Francisco Batista

IT Director with 25+ years of enterprise IT experience, including 11+ years leading IT in GMP/GxP-regulated pharmaceutical CDMO manufacturing.

Executive Management

Team member with responsibility for IT strategy, infrastructure, operations, service delivery, cybersecurity governance, IT/OT integration, vendor management and regulatory audit readiness across multi-site environments supporting 500+ users. Proven record minimizing operational risk and downtime, maintaining validated-state systems, supporting 100+ GxP audits with zero critical findings, and aligning local site needs with global digital infrastructure standards.

IT Director at Recipharm / Lusomedicamenta (2014-09 – 2026-02)

Executive Management Team member providing strategic and operational IT leadership for a multi-site, 500+ user GMP/GxP-regulated pharmaceutical CDMO, acting as the primary IT partner to site leadership and global Digital Infrastructure & Operations teams.

• Owned IT strategy, service delivery, infrastructure operations and local IT governance across manufacturing, quality, engineering and laboratory environments, aligning site priorities with Group standards in a matrixed international organization.
• Led incident, change, problem and service-request management across the IT function, maintaining SLA compliance and operational continuity for business-critical manufacturing, quality and laboratory systems.
• Ensured GxP compliance, data integrity and validated-state continuity across regulated IT systems, supporting 100+ GxP customer, internal and regulatory audits and inspections with zero critical findings.
• Coordinated IT/OT integration across manufacturing and laboratory equipment, ensuring secure, reliable operation of production-critical technology and supporting CAPA remediation from audit and inspection findings.
• Defined and executed a multi-year infrastructure modernization roadmap, migrating legacy platforms to a hybrid cloud architecture across Microsoft Azure and VMware.
• Built and continuously improved cybersecurity governance aligned with ISO 27001 and GDPR, strengthening audit readiness and reducing technology and operational risk exposure.
• Managed 50+ technology suppliers, vendor contracts and MSP/MSSP partnerships, overseeing service performance, escalations, renewals, budget optimization and supplier governance.
• Led and developed an 8-person IT team, building accountability, continuous improvement and cross-functional collaboration across Production, Quality, Engineering and Senior Management.

IT Architect / Consultant at SoftINSA - IBM Global Services (2008-08 – 2014-08)

Delivered enterprise infrastructure transformation consulting across multiple clients, modernizing legacy environments and designing resilient, scalable platforms across data center, network, directory, virtualization, VDI and BC/DR domains.

• Led data center modernization projects for 20+ enterprise clients, migrating hundreds of physical servers to VMware-based virtualized platforms and improving infrastructure resilience.
• Designed and implemented enterprise network architectures, Active Directory environments, backup and BC/DR solutions, supporting 99% uptime and defined RTO targets for mission-critical systems.
• Deployed VDI and Citrix platforms for 1,000+ users across multiple organizations; recognized as ITS Top Performer for delivery quality, client satisfaction and technical leadership.

IT Consultant at ExactBrain - IBM Training Partner (2008-06 – 2008-08)

Delivered infrastructure audit and BC/DR advisory for three financial institutions in Luanda, Angola, identifying data center risk exposure and recommending remediation for mission-critical banking environments.

IT Manager at IBM BTO - Business Transformation Outsourcing (2004-10 – 2008-05)

Managed IT operations for a 200+ user client-facing outsourcing environment, overseeing service delivery, budgets, vendors, procurement and operational resilience across 80+ critical systems.

• Maintained SLA compliance and drove continuous improvement initiatives, reducing average incident resolution time by 50%.
• Designed and maintained disaster recovery and business continuity plans aligned with client and contractual requirements.

System Operator / Team Leader at IBM (1999-09 – 2004-10)

Supported 24/7 core banking operations for a major Portuguese financial institution; promoted to Team Leader, managing 10 operators, defining KPIs and contributing to 99%+ uptime of mission-critical digital banking services.

Postgraduate Program in Information Systems Management – Nova Information Management School (NOVA IMS) (2026-09)

Postgraduate Program in Cybersecurity & Data Protection – Rumos / Universidade Atlântica (2022-05 – 2022-11)

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering – Universidade do Algarve (2000-09 – 2007-06)