Principal Tech Engineer – Site Serialisation Systems

Principal Tech Engineer – Site Serialisation Systems

About the Team:

Global Supply Chain Digital & Tech (GSC D&T) is the backbone of GSK’s manufacturing and supply operations, providing the technology and data that transform the way we make and deliver medicines and vaccines worldwide. This team designs and delivers resilient, agile digital solutions across our end-to-end supply chain, enabling reliable production, integrated planning, and smart, data-driven decision making in every factory and distribution node.

GSC Digital & Tech brings together experts in supply chain technology, smart manufacturing, engineering and EHS, sustainability, quality and architecture to build and run platforms that are secure, compliant and scalable. By joining this team, you’ll shape the digital capabilities that power GSK’s global supply network—supporting thousands of colleagues in our sites and networks, and driving innovation, reliability and continuous improvement in how medicines reach patients around the world.

Job Purpose

The Principal Tech Engineer – Site Serialisation Systems provides technical leadership for site serialisation systems within PIMMS (the Manufacturing Track & Trace product), across the broader product family, technology platform or programme. The role leads solution design, validation, implementation and troubleshooting and ensures technical outputs align with approved architecture, product strategy, engineering standards and GxP requirements.

The role is hands-on and embedded close to business problems. The job holder personally investigates complex failures, interrogates data, logs and interfaces, challenges vendor and partner designs and resolves integration problems, rather than primarily coordinating or escalating them. The role works across the site serialisation estate rather than being tied to a single site and retains technical judgement and engineering integrity where strategic partners deliver routine build, test, deployment and support.

The job holder applies AI-assisted methods to development, troubleshooting, testing, documentation, knowledge management, monitoring and automation, while retaining full human accountability for technical decisions and GxP, Responsible AI, cyber security and architecture compliance.

The role also develops engineering capability by coaching engineers and super users and converting lessons learned into reusable designs, standards, training and knowledge.

Key Responsibilities

• Implement technical solution designs and configurations in accordance with approved architecture and product strategy.

• Own technical quality for the assigned scope, including specifications, design documentation, configuration records and technical validation evidence.

• Perform troubleshooting and root-cause analysis, with timely escalation where manufacturing batches, product quality, patient supply or data integrity may be affected.

• Design or configure interfaces, workflows, recipes, data models and environments, including site serialisation system integrations, and write or review related specifications and test scripts. Hold configurations, interface mappings and scripts under version control, subject changes to peer review, and verify them through repeatable automated or scripted tests, retaining traceable test evidence under approved change and GxP validation controls.

• Own the technical reliability of site serialisation systems, including monitoring, recoverability, obsolescence and technical debt, addressing root causes so that incidents do not recur rather than closing individual tickets

• Actively extract and codify existing serialisation knowledge into runbooks, integration patterns, troubleshooting guides and technical documentation, building capability across the wider engineering teams rather than creating a single point of dependency.

• Lead technical design and implementation across multiple projects, releases or sites.

• Review and approve key technical specifications, design documents, configurations, test scripts and validation evidence.

• Lead diagnosis and resolution of complex incidents, integration failures and data-integrity issues, and act as the technical authority over strategic partner output – accepting or rejecting designs, configurations and test evidence against GSK engineering, architecture and regulatory standards.

• Assess technical risks and ensure mitigation addresses security, compliance, resilience, data integrity and supportability.

• Maintain technical standards and reusable engineering assets for the assigned product family or platform.

• Support formal technical assurance, GxP validation, audits and inspections for regulated site systems and ensure corrective actions are evidence based.

• Identify repetitive serialisation engineering and support activities suitable for automation, reduce manual diagnosis, testing, deployment and support effort, and reuse automation across sites rather than resolving the same problem repeatedly.

• Apply AI-assisted methods to development, troubleshooting, testing, documentation and automation within Responsible AI, data privacy, cyber security and GxP controls, validating all output before use and retaining human accountability for technical decisions.

• Direct and coordinate external vendors, system integrators and managed service partners across design, build, release and stabilisation; set technical direction and acceptance criteria for their work, review and formally accept or reject their designs, configurations and test evidence, and hold them to GSK engineering, architecture, security and GxP standards.

• Key Relationships / Customers

• Business and Site Stakeholders

• Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain and APS stakeholders

• Site engineers, automation teams, local Tech teams, super users and key users

• Business Process Owners and operational risk owners

• Digital & Technology Stakeholders

• Product Managers and Product Owners

• Solution and Enterprise Architects

• Engineering, DevOps, Data and Integration teams

• Service Managers, Cyber Security and Infrastructure teams

• Validation, Quality and technical assurance teams

• Other

• Technology vendors, including but not limited to SEA Vision and Systech

• System integrators and specialist engineering partners

• Managed service and support providers

• Area of Specialisation

• Technical solution implementation and configuration, with emphasis on GxP systems

• Interfaces, workflows, recipes, data models and environment design

• Technical specifications, design documentation and validation evidence

• Testing, release, deployment and configuration management

• Logs, metrics, monitoring and root-cause analysis

• Security, data integrity, resilience and supportability

• GxP-regulated manufacturing technology environments, preferably including site serialisation systems

• Technical leadership across products, sites or programmes

• Design assurance and complex technical decision making

• Basic Qualifications

• Minimum 7+ years of hands-on technical engineering experience in complex enterprise or operational technology environments, including experience with GxP-regulated manufacturing systems, preferably including demonstrable hands-on pharmaceutical serialisation / Track & Trace engineering experience covering production troubleshooting.

• Experience working in Agile or product engineering environments, including translating operational problems into backlog items, iterating quickly, demonstrating working solutions and partnering with product teams through lifecycle ownership.

• Experience in leading technical design and implementation for a product family, platform, programme or multiple sites.

• Experience maintaining configurations, interface mappings and scripts under version control, conducting peer reviews, and developing and executing repeatable automated or scripted tests, with traceable evidence. Experience reviewing and approving specifications, design documents, configurations, test scripts and technical validation evidence.

• Demonstrated leadership of complex troubleshooting and root-cause investigations across systems, interfaces, workflows, data and infrastructure.

• Experience coordinating internal engineers, site teams, vendors and specialist partners through design, deployment and stabilisation.

• Experience assessing technical risk and ensuring security, data integrity, resilience, compliance and supportability requirements are met.

• Experience coaching engineers and translating lessons learned into reusable standards, patterns and knowledge.

• Experience supporting audits, inspections or formal technical assurance activities.

• Preferred Qualifications

• Strong analytical and structured problem-solving skills.

• Ability to translate architecture and product direction into clear technical designs and implementation activities.

• Clear technical writing and disciplined maintenance of specifications, designs, test evidence and configuration records.

• Understanding of interfaces, workflows, data, environments, monitoring and operational support.

• Awareness of security, quality, validation, data integrity, resilience and change controls.

• Ability to collaborate across global business, site, engineering, architecture, product, service and supplier teams.

• Practical use of AI-assisted development, agent-based workflows and prompt templates for engineering, testing, documentation and support, applied within Responsible AI, data privacy, cyber security and GxP controls.

• Technical leadership and ability to challenge designs constructively.

• Coaching and knowledge-transfer capability.

• Confidence communicating technical risk and recommendations to governance and senior stakeholders.

• Key Technical & Leadership Capabilities

• Application of Knowledge

• Applies advanced solution and domain engineering knowledge to lead technical design and delivery across site serialisation systems, and the wider product family or programme. Reviews technical outputs, resolves complex design questions and ensures implementation aligns with architecture, product strategy, GxP requirements and quality standards.

• Problem Solving & Innovation

• Leads complex troubleshooting and root-cause analysis across applications, integrations, workflows, data and environments. Determines investigation priorities where operational, batch or data-integrity impact may exist and drives sustainable remediation. Converts lessons learned into standards and reusable patterns.

• Interaction

• Coordinates engineers, site teams, Architects, Service Managers and suppliers. Provides clear technical direction, challenges weak evidence and communicates risks and recommendations to delivery and governance stakeholders. Coaches engineers and super users.

• Impact

• Directly affects technical quality, release safety, reliability and supportability across significant solutions. Decisions influence operational continuity, validation quality, recurring defects and the ability to scale or reuse solutions across products and sites.