Executive Director, Patient Supply Operations, Cell Therapy

If you have the passion and the drive to accelerate growth and make people’s lives better – then AstraZeneca is the place for you.  In Operations we have a big ambition – to deliver more medicines to patients, quicker and more affordably. Backed by the investment, leadership and a clear plan to get there, we bring personal dedication and out of the box thinking. 

AstraZeneca turns molecules to medicines, bringing our Research & Development pipeline to life through a rigorous process of development, manufacturing, testing and delivery.  Operations is accelerating fast. We are on track for Our Bold Ambition 2030, delivering 15+ new medicines driving us forward across different modalities including biologics, cell therapy, ADCs and small molecules. 

The Opportunity

AstraZeneca is building one of the industry’s most ambitious Cell Therapy portfolios, spanning autologous, allogeneic, and in vivo modalities. As the business evolves from clinical-stage operations to global commercial scale, the execution layer of our supply chain, the operational engine that ensures the right therapy reaches the right patient, on time, every time, must scale with it.

As Executive Director, Cell Therapy Patient Supply Operations, you will lead the function that translates supply chain decisions into patient supply outcomes, with accountability for service delivery, operational control, disciplined execution, and performance at scale. This is a senior strategic execution leadership role responsible not only for running the day-to-day operational engine across patient and product flow, but also for transforming the operating model to support future modalities, broader geographic reach, greater volume, launch readiness, and increased digital enablement.

In this role, you will build the structure, accountability, and execution capability needed to strengthen service outcomes and evolve Patient Supply Operations into a robust, scalable, globally coordinated function aligned to AstraZeneca’s long-term Cell Therapy ambition.

The position reports into the Vice President, Global Head of Supply Chain Cell Therapy and can be located in either Tarzana, CA or Gaithersburg, MD. 

Responsibilities

• Lead the execution layer for Patient Supply Operations, ensuring the function is aligned to the strategic and operational needs of the business and delivers efficiency, effectiveness, and service outcomes at global commercial scale.

• Own end-to-end execution of autologous patient supply operations, including patient scheduling, slot coordination, order execution, milestone management, exception handling, and final product delivery, with absolute focus on chain-of-identity, chain-of-custody, and patient-critical service reliability.

• Build and scale execution capabilities for allogeneic and in vivo modalities, designing fit-for-purpose operating models for order fulfillment, critical material movement, launch readiness, distribution design, and modality-specific execution needs as these platforms advance toward commercialization.

• Lead global distribution performance and scale-up, including regional logistics depots as critical enablers of patient supply execution, driving efficient and reliable execution across carriers, 3PLs, shipping lanes, depot operations, and cold chain distribution, while ensuring the responsiveness, control, and market readiness needed to support patient supply continuity, expansion, increasing complexity, and AstraZeneca’s long-term Cell Therapy ambition.

• Establish and embed strong operating discipline across Patient Supply Operations, including governance, service metrics, performance management, escalation pathways, and standard processes that enable consistent execution in a highly regulated, patient-critical environment.

• Lead the transformation of Patient Supply Operations into a scalable, system-enabled execution function, shifting from largely manual, human-orchestrated ways of working toward a more standardized, digital, exception-based model that can support commercial ambition and global complexity.

• Champion digital enablement across Patient Supply Operations, partnering with cross-functional stakeholders to shape the future-state operating model, business processes, organizational interfaces, and global operating requirements needed to scale effectively.

• Establish trade compliance as an embedded execution capability, ensuring import/export controls, Free Trade Zone strategy and operations, biological material movement, and tax-related considerations are designed into lanes, depots, and country enablement from the outset.

• Build and lead a high-performing global organi