Associate Director, Engineering

Merck • Upper Gwynedd Township, PA

3d • $142,400 - $224,100 • Hybrid

About The Position

The West Point Technical Operations Process Support Laboratories within our Manufacturing Division is responsible for supporting all company commercial vaccines with best in class laboratory support for technical investigations, life-cycle-management driven process enhancements and commercial vaccine expansions. We seek an energetic, people-oriented leader with strong scientific and technical skills to lead laboratory activities supporting multiple vaccine programs. The Associate Director will be responsible for management and oversight of business-critical cell culture and live virus vaccine objectives for one or more vaccine franchises. This individual will lead a team of scientists and engineers to develop and transfer lab-scale models, drive continuous improvement and deep-dive investigations, and develop novel methods to enable process understanding.

Requirements

• B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Biochemical Engineering, Bioengineering, Pharmaceuticals, Biochemistry, Microbiology, or related field with 8 years of relevant experience; or Master's degree with 6 years of relevant experience; or Ph.D. with 4 years of relevant experience.
• Minimum 2 years direct experience in vaccine or biologics process development, commercialization, manufacturing, or lab operations
• Expertise in lab-scale experimental execution and experience with Design of Experiments (DOE), statistical data analysis and presentation of results/conclusions
• Demonstrated leadership and ability to drive results
• Strong communication, collaboration skills and ability to drive accountability

Nice To Haves

• Minimum 2 years direct live virus vaccine processing experience (laboratory scale or manufacturing scale)
• Minimum of 1 year people management experience

Responsibilities

• Process subject matter expert (SME) for processing of live-virus vaccines.
• Manages one or more vaccine cell culture based projects and prioritizes resources to align with business objectives
• Manages a team of scientists and engineers
• Builds talent by coaching, managing, and developing a team of scientist/engineers through both direct and indirect reporting relationships.
• Designs and leads execution of experimental protocols using lab facilities and/or production equipment at full scale. Communicating data driven results to all levels within and across organizations.
• Examines an issue from diverse perspectives (safety, compliance, automation, equipment, process, and people) in order to best understand and resolve the root cause.
• Authors and approves technical documentation to support manufacturing investigations and process enhancements.
• Collaborates and engages with counterparts within technical operations, site manufacturing, commercialization, our Research Division, and other process support labs within our global network.

Benefits

• medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family)
• retirement benefits, including 401(k)
• paid holidays
• vacation
• compassionate and sick days
• annual bonus
• long-term incentive

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree