Associate Director, System Engineering

The Role:

Joining Moderna offers the unique opportunity to be part of a pioneering team that's revolutionizing medicine through mRNA technology, with a diverse pipeline of development programs across various diseases.

As an employee, you'll be part of a continually growing organization, working alongside exceptional colleagues and strategic partners worldwide, contributing to global health initiatives.

Moderna's commitment to advancing the technological frontier of mRNA medicines ensures a challenging and rewarding career experience, with the potential to make a significant impact on patients' lives worldwide.

Moderna is solidifying its presence within our international business services hub in Warsaw, Poland, a city renowned for its rich scientific and technological heritage. This hub provides critical functions, meeting the growing demand of Moderna’s global business operations. We're inviting professionals from around the world to join our mission and contribute to the future of mRNA medicines.​

This is a unique opportunity to lead the modernization of Moderna’s global compute and storage platforms in an enterprise that is redefining the biotech industry. As Associate Director – Systems Engineering, you will own the strategic vision and delivery of on-premises virtualization, storage, backup, and Windows-based compute infrastructure. You’ll drive technical innovation while ensuring resilience, scalability, and service excellence across our global data centers and hybrid environments.

This is a highly technical individual contributor role, working at the center of our global infrastructure operations. You’ll serve as the principal systems architect and lead cross-functional collaboration with cloud, security, application, and operations teams—helping build a modern, agile, and automation-driven platform. This position is based in Warsaw, Poland.

Here’s What You’ll Do:

Your key responsibilities will be:

• Define and lead the long-term strategy for global compute and storage infrastructure, aligned with Moderna’s hybrid cloud model.

• Architect resilient virtualization platforms (VMWare), enterprise-grade storage (Pure, NetApp, Dell EMC), and backup/DR systems (VEEAM).

• Develop and enforce lifecycle management standards for Windows-based VMs, OS configurations, and patch compliance.

• Direct the operational excellence of compute and storage platforms, ensuring availability, performance, and security.

• Own and automate patch management workflows for Windows environments, hypervisors, and management stacks.

• Drive automation initiatives using Ansible, Python, Terraform, or VMware Aria to modernize systems administration.

• Collaborate with observability teams to enable robust monitoring, alerting, and analytics for global infrastructure.

• Design and lead disaster recovery strategies, validating enterprise backup and business continuity systems.

• Ensure infrastructure compliance with security, audit, and regulatory standards in close partnership with InfoSec.

• Lead vendor management for renewals, escalations, and capacity planning across key infrastructure platforms.

Your responsibilities will also include:

• Act as the global subject matter expert and technical leader in systems engineering, working closely with stakeholders across the enterprise.

• Mentor and guide global systems administrators and engineers, promoting a high-performance, collaborative team culture.

• Lead root cause analysis (RCA) and continuous service improvement efforts following major incidents.

• Define SLAs and drive adherence across system infrastructure teams and vendor partners.

• Leverage performance and utilization data to proactively optimize resource allocation and system performance.

• Support enterprise initiatives in observability, infrastructure-as-code, and hybrid cloud enablement.

• Work cross-functionally with app, network, security, and cloud teams to deliver seamless infrastructure experiences.

• Stay at the forefront of innovation by evaluating and integrating new platforms and tools, particularly in automation and generative AI operations.

The key Moderna Mindsets you’ll need to succeed in the role:

• “We behave like owners. The solutions we’re building go beyond any job description.”
  This role demands end-to-end ownership of complex infrastructure platforms. Your success will depend on taking initiative, solving deep technical problems, and optimizing systems with a long-term view of service, performance, and reliability.

• “We digitize everywhere possible using the power of code to maximize our impact on patients.”
  You’ll drive automation and infrastructure-as-code to streamline delivery, reduce human error, and enable scale across a growing global environment—contributing directly to Moderna’s mission to reach more patients, faster, through technology.

Here’s What You’ll Need (Basic Qualifications)

• 10+ years of experience in systems engineering or infrastructure roles, with at least 3 years in a leadership capacity.

• Expert-level knowledge of VMware vSphere, vSAN, and enterprise storage technologies.

• Proven experience managing patching, lifecycle management, and compliance across heterogeneous systems.

• Strong background in backup and disaster recovery practices, ideally using VEEAM.

• Hands-on expertise with infrastructure automation and scripting.

• Deep understanding of observability, monitoring, and performance tuning.

Here’s What You’ll Bring to the Table (Preferred Qualifications):

• Experience in GxP or regulated environments (pharma/biotech/healthcare)

• Familiarity with hybrid cloud infrastructure and integration strategies.

• Certifications such as ITIL, VMware VCP/VCAP/VCDX, VMCE, Pure Storage certification, or similar

• Familiarity with modern observability platforms (e.g., Splunk, SolarWinds, Kentik) and AI-driven network analytics.

• Experience driving modernization and automation in infrastructure operations.

• Proven ability to manage budgets, vendor relationships, and strategic resource allocation to align system engineering function with business growth.

• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills, with the ability to communicate and influence at all levels of the organization.

At Moderna, we believe that when you feel your best, you can do your best work.  That’s why our global benefits and well-being resources are designed to support you—at work, at home, and everywhere in between.

• Quality healthcare and insurance benefits
• Lifestyle Spending Accounts to create your own pathway to well-being
• Free premium access to fitness, nutrition, and mindfulness classes
• Family planning and adoption benefits
• Generous paid time off, including vacation, bank holidays, volunteer days, sabbatical, global recharge days, and a discretionary year-end shutdown
• Savings and investments
• Location-specific perks and extras!

The benefits offered may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Moderna and the country where you work.

About Moderna

Since our founding in 2010, we have aspired to build the leading mRNA technology platform, the infrastructure to reimagine how medicines are created and delivered, and a world-class team. We believe in giving our people a platform to change medicine and an opportunity to change the world.  

By living our mission, values, and mindsets every day, our people are the driving force behind our scientific progress and our culture. Together, we are creating a culture of belonging and building an organization that cares deeply for our patients, our employees, the environment, and our communities. 

We are proud to have been recognized as a Science Magazine Top Biopharma Employer, a Fast Company Best Workplace for Innovators, and a Great Place to Work in the U.S. 

As we build our company, we have always believed an in-person culture is critical to our success. Moderna champions the significant benefits of in-office collaboration by embracing a 70/30 work model. This 70% in-office structure helps to foster a culture rich in innovation, teamwork, and direct mentorship. Join us in shaping a world where every interaction is an opportunity to learn, contribute, and make a meaningful impact. 

If you want to make a difference and join a team that is changing the future of medicine, we invite you to visit modernatx.com/careers to learn more about our current opportunities. 

Moderna is a smoke-free, alcohol-free, and drug-free work environment. 

Moderna is a place where everyone can grow. If you meet the Basic Qualifications for the role and you would be excited to contribute to our mission every day, please apply! 

Moderna is committed to equal opportunity in employment and non-discrimination for all employees and qualified applicants without regard to a person's race, color, sex, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, ancestry or citizenship, ethnicity, disability, military or protected veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital or familial status, or any other personal characteristic protected under applicable law. We consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. 

We’re focused on attracting, retaining, developing, and advancing our employees. By cultivating a workplace that values diverse experiences, backgrounds, and ideas, we create an environment where every employee can contribute their best. 

Moderna is committed to offering reasonable accommodation or adjustments to qualified job applicants with disabilities. Any applicant requiring an accommodation or adjustment in connection with the hiring process and/or to perform the essential functions of the position for which the applicant has applied should contact the Accommodations and Adjustments team at [email protected]. 

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