, MSAT, CSV, and IT stakeholders to ensure MES solutions meet business needs.
• Collaborate with peer MES administrators and recipe authors across CTF sites.
• Assist the Senior Manager Manufacturing IT Systems & MES in responsibilities associated with Technical System Ownership, Configuration Item Ownership, governance, and continuous improvement initiatives when required.

Reporting Relationship

Reports to Senior Manager – Manufacturing IT Systems & MES Lead

Collaborates With

• MES Recipe Authors
• Manufacturing Support IT
• IT Automation
• Shared Services IT
• Quality Assurance (QA)
• Manufacturing Science & Technology (MSAT)
• Computer System Validation (CSV)
• Manufacturing Operations
• Global MES Teams

Qualifications

Required Knowledge & Experience

• Strong understanding of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and manufacturing processes.
• Experience with MES recipe authoring, configuration management, and system administration.
• Knowledge of GMP, GxP, Data Integrity, and Computer System Validation practices.
• Experience managing master data, user access, and system configuration.
• Proficiency in troubleshooting, root cause analysis, system monitoring, and performance optimization.
• Experience supporting MES upgrades, change management, and validation activities.
• Strong problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a highly regulated biopharmaceutical manufacturing environment.

Technical Skills

• Emerson Syncade MES
• SQL
• ISA-95
• MES Reporting
• Label and Form Design
• Change Control & Validation Processes
• Incident & Problem Management
• Data Integrity Principles

#LI-Hybrid

We hire for skills and capabilities, not just credentials – if this role excites you, but doesn’t perfectly match your resume, we encourage you to apply anyway.

How We Work

Where you work matters – because collaboration, innovation and patient impact happen in many settings. Our roles are structured across four work models: site-essential, site-by-design, field-based and remote-by-design. The model assigned to this role is based on its core responsibilities. Learn more at https://careers.bms.com/ways-of-working.

Supporting People with Disabilities

BMS is dedicated to ensuring that people with disabilities can excel through a transparent recruitment process, reasonable workplace accommodations/adjustments and ongoing support in their roles. Applicants can request a reasonable workplace accommodation/adjustment prior to accepting a job offer. If you require reasonable accommodations/adjustments in completing this application, or in any part of the recruitment process, direct your inquiries to [email protected]. Visit careers.bms.com/eeo-accessibility to access our complete Equal Employment Opportunity statement.

Candidate Rights

BMS will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, pursuant to applicable laws in your area.

For roles based in Los Angeles County only:  If you live in or expect to work from Los Angeles County if hired for this position, please visit this page for important additional information: https://careers.bms.com/california-residents/

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If this posting is missing required information required by local law or incorrect, contact BMS at [email protected] with the Job Title and Requisition number. Do not send application-related inquiries to this email. To check your application status, please login to your Candidate Home Account.

R1607280 : Senior Specialist, MES Platform Engineer