Associate Director, Site Supply Chain - Materials Management

AstraZeneca•Los Angeles, CA

2d•$124,070 - $186,104

About The Position

The Associate Director, Materials Management leads patient materials management at AstraZeneca Cell Therapy’s Santa Monica and Tarzana manufacturing facilities across autologous cell therapy programs. The role is the manufacturing site lead for patient material traceability, including the processes and systems used to verify chain of identity (COI) and chain of custody (COC) from patient material receipt through drug product pack-out. It also oversees material flow and verification of GMP healthy donor apheresis for allogeneic cell therapy programs. As part of the Site Supply Chain operations model, the role uses digital systems, milestone visibility, and defined escalation pathways to maintain compliance and integrity of patient and healthy donor materials. It reports to the Site Supply Chain Director and leads daily execution of Vein-to-Vein Operations, supporting service reliability, continuity of the patient journey, and customer experience.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Life Sciences, or a related field.
At least 8 years of experience in biopharma supply chain, logistics, or cell therapy operations.
Strong understanding of cell therapy COI/COC controls and operational requirements for patient material receipt and drug product pack-out.
Demonstrated experience resolving real-time issues and leading exception management, shipment recovery, temperature-excursion response, escalation handling, operational investigations, and corrective actions in a complex, regulated environment.
Working knowledge of GDP, GMP, and GxP requirements, including deviation and quality processes.
Ability to lead through influence, balance competing operational priorities, and maintain high execution quality in a fast-paced environment.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to provide concise operational updates and clearly escalate risks.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree such as an MS or MBA.
Experience in site manufacturing operations, cell therapy logistics, or a 24/7 monitoring environment.
Experience with Power BI, Excel, or Smartsheet for operational reporting and analysis.
Experience supporting launches, hypercare, and/or expansion into new countries or studies.

Responsibilities

Lead patient materials management across autologous cell therapy programs, ensuring COI/COC of apheresis from receipt through manufacturing and drug product pack-out.
Lead healthy donor materials management across allogeneic cell therapy programs, ensuring COC of apheresis and lot traceability from drug substance through drug product manufacturing and pack-out.
Coordinate apheresis receipt and drug product pack-out schedules with manufacturing, production scheduling, quality, and logistics teams, including schedule changes and rescheduling.
Own the manufacturing site’s COI/COC processes, including site SOPs and work instructions, and monitor status across receipt, manufacturing release, and drug product pack-out using digital tools and real-time milestone visibility.
Reinforce adherence to approved workflows, documentation requirements, SOPs, work instructions, and data-capture expectations for COI/COC traceability.
Support operational readiness and hypercare for new studies, products, and countries, including site onboarding and mock shipments where applicable.
Lead exception management and escalation when patient traceability deviates from the expected process, coordinating recovery actions across internal teams and external partners.
Support fact-finding investigations, root-cause assessment, and corrective-action identification for COI/COC execution issues, partnering with Quality when formal deviations or CAPAs are required.
Support impact assessments and identification of change actions for product launches and expansion into new countries or studies.
Track operational metrics and identify improvement opportunities, sharing insights on recurring issues, execution risks, and corrective actions to improve reliability and consistency.