Advanced Therapy Quality Assurance Assistant | Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust; Greater London; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust’s Advanced Therapy GMP Unit seeks a dedicated Quality Assurance Assistant to support QA activities and ensure GMP compliance for ATMP manufacturing and trials. You will handle deviations, CAPAs, change controls, and collaborate with GMP production and QC teams.

The role requires experience with electronic PQS systems, environmental monitoring data, and calibration of QA processes to meet UK/EU regulations.

Qualifications

• Experience in QA for ATMP manufacturing.
• Knowledge of PQS, CAPAs and change controls.
• Experience with electronic QA systems and batch records.

Responsibilities

• Support QA activities for the GMP Unit and provide day-to-day QA support.
• Assist in management and monitoring of QA and QC activities; prepare quality data for certification of ATMPs.
• Contribute to metrics, deviations tracking, and KPI reporting; assist with ePQS implementation and validation.

Skills

Quality Assurance

GMP

ATMP manufacturing

Data analysis

Tools

ePQS

Job description

Advanced Therapy Quality Assurance Assistant | Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

The Advanced Therapy Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Unit is co-located with the Clinical Research Facility (CRF) at Guy’s Hospital on the 15th floor of the tower. The GMP Unit is purpose built for the manufacture of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products such as somatic cell therapies, gene therapies and tissue engineered products for early-phase clinical trials. It is used for both commercial and non-commercial clients as well as departments within GSTFT and KCL to manufacture products related to trials undertaken in the CRF and at trial sites across the UK.

The post holder will be personally responsible for supporting all QA activities. The unit itself holds a GMP licence for manufacturing of T-Reg cell therapies and CAR T-Cell gene therapies as well as new manufacturing processes. The post holder will also be responsible for organising systems and procedures to ensure compliance with current UK & EU legislation and Trust requirements. This will also include responsibility for following policies and standard operating procedures for manufacturing and quality assurance of the GMP Unit. The post holder will be responsible for the day to day QA queries from core staff and collaborators using the unit equipment and systems and ensuring that GMP compliance is maintained.

• Operate within the PQS: Reviewing Planned Deviations, by assessing impact/risk on the manufacturing or testing process prior to its implementation. Report deviations through Quality deviations to line managers. You will undertake Preventive Actions and Change Controls to rectify exceptions and implement audit and inspection findings.
• Assist in the management and monitoring of QA and QC activities, ensuring that agreed quality standards of service are maintained. Enable preparation of quality data to be used in the certification of ATMPs.
• Undertake strategic judgements based upon specialist knowledge of the manufacturing process, operating within the boundaries of the PQS, such as: how to proceed during technical failures; PPM; Quality Control assessments; technical decisions; suitability of material for manufacture; analysis of anomalous results.
• Contribute to quality meetings internally and with collaborators, tracking the progress of open deviations and reporting on KPIs
• Understand how an electronic PQS operates and assist in the design and qualification in a new system. Have the ability to keep PQS logs current and elevate upcoming overdue items to appropriate personnel including the Heads of unit

Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTFT) and King’s College London (KCL) have formed a centre that has a strong focus on translational research taking advances in basic medical research out of the laboratory and into the clinical setting, forming a key part of the Department of Health's new strategy for research and development in the NHS. The Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Unit is co-located with the Clinical Research Facility (CRF) at Guy’s Hospital. The GMP Unit is purpose built for the manufacture of somatic cell therapies, gene therapies and proteins for early-phase clinical trials. It is used by staff from different departments within GSTFT and KCL to manufacture products related to trials undertaken in the CRF and at trial sites across the UK.

Organisational Values:

Ourvalueshelp us to define and develop our culture,what we doandhow we do it. It is important that you understand andreflect these values throughout your employment with the Trust.

The post holder will:

• Ambitious– we innovate and strive for excellence
• Inclusive– we respect each other and work collaboratively

Ourvalues and behaviours framework| describes what it means for every one of us in the Trust to put our values into action. The framework can be found on our Trust careers pages and GTIntranet .

The ATMP GMP Unit is looking for a highly motivated and experienced quality assurance professional who will become fully integrated within the GMP core team. This team member will have specialist quality assurance skills and ideally with some experience in ATMP manufacturing and some understanding of the challenges ATMP manufacturing poses. The applicant will be required to work alongside the core GMP Production and Quality Control team providing assistance with supplier and raw material approval. They will also be required to communicate effectively with collaborators using the GMP cleanrooms and ensure users adherence to procedures. The applicant should have some experience in providing training and will be expected to train new users of the cleanrooms in basic GMP. The individual will have some experience in using an electronic Pharmaceutical Quality System and ensuring that logging of non-conformances, change controls and corrective and preventive actions is current and escalating any actions that are becoming overdue. The selected candidate will understand how to develop metrics to monitor the effectiveness of the PQS system and to assist with improving its effectiveness. The Quality Assurance Assistant will be expected to assist in the procurement and validation of a new ePQS system for the department. The QA assistant will lead in collating environmental monitoring data, trending of data and highlighting any mico exceptions within the cleanroom. The postholder will be also be responsible for ensuring timely completion of micro deviation investigations and reporting and will be trained into completing these reports. The QA assistant will assist with collating Batch manufacturing records and making them ready for head of unit and QP review. The role requires someone with attention to detail and they will be responsible for ensuring correct distribution of master SOPs to the relevant GMP activity areas and on a regular basis auditing these areas to ensure that correct documentation is available to Production and QC staff members. All core GMP staff are responsible for assisting in maintenance of the cleanroom and this includes cleaning specific areas on a rotational basis. The QA assistant will be trained to review engineer reports and log any non-conformances raised. The selected candidate will already be an experienced QA professional but will be expected to develop further in the role to become an ATMP QA specialist.