Associate Director, Clinical Supply Chain Lead

About the role

Sana Biotechnology is growing, and we are hiring new team members who believe in the potential of engineered cells as medicines, who are passionate about delivering the possible to patients, and who lead with the desire to work on novel ideas.

As an Associate Director, Clinical Supply Chain Lead, you will report to the Senior Director, Supply Strategy & S&OP to assume accountability for end-to-end clinical supply chain readiness and execution for an innovative cell therapy with unique time-critical and patient-specific logistical constraints. In this role, you will design, operationalize, and execute our clinical supply chain and logistics model—from manufacturing slot alignment through product release, shipment, site receipt, and Day-of-Dose execution. Sitting within Technical Operations, you will serve as the central operational point of contact between Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Clinical Operations to ensure finished product logistics are executed flawlessly and on time to support patient treatment.

What you’ll do

• Supply Model Design & Readiness: Manage the end-to-end clinical supply chain model, developing and continuously refining readiness plans that define critical path activities, dependencies, risks, and decision points for clinical dosing.
• Documentation & Manual Ownership: Lead the development, authorship, and lifecycle management of logistics SOPs, chain of custody processes, and the Drug Product Handling & Preparation Manual, including site training content for Day-of-Dose execution.
• Vendor & Partner Qualification: Oversee the selection, onboarding, qualification, and ongoing operational management of external logistics partners, specialty couriers, and service providers.
• Cross-Functional Scheduling Alignment: Ensure tight alignment between clinical demand, manufacturing slot availability, batch release timing, and logistics execution, working across Technical Operations to proactively escalate and resolve scheduling conflicts.
• Logistics & Shipment Execution: Serve as the operational owner for day-to-day patient-specific product scheduling and shipment coordination, aligning transport constraints with QA release windows for short-shelf-life products.
• Real-Time Exception Management: Monitor live shipments and lead real-time issue resolution, exception handling, and process FMEA development for delays, deviations, or temperature excursions.
• Clinical Site Activation & Support: Act as the primary TechOps contact for clinical sites, partnering with Clinical Operations to identify site-specific constraints (storage capabilities, OR workflows, delivery hours) to execute successful readiness assessments.
• Governance & Escalation Pathways: Establish clear technical escalation pathways—including issue intake, triage, and decision ownership—while ensuring consistent, proactive communication of timelines and risks to internal stakeholders and sites.
• Continuous Improvement & Compliance: Contribute to deviation investigations and CAPAs in partnership with Quality, driving continuous improvement by incorporating lessons learned from mock runs, early patient waves, and site feedback into standard workflows.
• Engage in crucial conversations by providing and receiving feedback supporting the growth and development of team members.
• Demonstrate ability to engage and effectively influence team members across multidisciplinary teams while prioritizing multiple projects and meeting deadlines.
• Drive curiosity, scientific rigor and excellent problem-solving skills across a performance-driven environment.
• Innate ability to assess talent that will help grow the organization and add to Sana’s culture.

What we’re looking for

• A Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Logistics, Life Sciences, or a related technical field; however, a specific combination of extensive professional experience and alternate education will be considered in exchange for this degree.
• 6–10+ years of professional experience in Supply Chain, Technical Operations, CMC, or related roles within the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry.
• Hands-on experience supporting clinical trial supply, specifically with advanced modalities such as cell therapy or gene therapy.
• Deep operational understanding of GMP, GCP, GDP (Good Distribution Practices), and chain of custody principles.
• Proven capability managing project critical paths, dependency tracking, and cross-functional coordination using tools such as Excel, Smartsheet, or MS Project.
• Demonstrated experience authoring SOPs and work instructions within a highly regulated compliance environment.
• Ability to translate complex technical and scientific concepts into clear, erro