Head of IT Infrastructure & Client Services

Your Team

The mission of the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & Healthcare (EDQM) is to contribute to public health protection by engaging with an international community of experts and stakeholders. We achieve this by promoting access to safe medicines and healthcare through the elaboration of quality standards, which are recognised as a scientific benchmark worldwide. The EDQM's standards for medicines and their ingredients, compiled in the European Pharmacopoeia, are legally binding in 39 member states of the Council of Europe and are also widely used across the globe in the human and animal health sectors. The EDQM also plays a crucial role in the areas of blood transfusion, organ, tissue and cell transplantation and in developing and setting consumer health standards, such as for cosmetics and food contact materials.

The IT Infrastructure & Customer Services Section is responsible for ensuring the operation, stability, security and performance of the EDQM's IT environment, while guaranteeing reliable day-to-day IT services for all users.

Your Role

As Head of the IT Infrastructure & Client Services Section, you will

• lead and manage the teams, offering efficient, secure and user-centred digital services, working towards modernising and automating the technical environment, while remaining within the allocated budgets and resources;
• contribute to the EDQM's open source and digital autonomy strategy by deploying and promoting sustainable and secure open source solutions that comply with current requirements;
• concerning Infrastructure & Cloud:

• ensure the secure operation of the server (Windows, open source), network and cloud (Azure, M365) environments;
• ensure IT monitoring, performance management, updates, backups and IT disaster recovery;
• ensure identity and IT account lifecycle management;
• ensure administration of access rights and collaborate with the EDQM IT security team to strengthen compliance and reduce risks.

• concerning IT & Client Services:

• ensure the reliability of IT services and an optimal user experience;
• oversee the Service Desk and client services and the management of IT hardware;
• provide support for M365, Teams and videoconferencing, as well as on-site assistance;
• maintain documentation, the CMDB and relevant procedures;
• monitor SLAs and KPIs and take the lead on ISO 20000-related processes, primarily the management of incidents, requests, changes and problems;
• co-ordinate the escalation of information and promote continuous improvement.

• concerning DevOps, Automation & Open source platforms:

• take the lead on the DevOps strategy and provide direction to the team for the implementation of CI/CD pipelines and automation tools;
• ensure supervision of the optimisation of open source platforms (Linux, containers, monitoring);
• prioritise and provide direction on the development of scripts and tools for internal teams;
• define the observability strategy and ensure end-to-end system visibility;
• promote innovation, standardisation and the continuous improvement of the technical environments.  

Requirements to apply

You must have:

• a higher education degree or qualification equivalent to a Master’s degree (2nd cycle of the Bologna process framework of qualifications for the European Higher Education Area) in IT;
• at least five years’ experience in IT infrastructure management or in one of the other fields related to the post;
• proficiency in operating server (Windows, VmWare, open source), network and cloud (Azure, M365) environments, in particular concerning security, service continuity, backups and management of identities and accounts;
• experience managing IT projects, good knowledge of relevant processes, such as those relating to ITIL practices or ISO 20000;
• a very good knowledge of one of the two official languages of the Council of Europe (English or French) and basic knowledge of the other or ability to learn it.

You must also:

• be a citizen of one of the member states of the Council of Europe and fulfil the conditions for appointment to the civil service of that state;
• have discharged any obligation concerning national service (military, civil or comparable);
• not be the parent, child, stepchild or grandchild of a serving staff member of the Council of Europe;
• be under the age of 65 years.

 Your application must demonstrate to what extent you have the competencies listed below. To help you doing so, feel free to consult our competency framework.

Key competencies

• Managerial - Vision and Strategic Insight
• Managerial - Management of teams
• Operational - Analysis and problem solving
• Interpersonal - Communication

• Professional and technical expertise:

• ability to lead IT Support and Service Desk operations, monitor SLAs and KPIs, manage incidents, changes, and problems, and drive continuous service improvement.
• knowledge of digital sustainability, eco-design principles, and IT equipment lifecycle management.

Desirable competencies

• Operational - Planning and work organisation
• Operational - Concern for quality
• Interpersonal - Resilience

What we offer

This job vacancy is for an international external recruitment. You can consult the conditions of employment (salaries, allowances, pension scheme, social insurance, etc.) on the webpage What we offer.

Applications and selection procedure

For more information on how we recruit, you can consult the page Our recruitment process. This recruitment is carried out in accordance with Article 490 of the Council of Europe Staff Rules. The deadline for applications is indicated in the General information section of this vacancy notice (see above) and is fixed at 23:59:59 (CET/CEST). When applying, make sure your motivation shows how your competencies make your profile the best for the role.

Important information

As an equal opportunity employer, the Council of Europe welcomes applications from all suitably qualified people, irrespective of sex, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or social origin, disability, religion or belief. Under its equal opportunity policy, the Council of Europe is aiming to achieve gender parity in staff employed in each category and grade. At the time of appointment, preference between suitable people shall be given to the person of the gender which is under-represented in the relevant grades within the category to which the vacancy belongs.

Applicants with specific needs are encouraged to request reasonable accommodations at any stage during the recruitment process. Please contact us at [email protected], we will ensure that your request is handled.

The information published on the CoE’s careers website regarding working conditions is correct at the time of publication of the vacancy notice. Any changes to these conditions during the recruitment process will be updated on our Portal and will apply at the time of the job offer. Our career's website is not intended to be exhaustive and may not address all questions you would have. Should you have remaining questions, please contact us at [email protected].