Validation Team Leader

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

Every product Douglas brings to market depends on validation done right. As Validation Team Leader, you'll take ownership of a critical workstream within our Technical Services Group - whether that's Process Performance Qualification, Cleaning Validation, Cross-Contamination Prevention, or the Commissioning and Qualification of our facilities, utilities and equipment. You'll build breadth by rotating through these workstreams over time, developing deeper technical authority in each as you go.

This is a role where leading people is as central to the job as the science, with a team of up to 11 looking to you as their technical authority, contributing to keeping our validation approaches aligned with regulatory expectations, and a key link between Technical Services and the wider business.

If you want a role where your technical judgement shapes real outcomes, this is it.

What you'll do

• 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.

What you'll bring

Core requirements

• At least 5 years' experience in a cGMP environment, laboratory, pharmaceutical manufacturer, or related industry.
• At least 3 years' validation experience, including prior experience in a supervisory or leadership capacity.
• A solid understanding of pharmaceutical regulatory guidelines as they apply to validation would be a great benefit.
• 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 (or equivalent experience).
• Award-winning culture - Join a team that's genuinely a great place to work (and we've got the awards to prove it).
• Career growth - We're big on developing our people and promoting from within.
• Extra leave - After six years with us, you'll get five weeks of annual leave.
• Parental perks - Get 16 weeks of top-up payments during your parental leave.
• Security matters - We've got you covered with life and income protection insurance.
• Feel good with THRIVE - Our wellbeing programme helps you be your best, inside and out.
• Exclusive discounts - Enjoy special deals on big-name brands like Clinicians, BraveFace, Avene, Ego, and more.

About Us

At Douglas, we're more than just a company - we're a community of people driven to make a difference. We're proud to be one of New Zealand's biggest pharmaceutical success stories, and we're growing globally. Privately owned and future-focused, our team of 500 includes scientists, engineers, and all kinds of experts, working together to create high-quality healthcare products that help people around the world.

Come join us on this mission to improve lives!