Award-Winning Validation Team Lead: Pharma QC

Douglas Pharmaceuticals; Henderson-Massey; On-site; NZD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Award-winning culture

Career growth

Extra leave

Parental perks

Security matters

THRIVE wellbeing

Exclusive discounts

Job summary

Douglas Pharmaceuticals is seeking a Validation Team Leader to own a key workstream across Process Validation, Cleaning Validation, Cross-Contamination Prevention, and Commissioning and Qualification of facilities, utilities and equipment. Rotate through these streams to build depth.

You will lead a team of up to 11, ensuring regulatory-aligned delivery, maintaining governance documents, and acting as the technical authority bridging Technical Services and the wider business.

Qualifications

• At least 5 years' experience in a cGMP environment, laboratory, pharmaceutical manufacturer, or related industry.
• At least 3 years' validation experience, including supervisory or leadership capacity.
• Solid understanding of pharmaceutical regulatory guidelines as they apply to validation.
• Strong critical thinking, problem-solving and communication skills with the ability to influence outcomes across teams.
• A degree in Engineering, Chemistry, or a related science or engineering discipline.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop your team, setting clear performance expectations and role-modelling strong leadership behaviours.
• Own the technical delivery of your current workstream (Cleaning Validation, Cross-Contamination Prevention, Process Performance Qualification, or Commissioning and Qualification), ensuring activities are planned, executed and documented to a compliant standard.
• Maintain and improve validation governance documents (VMPs, SOPs, WIs) in line with current regulatory expectations and industry best practice.
• Review historic validation packages for gaps against current requirements and recommend follow-up actions.
• Provide technical input to quality investigations, change requests, and internal and external audits.
• Report on team priorities, delivery, resourcing and capacity to the Head of Validation, including monthly progress reporting.
• Champion a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement across Technical Services and the operational teams you work alongside.

Job description

Douglas Pharmaceuticals is seeking a Validation Team Leader to own a key workstream across Process Validation, Cleaning Validation, Cross-Contamination Prevention, and Commissioning and Qualification of facilities, utilities and equipment. Rotate through these streams to build depth.

You will lead a team of up to 11, ensuring regulatory-aligned delivery, maintaining governance documents, and acting as the technical authority bridging Technical Services and the wider business.