Switzerland · Pharma IT · MES & GxP
I'm Salam Jumaah — a pharma IT professional supporting Syncade MES and electronic batch records on the GMP production floor: authoring recipes and workflows, integrating MES with SAP and the automation layer, and bridging IT and OT. Built on 15+ years of cloud and infrastructure experience, in an industry where reliable systems protect patient safety.
Based in Switzerland · open to interesting problems
Expertise
Pharma manufacturing IT first — with fifteen years of data center, cloud, and security depth behind it.
Day-to-day support and administration of Emerson Syncade MES in GMP drug manufacturing — electronic batch records, order management, equipment tracking, and material management that guide operators through every step of production.
Designing and maintaining MES recipes and workflows: translating master batch records into structured electronic procedures, building review-by-exception into the batch record, and keeping authoring aligned with process and quality requirements.
Computerized system validation across the lifecycle — URS, risk assessment, IQ/OQ/PQ, traceability — plus formal change control and deviation handling, working hand in hand with Quality. ALCOA+ data integrity, 21 CFR Part 11 and EU Annex 11 are daily practice.
Integrating MES with the systems around it following the ISA-95 model: SAP for process orders, materials, and batch release upstream; DCS and automation systems downstream; plus historians, LIMS, and label printing — keeping master data and interfaces consistent.
Bridging the office network and the shop floor: OT network segmentation, secure remote access to production systems, patching and hardening in a validated environment, and keeping manufacturing running while meeting enterprise security standards.
AWS certified architect (Organizations, EC2, S3, VPC, IAM — this site runs on S3 + CloudFront), fully virtualized VMware data centers, Windows Server and Active Directory, firewalls from Cisco and Fortinet, and Veeam backup.
ISA-95
Pharma manufacturing runs as layered systems. I live at Level 3 — and I speak the language of the layers above and below it.
Level 4 hands down the plan: SAP releases process orders, materials, and master data to the floor.
Level 3 executes it: Syncade MES turns the order into an electronic batch record, guides operators step by step, enforces the process, and captures every signature and value — that's my home.
Levels 2–0 make it physical: the DCS and automation equipment run the actual process, exchanging equipment status and process data with MES.
The value — and the challenge — is in the seams. Master data alignment, interface monitoring, and IT/OT security are what keep batches flowing and auditors satisfied.
Career
From a computer science classroom in Baghdad to pharma manufacturing in Switzerland.
Built my foundations in programming and led one of five student programming teams. My graduation project — an accounting application for the university's accounts department — was awarded a degree of excellence.
First job, full of real-world challenges: built the internal network for Al-Alawia Children's Hospital in Baghdad and delivered wired and wireless networks for many customers using Cisco, MikroTik, and Ubiquiti equipment.
Nine years running infrastructure that served all state departments: multiple data centers, 200+ servers on VMware and Windows Server, and secure services for more than 5,000 users. Led projects in VDI, 802.1X, DNS and email security, and the move to a fully virtualized, hybrid-cloud data center.
My Swiss chapter began here. Broad, hands-on engineering across the whole stack: virtualization with VMware, Proxmox, and Hyper-V; distributed storage with CEPH and vSAN alongside Synology and TrueNAS; firewalls from FortiGate to pfSense and Kerio Control; Microsoft 365 administration with Intune, Exchange, and Purview; and Veeam backups to cloud repositories on AWS S3, Azure Blob, and Infomaniak OpenStack.
Pharma IT on the GMP production floor. I support Syncade MES and electronic batch records, author recipes and workflows, look after the MES–SAP and automation integrations, and operate at the IT/OT boundary — under CSV, change control, and data integrity rules, in a field where uptime means patient safety.
Work
A few pieces of work I'm proud of — tap to expand.
Supporting Emerson Syncade MES that guides operators step by step through drug production: electronic batch records with review by exception, order and material management, and equipment tracking. Every incident, fix, and enhancement runs through formal change control in a validated environment, where all data must satisfy ALCOA+ and 21 CFR Part 11 / EU Annex 11 requirements.
Turning master batch records into structured electronic recipes and workflows in MES — modeling process steps, parameters, and checks so the batch record enforces the process rather than just documenting it, and evolving recipes through controlled versions as processes and quality requirements change.
Keeping the ISA-95 stack talking: SAP hands process orders, materials, and master data down to MES; MES reports consumption and batch status back for release; and below it the DCS and automation layer exchange equipment and process data. Interface monitoring and master-data discipline keep batches flowing.
Working with Quality through the computerized system validation lifecycle — requirements, risk assessments, IQ/OQ/PQ execution, and traceability — plus periodic reviews, deviation support, and audit readiness, so that every system change is proven safe before it touches production.
Running IT where it meets OT: segmented shop-floor networks, controlled and auditable remote access to production systems, and patching or hardening validated servers without disrupting manufacturing — balancing enterprise security standards against the realities of a 24/7 GMP plant.
Managed multi-account AWS environments with AWS Organizations, using Azure Active Directory as the identity provider — solving account sprawl, centralizing billing, and enforcing security guardrails across teams.
Replaced shared-password Wi-Fi across a multi-building government headquarters with 802.1X authentication tied to Active Directory via RADIUS, backed by an internal certificate authority and isolated VLANs — users roam freely while the network stays locked down.
Moved government web properties behind Cloudflare, hardened Exchange with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, and layered Cisco ASA, FortiGate NGFW, and Cisco IronPort ESA — then cut off DoS exposure by restricting admin access to an AWS-hosted OpenVPN entry point.
Transformed a traditional data center into a fully virtualized VMware environment on Dell servers with failover clusters and distributed switches, connected to AWS through Storage Gateway and site-to-site VPN for true hybrid-cloud flexibility.
One of five team leads managing IT specialists responsible for 5,000+ user accounts and 200+ servers — Active Directory, Group Policy, file share hierarchies, Exchange, and custom applications on VMware clusters and NAS storage.
How I work
Regulated manufacturing teaches habits that make every IT environment better.
Behind every system ticket is a batch of medicine and the person who will take it. That perspective settles most priority debates instantly.
GxP made me love the audit trail. Changes are planned, tested, approved, and traceable — which is exactly how un-regulated IT should work too.
Most incidents don't live inside SAP, MES, or the DCS — they live in the interfaces and master data between them. Watch the seams.
In a 24/7 plant, the best infrastructure is the kind nobody talks about. Simple architectures, tested changes, no surprises.
Contact
Open to interesting problems in pharma manufacturing IT, MES, and cloud infrastructure.