Associate Director, Engineering

Job Description

Manufacturing plants with a “Safety First, Quality Always” mindset striving for continuous improvement. Your main field of attention is to provide all-round technical support to Vaccine and Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing for commercial Animal Health products. 

The focus of an Associate Director within the Regional Projects team in the BioTechnology Solutions (BTS) department is on Vaccine and Biopharmaceutical process improvement/transfers in support of commercial antigen/antibody manufacturing and sterile biopharmaceutical product fill-finish. The Within a multidisciplinary environment you will cooperate with your colleagues from BTS-Process Development, BTS-Site Support, BTS-Analytical, Operations, Site Engineering, Quality Control/Assurance, Supply Chain or Planning, Global Regulatory Affairs, Environmental Health and Safety, Research, Regional Transfer Task Force, and Regional Strategy teams.

Job Description:

• 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 a team member 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 regarding 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) to best understand and resolve the root cause.

• Whether working independently or in collaboration with other departments (e.g. Quality, R&D, Production, Analytical Development, 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 United States Department of Agriculture 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 our Company 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 and guides other employees and / or interns.

• Performs off-shift work (only as needed).

Education Minimum Requirement:

• Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology, Mechanical Engineering, Biochemistry, Protein Chemistry, or related field with at least 8 years of experience in vaccine and/or biopharmaceutical Development, Process/Product Development, and/or Biological manufacturing or closely related field. (Or Master of Science degree and at least 6 years of relevant work experience or a Doctoral degree and at