Position Description: Vice President of Technology
Aratana Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PETX) is a fast-growing pet therapeutics company
headquartered in Kansas City, Kansas with offices in Boston, Massachusetts, San Diego,
California and Leuven, Belgium. Aratana intends to become the leader in pet therapeutics
by developing, manufacturing and marketing products that address the unmet medical
needs of pets.
The company acquires or develops proprietary, patent-protected compounds and
advances them through clinical studies to regulatory approval for use in pets. Following
registration, the prescription pet therapeutics will be marketed to veterinarians who will
use them to safely and effectively manage pets’ medical needs, resulting in longer and
improved quality of life for pets. Aratana intends to be a fully-integrated commercial
company in the United States with up to six therapeutic product marketing authorizations
anticipated by 2016 (and the company has more than eighteen products in development
in total).
Aratana has an opening for a Vice President of Technology. This is a full time position and
will report to the CEO. The position will be based at the Aratana Therapeutics
headquarters located in Kansas City, Kansas.
The Vice President of Technology is responsible for planning, coordinating, directing, and
designing all operational activities associated with technology solutions for the Company,
as well as providing direction and support for IT solutions that enhance business
operations. Global responsibilities include resource allocation, project management,
system integration, innovation and analysis. Work closely with all departments to identify,
recommend, develop, implement and support secure solutions enabling employee
productivity. Provide strategic direction on all IT related matters.
Responsibilities
Responsibilities and duties will be varied and will include:
 Partner with the business leaders to assess current information systems
requirements and future needs and capacity, develop strategic plan for systems
infrastructure, build tactical execution plan, and manage implementation to
ensure maximum performance, security and reliability
 Collaboratively develop and ensure execution of Service Level Agreements (SLA)
with vendors to achieve performance criteria
 Partner with internal teams and vendors on enterprise application architecture to
ensure business systems performance and continuity
 Initiate and drive capital expenditures plan and annual budgeting process for
information systems
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Develop and implement standards, procedures, best-practices and business
processes for information systems; review and adapt processes to meet business
needs
Oversee all monitoring and analysis tools and processes; prepare regular reports
on key metrics related to server and systems monitoring, backups, and utilization,
trends, successes and challenges
Establish and manage performance metrics for enterprise software related to
system performance and maintenance, including upgrades and new integrations
Oversee trouble-shooting and security; maintain and manage disaster recovery
plan
Leadership and management of the IT team including resource management,
hiring, mentorship, and performance management
Manage and direct the planning, development, testing, implementation and
support of voice, data and application based technologies and functions
Consistently support compliance by maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of
information, protecting the assets of the organization, acting with ethics and
integrity, reporting non-compliance, and adhering to applicable federal, state and
local laws and regulations, and the Company's policies and procedures
Other duties as assigned
Skills and Key Competencies
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BS/BA Degree in Computer Science or Information Technology or deep relevant
equivalent experience, MBA preferred
Approximately 10+ years practical hands-on experience managing IT teams,
including managing information systems, networking and data centers
Experience in managing enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, preferably
SAP
Experience developing and maintaining IT strategy
Experience developing best practices for infrastructure, interface development,
middleware, secure systems design and web architectures, and virtualization
environments preferred
Experience with recommending and integrating business systems in a startup
environment
Experience with VEEVA, SAP, Magento, ADP, Authorize.Net, PV Works, LMS a plus.
Life sciences experience a plus.
Experience in an environment that supports technology for the commercial team
and field based personnel with phones, tablets and laptops.
Establishing excellent customer connectivity is a priority.
Compensation will be determined based on industry benchmarks and individualized to the
candidate and will include annual base salary, potential for annual bonus and equity. Full
benefits package provided.
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Aratana is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive
consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual
orientation, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other
characteristic protected by law.