DevOps Automation Lead

Make your mark for patients We are looking for a DevOps Automation Lead who is strategic, collaborative, and forward-thinking to join us in our Digital Technology team, based in our HQ in Brussels, Belgium. About The Role In this global role, you will lead how Digital Technology builds, ships, and secures software. You will own the DevOps automation roadmap end to end: CI/CD pipelines, code repository management, AI-assisted coding, and security policy enforced directly inside the pipeline rather than bolted on afterwards. This is an AI-native role. You will treat applications, agents, and policy-as-code as first-class parts of the toolchain, set the engineering standards that make automated delivery safe at scale, and continuously push the boundary of what can be automated in a secure and regulated environment. Who You’ll Work With You will be working in a team that partners closely with engineering teams, platform owners, cybersecurity, and external delivery partners across multiple regions. You will collaborate daily with developers, cloud and platform engineers, and security architects, bringing the toolchain, the guardrails, and the developer experience together. The team values engineering craftsmanship, shared accountability, and hands-on problem-solving, and works across a diverse technology landscape to deliver reliable, secure, and future-ready software. What You’ll Do Define and evolve the DevOps automation roadmap covering CI/CD, source control, artefact management, and AI-assisted engineering across Digital Technology Design, build, and continuously improve CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps and GitHub, from commit to production, including automated testing, quality gates, environment promotion, and release orchestration Establish automated code quality checks using SonarQube, including static analysis, code coverage, duplication, maintainability, reliability, and security thresholds, with quality gates that block non-compliant pull requests, merges, and releases Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing DevOps automation team, setting clear objectives, building technical and leadership capabilities, supporting career growth, and fostering an inclusive culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement Anticipate emerging technology and business needs and shape the capabilities of the future by defining the skills, platforms, ways of working, and talent development priorities required for an AI-enabled engineering organization Own code repository management at scale: branching and versioning strategies, code review standards, reusable templates, artefact and dependency governance Embed security and compliance policies directly into the pipelines through static and dynamic code scanning, dependency and secrets detection, SBOM generation, signed artefacts, and policy-as-code gates that produce automated audit evidence Drive adoption of AI coding assistants and agentic engineering practices, defining the guardrails, code-generation standards, review models, and measurement approach that turn them into real, safe productivity gains Own the engineering metrics that matter, including deployment frequency, lead time for change, change failure rate, and recovery time, and use them to raise delivery performance, platform reliability, and developer experience Interested? For this role we’re looking for the following education, experience and skills Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, information systems, or another relevant field At least 7 years of experience in software engineering, DevOps, platform engineering, or CI/CD automation, including knowledge of pipelines and repository engineering in complex organizations Deep, hands-on expertise with Azure DevOps and GitHub: pipelines and actions, runners, branching strategies, infrastructure as code, containers, and cloud-native delivery on Azure Hands-on experience with SonarQube or comparable code quality platforms, including rule profiles, quality gates, pull-request analysis, test coverage reporting, and integration with Azure DevOps and GitHub pipelines Proven people management experience, with a strong track record of coaching, developing, and retaining technical talent, managing performance, and building effective teams across internal and external contributors Proven DevSecOps experience with policy-as-code, and automated compliance controls in regulated environments AI-native mindset, with real experience using AI coding assistants and agents across the delivery lifecycle and a clear point of view on where autonomous engineering is heading Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical topics clearly and influence engineering and security decisions at different levels Are you ready to ‘go beyond’ to create value and make your mark for patients? If this sounds like you, then we would love to hear from you! About Us UCB is a global biopharmaceutical company, focusing on neurology and immunology. We are over 9.000 people in all four corners of the globe, inspired by patients and driven by science. Why work with us? At UCB, we don’t just complete tasks, we create value. We aren’t afraid to push forward, collaborate, and innovate to make our mark for patients. We have a caring, supportive culture where everyone feels included, respected, and has equal opportunities to do their best work. We ‘go beyond’ to create value for our patients, and always with a human focus, whether that’s on our patients, our employees, or our planet. Working for us, you will discover a place where you can grow, and have the freedom to carve your own career path to achieve your full potential. At UCB, we’ve embraced a hybrid-first approach to work, bringing teams together in local hubs to foster collaborative curiosity. Unless expressly stated in the description or precluded by the nature of the position, roles are hybrid with 40% of your time spent in the office. UCB is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions will be made without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable laws. Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us on EMEA-Reasonable_Accommodation@ucb.com. Please note should your enquiry not relate to adjustments; we will not be able to support you through this channel.