Lonza
Operational Readiness Manager – Mammalian Manufacturing
US - Portsmouth, NH
Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 1 day ago
Project ManagementForecastingGMPFDA RegulatoryCell CultureLeadershipCollaborationProblem Solving
About the role
- Operational Readiness Manager - Mammalian Manufacturing Location: Portsmouth, NH, USA (100% On-Site).
- Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
- Budget Responsibility: Management and tracking of an estimated $25M USD Operational Readiness CNEC Budget.
Responsibilities
- Operational Readiness Strategy: Define, build, and champion the comprehensive start-up and operational readiness execution strategy from initial demolition and construction phases through to final commercial validation.
- Design Forecasting & Modeling: Actively evaluate, stress-test, and forecast that proposed facility layouts, technical designs, and automated systems perfectly align with practical, safe, and efficient GMP manufacturing workflows post-system-handoff.
- lead resource planning matrices and align project milestones with corporate financial governance.
- design practical problem-solving strategies to ensure a seamless transition into routine commercial GMP operations.
- Team Building Track Record: Proven background in organizational design-specifically demonstrating a structured methodology for how to build, scale, and upskill manufacturing teams from scratch.
- Stakeholder Master: Exceptional capability to unite varied operational perspectives, manage high-ambiguity project environments, and proactively drive consensus across highly specialized technical matrix teams.
- Risk Mitigation & Lifecycle Hand-Off: Proactively identify execution barriers, space/equipment constraints, and technical dependencies; design practical problem-solving strategies to ensure a seamless transition into routine commercial GMP operations.
- Reporting directly to the End-to-End Project Lead, this role is the core strategic architect for a massive facility expansion and retrofit project that will effectively double our local 6K mammalian manufacturing capacity.
- With demolition commencing in the coming months and a target go-live window of Q4 2029, you will own the end-to-end operational readiness strategy.
- Operating with broad direction, this role bridges the gap between engineering design and long-term commercial sustainability-forecasting that proposed facility designs meet strict on-the-floor operational requirements post-handoff.
Requirements
- Biologics Technical Acumen: Deep working knowledge of current mammalian cell culture bioprocessing, technical transfer frameworks, validation principles, and life science regulatory expectations.
- Partner closely with site leadership to architect the multi-year organizational design, resource models, and talent pipelines required to support the expanded production footprint.
- Deep working knowledge of current mammalian cell culture bioprocessing, technical transfer frameworks, validation principles, and life science regulatory expectations.
- Bachelor's Degree in a Life Science, Engineering, Business Management, or a related scientific/technical discipline is required.
- Future Capability Alignment: Partner closely with site leadership to architect the multi-year organizational design, resource models, and talent pipelines required to support the expanded production footprint.
Nice to have
- PMP (Project Management Professional) certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI) is highly preferred.
- At Lonza, our people are our greatest strength.
- With 30+ sites across five continents, our globally connected teams work together every day to manufacture the medicines of tomorrow.
- Innovation thrives when people from all backgrounds bring their unique perspectives to the table.
- Ready to shape the future of life sciences?
- Certifications: PMP (Project Management Professional) certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI) is highly preferred.
Compensation
- Budget Responsibility: Management and tracking of an estimated $25M USD Operational Readiness CNEC Budget.
Benefits
- Compensation programs that recognize high performance, plus comprehensive health, dental, vision, and generous PTO packages.
- Education: Bachelor's Degree in a Life Science, Engineering, Business Management, or a related scientific/technical discipline is required.
Company info
- What we're looking for:
- We are seeking a high-caliber capital project leader to join our manufacturing organization in Portsmouth, NH, as the Operational Readiness Manager.
This listing is sourced directly from Lonza's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.