Chief Operating Officer

Ttp1; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Ttp1 is seeking an experienced COO to lead operations across manufacturing, service, and supply chain in a regulated environment. You will unify engineering handover, installation, and field service into a data-driven operating model that scales with demand.

You’ll drive GMP-compliant processes, overhaul the lifecycle from product handover to customer deployment, and build teams across multi-site operations in the UK, US, and Europe.

Qualifications

• Experience leading operations in regulated environments.
• Track record deploying capital manufacturing systems across multiple sites.
• Ability to design scalable, data-led operating models.

Responsibilities

• Define operations from pilot builds to deployment of multiple commercial systems.
• Transfer systems from product development into manufacturing and supply chain, release to manufacture with Quality.
• Lead manufacturing and industrialisation to scale, reduce cost and improve yield.
• Own supply chain and procurement, including supplier selection and long-lead planning.
• Own S&OP, align build and installation into a single integrated plan.
• Build teams, processes and metrics for growing installed base across sites.
• Plan installations across the UK, US and Europe, manage commissioning and field service spares.
• Lead sustaining engineering for released products and resolve field issues quickly.
• Oversee facilities, labs, health and safety and IT systems.
• Set an operations tone emphasising safety, quality and accountability while enabling learning.

Skills

GMP compliance

S&OP

Regulated environment

Manufacturing operations

Vendor management

Capital equipment

Supply chain

Tools

ERP systems

QMS

Job description

About the role

As COO, you'll be a key member of the executive team, reporting to the CEO and working closely with peers across product, engineering, commercial, and finance. Your focus will be to turn a powerful platform into a predictable, scalable delivery engine that serves customers in regulated and highly controlled environments. In short, you'll build and run the operation that enables the manufacture, delivery, installations and support of our systems reliably as volumes grow.

You’ll bring together manufacturing and industrialisation, supply chain and procurement, installation and field service, sustaining engineering, facilities, health and safety, and operational IT into a coherent, data-led operating model. Quality will also report to you, with clear safeguards in place to preserve its independence. A particular emphasis will be on the life of high-value capital manufacturing systems, from engineering handover through build and test, to installation and commissioning at customer sites.

Your work will shape how customers experience Cellular Origins: how quickly and smoothly systems are installed, how robust they feel in use, and how confident they can be when regulators look closely at their manufacturing operations.

Crucially you will be comfortable, and excited by, the opportunity be part of a business as it evolves from development towards commercial scale.

What you'll do

You’ll get to define how operations work at Cellular Origins, from first pilot builds to deployment of multiple commercial systems.

In practice, you’ll:

• Ensure smooth transfer of systems from product development into manufacturing and supply chain, deciding release to manufacture jointly with Quality, and subsequent shipping and installation into GMP environments.
• Lead manufacturing and industrialisation, building the capability and capacity to scale while driving down cost and improving yield.
• Own supply chain and procurement, including the supplier base, supplier selection, make-vs-buy decisions, inventory and long-lead planning.
• Own sales and operations planning (S&OP), bringing build, supply and installation together into one integrated plan, and setting the build plan and the installation dates we commit to customers.
• Build and develop the teams, processes, and performance measures that allow us to move from early deployments to a growing installed base across multiple sites and geographies.
• Shape how we plan and execute installations and customer deployment projects across the UK, US and Europe, how we manage commissioning and validation in collaboration with customers, and how we sustain high uptime and reliability over the life of each system through the field service model and spares strategy you set.
• Lead sustaining engineering for released products, making sure field issues are resolved quickly and permanently.
• Oversee our facilities, including specialist labs and manufacturing space, health and safety and our operational IT systems.
• Alongside this, you’ll set the tone for operations across the company. That means embedding a culture that values safety, quality, and accountability, while still leaving space for learning and continuous improvement as we grow.

About you

You are an experienced operations leader who enjoys turning complex technology into something customers can rely on every day. You will be skilled at responding to changing needs, recognising what the Company needs today, may not be what it will need in 12-18 months' time and you will be able to navigate these evolving needs alongside bringing others with you along the way. You are comfortable thinking at the level of network design and capital allocation and equally interested in how a specific installation will land in a specific facility.

You’re likely to bring:

• Senior operational leadership in a regulated or highly controlled environment such as medtech, bioprocessing, biotech automation, semiconductor, advanced industrial automation, or a similar setting
• Direct experience of the installation, commissioning, and lifecycle support of high-value capital manufacturing systems, ideally across multiple customer sites and countries
• A strong track record of translating innovative engineering into repeatable, documented, field-ready operations that feel dependable to customers
• Direct experience of GMP cell therapy manufacturing is not essential. What matters is that you understand how production environments operate when quality, safety, and compliance are non-negotiable, and how capital equipment must perform in those conditions.

You're likely to enjoy this role if you like building organisations as much as building systems.

You may have:

• Structured and grown operations teams spanning manufacturing, supply chain and procurement, logistics, field service, and customer support
• Used digital systems such as ERP and QMS to improve visibility, decision-making, and accountability
• Run an integrated S&OP process and made make-vs-buy and supplier dec