Balaji Radhakrishnan
Senior Technical Lead
Lansdale,PA
Summary
16+ years of professional experience in the software industry, I have been involved in all phases of the software development lifecycle, including requirements gathering, software design, development, support, and testing. My expertise is primarily focused on the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, where I have contributed to various stages of the drug lifecycle. Proficient in using pharmaceutical enterprise scientific tools such as Softmax Pro 7.1.2 (Molecular Devices), BIOVIA Pipeline Pilot, Workbench applications, chemical inventory management systems, Empower-Nugenesis 9.3, and ELN Nugenesis 9.1. Hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure, including AWS (Amazon Web Services), Lambda, ELB, Route 53, and Cloud Foundry. A proven leader in overseeing daily IT operations, including the adoption of new technologies, infrastructure management, project execution, operational maintenance, troubleshooting, and providing end-user software, hardware support, and asset management. Skilled in project scoping, team leadership, managing deadlines, prioritizing tasks, architecting technical solutions, and consistently delivering results. Experienced in Agile and Scrum methodologies, with expertise in Service, Jira, and Confluence for software delivery. Led and organized sprint planning, daily stand-ups, reviews, release planning, software demos, and other Scrum-related activities. Worked closely with the Project Manager to plan, control, and monitor projects based on business needs and requirements. Managed requests and incidents from laboratory scientists, providing support for the build and maintenance of lab IT instrumentation. Responsible for the development, support, and maintenance of enterprise scientific tools, scientific authoring tools, chemical inventory management systems, and basic research applications for Merck’s global business users. Deployed React, JAR, WAR, and J2EE applications on Apache Tomcat and Cloud Foundry using Jenkins for automated deployment. Hands-on experience with Linux scripting using Bash for process automation, database scripting, log archiving, and scheduling cron jobs.
Overview
16
16
years of professional experience
4
4
Certifications
Work History
Senior Technical Lead
Merck & Co, West Point, USA
West Point, PA
07.2020 - Current
- Hands-on experience with installing and upgrading SoftMax Pro software.
- Manage requests and incidents from laboratory scientists, assisting with the setup, build, and maintenance of lab IT instrumentation.
- Extensive experience working in life science laboratory environments, including GxP-compliant settings.
- Collaborate with instrument vendors to assist with PC installations and establish network connections to the lab’s network infrastructure.
- Maintain documentation for standalone scientific applications and configurations in run books.
- Oversee the management of the lab systems inventory and application repositories.
- Deploy standardized PC hardware to laboratory environments.
- Maintain operating system patch levels through push management policies and tools.
- Support and maintain laboratory PC backup systems.
- Assist in meeting project deliverables, managing lab system maintenance, and ensuring the successful execution of services.
- Work closely with scientific staff, lab systems, infrastructure, and security teams to align on the review and execution of support and maintenance tasks.
- Provide regular work updates, track progress, and generate monthly financial reports while monitoring work planning and contract expenditures.
- Offer AWS support for Amazon EC2 and RDS servers hosting the SoftMax Pro application.
- Conduct disaster recovery activities for the USA and EMEA regions.
- Serve as the System Owner for GxP systems, conducting periodic access reviews, GMP reviews, and privileged access reviews, and documenting results in the FirstDoc – Meds repository.
- Coordinate with vendors for bug fixes and new patch releases.
- Generate various reports from Amazon RDS databases using SQL queries to inform business strategy.
- Follow incident, change management, and problem management processes to address issues reported by end users.
- Provide project administration support, including user creation and role maintenance.
- Environment: Windows, Linux, Java, Oracle, Midas, Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)
- Mentored junior developers for improved coding skills and understanding of best practices, leading to increased overall code quality within the team.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to design and implement innovative technical solutions, fostering streamlined communication channels and efficient problem resolution.
- Managed team of [Number] personnel focused on implementing resolutions and updates.
- Developed strategic roadmaps for technology initiatives aligned with organizational goals while maintaining focus on resource allocation efficiency.
- Improved employee retention rates within the technical team by promoting professional growth opportunities such as training programs or mentorship arrangements.
- Developed technical solutions to diverse operational problems.
- Established a positive work culture within the technical team through transparent communication channels and motivational leadership tactics.
Technical Lead
Merck & Co, West Point, USA
West Point, PA
07.2016 - 07.2020
- Provided support for regulated hardware and software incidents, as well as service requests.
- Maintained continuous communication with responsible parties regarding the status of incidents and service requests.
- Addressed queries and provided support either onsite or remotely as needed.
- Installed printers and scanners on lab instrument PCs.
- Investigated and troubleshooted hardware and software issues, collaborating with vendors when necessary.
- Coordinated with the Facilities and Desktop Teams to facilitate system and equipment moves.
- Managed incident ticket processes, ensuring timely responses to assigned tickets (routine and urgent) in accordance with service level agreements, and worked through issues until resolution. Maintained accurate documentation within the incident management system, following periodic ticket quality reviews.
- Performed advanced network connectivity troubleshooting, escalating issues to the Infrastructure team when needed.
- Installed and troubleshooted software, collaborating with vendors for any required support.
- Effectively escalated incidents to technical teams when necessary.
- Contributed to the development and creation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) to continuously improve lab support processes.
- Followed established best practices and SOPs for all service and incident handling.
- Kept clients informed about system outages and their status, recommending alternative connectivity options during outages.
- Participated in various projects, including system upgrades, service improvements, and service requests.
- Responsible for creating and updating lab support documentation, including installation and setup guides for software and hardware packages.
- Managed deviations, change controls, and CAPAs related to QC computerized systems.
- Wrote and executed Installation Qualification (IQ) and Operational Qualification (OQ) test scripts in ALM for system implementations and changes in validated environments.
- Followed the full change management process in Remedy, including Business, Compliance, and Technical Impact assessments, to apply changes to both GxP and Non-GxP systems.
- Tracked issues reported by end users in Remedy, creating technical knowledge articles for recurring issues.
- Environment: Windows, Linux, Java, Oracle, Midas, Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)
- Coordinated with cross-department teams like QA, DevOps, and Support to ensure seamless end-to-end software delivery process.
Senior Software Engineer
Merck & Co, West Point, USA
04.2012 - 06.2016
- Working as a production support executive- Completely responsible for understanding the business requirements, business systems and supporting the application accordingly.
- Involved in requirements gathering, analysis, design, implementation and testing of the applications.
- Interaction with client and coordinate with offshore team.
- Development, Support & Maintenance, Managing Enterprise Scientific Tools, Scientific Authoring Tools, chemical inventory software and management system and Basic Research Applications, etc. for Merck’s business users across globe.
- Identifying possible upgrades, Modifications and enhancements to Chemistry applications and tools.
- Coordinating with vendor and other 3rd party groups for releases and upgrades of their tools.
- Design and develop SQL statements, queries, and stored procedures.
- Participated in troubleshooting, bug fixing and production moves
- Writing IQs, Test script, change control documents to complete.
- Environment: Windows Server, Dot net, oracle, Midas and remedy.
- Developed scalable applications using agile methodologies for timely project delivery.
Senior Software Engineer
Merck & Co, West Point, USA
12.2009 - 03.2012
- Working as a production support executive- Completely responsible for understanding the business requirements, business systems and supporting the application accordingly.
- Handling production issues and Enhancement functionality.
- Working and resolving customer support tickets involving L2, L3 and Problem management issues.
- Responsible for interacting with clients for module specific discussions and business requirement.
- Regular client interaction regarding the status of the project.
- Communicating between the offshore and onsite team.
- Managing, coordinating, planning and executing project deliverables with respect to Application support.
- Receive customer escalations and Troubleshoot issues on priority basis.
- Environment: Linux and Oracle
- Developed scalable applications using agile methodologies for timely project delivery.
Education
Master of Science - Master of Computer Application
Anna University
Chennai06.2007
Skills
Team mentoring
Software architecture design
API development
Requirements analysis
Certification
Nugenesis SDMS Administrator.
Timeline
Senior Technical Lead
Merck & Co, West Point, USA
07.2020 - Current
Technical Lead
Merck & Co, West Point, USA
07.2016 - 07.2020
Senior Software Engineer
Merck & Co, West Point, USA
04.2012 - 06.2016
Senior Software Engineer
Merck & Co, West Point, USA
12.2009 - 03.2012
Master of Science - Master of Computer Application
Anna University