Harjeet Virdi

About Harjeet Virdi

Senior IT leader with 25+ years of experience delivering regulated, research-focused solutions that drive better outcomes for patients and customers. Since 2018 I led Development IT; in January 2025 I transitioned to lead Research IT, where I now oversee three product teams focused on modernizing laboratory processes and animal farm operations to enable FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-usable) R&D data.I partner closely with Bio & Pharma R&D stakeholders to help them efficiently create, execute, and share experiments and study results. My teams deliver solutions across- Registration, Experiment Authoring & Assay Data Capture- Animal Farm Operations & Testing- Inventory & LIMSCore strengths- Strategic leadership of cross-functional teams (Ph.D. scientists to technical staff) responsible for mission-critical systems- Architecting and delivering data mining, analytics and scientific systems from concept to production- Managing portfolio governance, regulatory compliance and value realization across Research, Clinical, Pharmacovigilance and Regulatory IT domains- Systems and process integration during post-merger activity and extensive vendor management- Technical project leadership across the full SDLC with strong stakeholder management and communication skillsRecognized with multiple Awards of Excellence, I also lead cultural and employee engagement initiatives and mentor emerging leaders. I’m passionate about transforming lab operations and R&D workflows to make data more usable and actionable—helping teams make faster, better-informed decisions.

Experience

1. Research IT - Product Line Lead for Merck Animal Health

   Merck

   Jan 2025 — Present · NJ, US

   Leading multiple product teams to enable Bio & Pharma R&D colleagues to efficiently create, execute and share R&D Experiment/study results by modernizing/digitalizing their laboratory processes and Animal Farm Operations towards FAIR(Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-usable) R&D Data that facilitates insightful analysis & informed decision making to discover new pharma products & vaccines.

Education

• Drexel University

  Masters, Information Systems

  2005 — 2009

• Delhi University

  B.Sc, Computer Science

  1991 — 1994

• Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

  Leadership Pathway

• Cornell University

  Professional Certificate, Merck Women’s Leadership Program/Gender Bias & Negotiating Strategies/Navigating Power Relationships

Skills

• Data Management
• Database Design
• Data Warehousing
• Information Architecture
• Software Development
• Software Project Management
• Analytics
• Integration
• IT Strategy
• Etl
• Enterprise Software
• Enterprise Architecture
• Data Modeling
• Sql
• Visio
• Asp.net
• Pl/Sql
• Business Intelligence
• .net
• Agile Methodologies
• Pharmaceutical Industry
• Javascript
• Web Services
• Databases
• Sharepoint
• Web Development
• Business Analysis
• Software Documentation
• Sdlc
• Microsoft Sql Server
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Informatics
• Oracle
• Data Mining
• Requirements Analysis
• Requirements Gathering
• Data Analysis
• Programming