Associate Director, Engineering

Job Description

Welcome to our team:

Our Animal Health Manufacturing teams are the people that make our products. We work in the manufacturing plants with a “Safety First, Quality Always” mindset striving for continuous improvement. We work in the local/regional plants connected to our global manufacturing network to ensure the highest quality of raw materials, intermediates, and finished products.

The focus of an Associate Director within the Site Support (SS) team in the Bio Technology Solutions (BTS) department is on management of a team of scientists and/or engineers, Vaccine and Biopharmaceutical process improvement/troubleshooting in support of commercial antigen/antibody manufacturing and sterile biopharmaceutical product fill-finish, and Technology Transfer. The BTS team is also responsible for supporting the BTS Process Development (PD) team during new process/product introductions. Within a multidisciplinary environment you will collaborate with your colleagues from BTS-PD, BTS-Analytical, Operations, Engineering, Quality Control/Assurance, Supply Chain, Planning, Regulatory Affairs, Safety, and Research. You will also collaborate with team members located at other sites across the globe.  Your main field of attention is to provide all-around technical support to Vaccine and Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing for commercial Animal Health products.

Job Description:

• Play a critical role in managing and leading a team with focus on Industry Leading Cost of Goods and process robustness.

• Leads and/or works independently to optimize and/or troubleshoot manufacturing processes for microbial, virus or cell cultures followed by purification/concentration and blending/fill of veterinary vaccines and biopharmaceuticals (antibody therapeutics). 

• Leads and/or works independently and/or supports team members with focus on technology transfer within or between manufacturing sites. 

• Works at the speed of business to resolve manufacturing challenges while always ensuring timelines meet the requirements of the customer with regard to safety, quality, cost-efficiency, practical applicability, and consistency.

• Leads and/or works independently as a team member on technical investigations, validation and/or process improvement projects.

• Examines issues from diverse perspectives (safety, compliance, automation, equipment, process and people) in order to best understand and resolve the root cause.

• Whether working independently or in collaboration with other departments (e.g. Quality, Research, Production, Bio Technology Solutions – Analytical and /or Process Development), must ensure sound scientific data/literature/evaluation and integrity drives every decision/recommendation.

• If necessary, performs development, introduction and/or testing of new technologies.

• Collaborates and interfaces with Research, Process/Analytical Development, Manufacturing and other departments to ensure commercial products are produced to keep up with commercial needs.

• Demonstrates working knowledge of current regulatory guidelines.

• Develops project charters and project plans and align with all sponsors and stakeholders.

• Key capabilities include project management skills: development of timelines, use of project tracking tools, definition of deliverables, definition of roles and responsibilities, risk identification/tracking/mitigation and business acumen.

• Coordinates and tracks team activities by leading or participating in core team meetings, communicates project risks and status to appropriate stakeholders, and escalates challenges as well as opportunities to sponsors at the speed of the business need.

• Assures consistent application of standardized work, engineering controls, and process analytical technology.

• Authors experimental protocols and reports in support of laboratory or production scale evaluations.  

• Creates and updates technical and manufacturing documents necessary for investigations, process design/definition, engineering studies, process demonstrations, change control and validation.

• Displays leadership behaviors and demonstrate a high emotional intelligence.

• Effectively collaborates with peers on site and above site as required.

• Contributes to international projects (Global Projects). Interacts closely with fellow scientists from your own and other departments. If required with external collaboration partners.

• Actively contributes to the improvement or acceleration of activities within the department, and also within support fields such as Environment Health and Safety.

• Trains