Director, Cell Therapy Operations Commercial Launch Lead

AstraZeneca • Santa Monica, CA

7d

About The Position

The Director, Cell Therapy Operations Commercial Launch Lead plans and executes end-to-end operational readiness for cell therapy products commercial launch and supply. This hands-on leader drives launch execution, supply chain enablement, and value chain readiness across clinical transition, initial commercial launch, and early lifecycle expansion. The role partners with Commercial, Clinical Operations, Manufacturing, Quality, Regulatory, and Supply Chain. This partnership ensures that processes, and teams are prepared to deliver reliable patient supply, compliant operations, and high service levels at launch.
Reports to Executive Director, Cell Therapy Global Supply Chain.
Work with Global Product Teams, CMC Product Team, Commercial Team, Clinical Operations, Manufacturing, Quality, Regulatory, IT, Global and Site Supply Chain Teams.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in life sciences, engineering, or supply chain; advanced degree (MBA, MS).
• 10+ years in biopharma operations or supply chain, with minimum of 3 (three) years in advanced therapies (cell or gene therapy) or biologics; experience with autologous and/or allogeneic models.
• Expertise implementing new product introductions and commercial launches in a matrixed environment.
• Knowledge of value chain operations: manufacturing planning, slot management, S&OP/IBP, procurement, QC/release, cold-chain logistics, and distribution.
• Experience with regulatory, quality, and regional requirements affecting commercialization readiness.
• Advanced execution skills: project management, risk mitigation, issue resolution, and cross-functional orchestration.
• Manage Goals, performance dashboards, and operational cost drivers.
• Excellent stakeholder management; and lead decisions across senior and operational levels.
• Experience implementing SOPs, training, and standard work; experience building operational guides.

Responsibilities

• Commercialization Readiness Planning involves building and maintaining detailed readiness plans. These plans cover demand/capacity planning and slot management, ordering, scheduling, vein-to-vein logistics, labeling, release/QC, and distribution. Translate product and market strategy into executable operational plans with clear milestones, owners, and risks.
• Launch Execution and Orchestration: Lead cross-functional launch readiness effort and daily/weekly stand-ups to coordinate activities, resolve issues, and maintain launch schedule.
• Track project planning items and remove roadblocks to meet launch dates and service-level targets.
• Value Chain Enablement leads the stand-up and clinical to commercial transition of end-to-end value chain for new products. This transition includes supply chain designs, such as manufacturing slot management, cold-chain logistics, chain-of-identity/chain-of-custody processes, and data flows across systems. These systems include cell orchestration/ordering portals.
• Operational Risk Management: identify process gaps and execution risks (patient drop out, courier constraints, operational bottlenecks), implement mitigations and business continuity plans to prevent supply disruption.
• Cross-Functional Coordination: Act as the primary contact between Commercial teams and the Cell Therapy Operations organization to align launch timelines, demand plans, and supply readiness. Facilitate decision-making and escalate issues to leadership.
• Metrics and Performance Management: Define and track launch Goals (slot use, service level, cycle time, release success rate, reschedules/cancelations, cost-to-serve).
• Improve corrective actions and continuous improvement in the first 6–12 months post-launch.

Benefits

• qualified retirement programs
• paid time off (i.e., vacation, holiday, and leaves)
• health, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms of the applicable plans

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director