Associate Director, Cell Therapy Network S&OE

AstraZeneca plc; Gaithersburg (MD); On-site; USD 124,000 - 186,000; Full time

Job summary

AstraZeneca plc in Gaithersburg, MD is seeking an Associate Director, Cell Therapy Network Capacity Planning to lead near-term execution (0–90 days) bridging approved network supply plans with day-to-day operations. You will translate network plans into executable site capacity, rolling slot schedules, and cross-functional priorities to ensure patients receive their treatment on time.

This role sits at the nerve center of autologous cell therapy, optimizing slot availability, service levels, and

Qualifications

• BS/BA or higher with 8+ years in pharma/biotech; cell therapy or ATMP experience preferred.
• Direct S&OE or execution-level experience including running daily/weekly cadences and cross-functional decisions.
• Experience with capacity planning, network planning, or S&OP leadership in complex environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead 0–90 day S&OE capacity planning across network; translate supply plans into site capacity and schedules.
• Own rolling 90-day S&OE slot schedule; coordinate across multiple functions to maximize utilization and minimize disruptions.
• Define and govern slot disruption playbooks; drive rapid recovery actions and re-slotting within guardrails.
• Provide cross-functional leadership across Manufacturing, Site Supply Chain, Quality/QC, Regulatory, Clinical Operations, Logistics, and Patient Operations.

Education

BS/BA with 10+ years (or MS/MA/MBA with 8+ years) relevant experience in pharma/biotech

Tools

CGT orchestration tools

Advanced planning tools

ERP systems (SAP)

Job description

Associate Director, CT Network Capacity Planning

At AstraZeneca's Cell Therapy division, we follow science to explore and innovate. We are working towards treating, preventing, modifying, and even curing some of the world's most complex diseases. Here we have the potential to grow our pipeline and positively impact the lives of billions of patients around the world. We are committed to making a difference and have built our business around our passion for science. Now we are fusing data and technology with the latest scientific innovations to achieve the next wave of breakthroughs.

Position Summary

Cell therapy is redefining what's possible in medicine—delivering living, personalized treatments to patients.Behind every successful therapy is a precisely orchestrated manufacturing network where timing, capacity, and coordination must come together flawlessly.

The Associate Director, Cell Therapy Network S&OE will lead the near-term execution horizon (0–90 days), bridging approved network supply plans with day-to-day operational reality. This role translates network plans and planning guardrails into executable site capacity plans, rolling slot schedules, and cross-functional execution priorities and, critically, orchestrates end-to-end patient order fulfillment across the vein-to-vein journey. The incumbent will own execution against the plan, manage deviations in real time, and drive cross-functional decisions that ultimately determine whether a patient receives their treatment on time.

This role sits at the nerve center of one of the most consequential processes in autologous cell therapy—optimizing slot availability, service levels, and cost across a complex global network. Additionally, this role will lead the scalability of slot management, evolving to an AI and digitally enabled and commercially ready operating model with strong governance, real-time visibility, and rigorous performance management.

Responsibilities

Cell Therapy Network S&OE Planning & Capacity Optimization

• Lead Cell Therapy internal network capacity planning across the 0–90 day S&OE horizon, including RCCP and detailed 90-day scheduling.
• Translate approved supply plans and demand inputs into executable site-level capacity plans aligned to manufacturing capability, readiness, and constraints, validating execution assumptions and schedule feasibility required to deliver the approved network plan.
• Own the S&OE operating cadence, including the weekly cross-functional S&OE review and the daily execution huddle structure, ensuring disciplined rhythm, clear decision-making, and timely escalation across the network.
• Maintain live visibility of critical network constraints including manufacturing suite availability, QC lab throughput, logistics capacity, and critical raw materials (e.g., viral vector, media) to enable proactive identification and resolution of execution risks.Support trade-off analysis and recovery options within approved guardrails when demand, readiness, or capacity shifts affect execution.
• Partner with stakeholders to identify constraints early and recommend mitigations, including allocation changes, resource needs, ramp plans, and future-state improvements.
• Close the loop with S&OP by feeding recurring execution issues, capacity shortfalls, and demand signal deviations back into tactical and strategic planning cycles, ensuring S&OE insights drive continuous improvement in the broader planning process.

Patient Slot Management

• Operationalize approved slot allocation rules, governance, and recovery processes within the broader capacity planning model.
• Manage slot allocation and recovery in alignment with planning rules, patient readiness, and regulatory, logistics, and manufacturing constraints, , ensuring chain-of-identity and chain-of-custody integrity is preserved throughout slot execution.
• Own the rolling 90-day S&OE slot schedule, keeping near-term supply plans feasible, transparent, and responsive to demand or operational changes.
• Coordinate across Patient Operations, V2V Operations, Clinical Operations, Commercial, and manufacturing sites to maximize utilization and minimize missed slots, late changes, and disruption.
• Lead escalation and resolution of slot conflicts related to randomization, screen failures, site readiness, geography, or demand shifts.
• Own the standard operating playbooks for common slot disruptions — including apheresis reschedules, out-of-specification batches, shipper failures, and patient deferrals — with clearly defined decision rights, escalation paths, and recovery actions to enable rapid, consistent response.
• Analyze reservation conversion, booking behavior, utilization, late releases, recovery effectiveness, and missed-slot root causes to improve service levels and capacity use.

Cross-Functional Orchestration

• Serve as a central planning leader across Manufacturing, Site Supply Chain, Quality/QC, Regulatory, Clinical Operations, Logistics, and Patient Operations, extending orchestration to external CMO/CDMO partners where applicable to ensure end-to-end network alignment. Drive cross-functional forums and decisions to align demand, supply, capacity, assumptions, risks, and actions.
• Exercise defined decision rights and escalation authority to make time-critical execution calls including re-slotting, expediting, and reallocating capacity within approved guardrails, ensuring the network responds with speed and consistency.
• Partner closely with Quality/QC to anticipate and mitigate release-timing risks, and with Regulatory to incorporate market-specific requirements and comparability constraints into execution decisions.
• Ensure planning decisions balance strategic priorities with operational realities, including patient impact, site capability, and business timing.
• Support S&OP / S&OE and related operating reviews with consistent execution, escalation, and decision pathways.
• Build strong site partnerships to connect global planning intent with local execution readiness.

Performance Management & Continuous Improvement

• Define, own, and report the S&OE KPI framework — including on-time-in-full slot delivery, vein-to-vein cycle time, slot utilization, missed-slot and patient deferral rates, right-first-time, out-of-specification rate, and cryoshipper on-time delivery — to drive accountability and visibility across the network.
• Standardize planning processes, data definitions, governance, and decision-support tools to improve visibility, responsiveness, and discipline.
• Drive continuous improvement across capacity planning, slot management, scenario planning, and reporting, using KPI trends and root-cause insights to prioritize interventions.

Digital Enablement & Future-State Design

• Advance the Cell Therapy planning operating model from manual or transitional processes to scalable, structured, digitally enabled ways of working, owning the digital roadmap for S&OE and slot management..
• Design data-driven planning capabilities, including dashboards, alerts, and predictive analytics, and AI/ML applications to automate and scale slot allocation, reservation prioritization, and capacity optimization.
• Apply advanced analytics or AI/ML to improve slot allocation, reservation prioritization, and capacity optimization.
• Define business requirements and support planning capability implementation across systems, tools, reporting, and analytics , ensuring future-state readiness for greater portfolio complexity, geographic expansion, and commercial operations.

Required Education and Experience

• BS/BA with 10+ years (or MS/MA/MBA with 8+ years) relevant experience in pharma/biotech; Cell therapy, Gene Therapy, or ATMP experience strongly preferred.
• Direct S&OE or execution-layer experience is required including running daily and weekly operating cadences, managing exceptions in real time, and driving cross-functional decisions in high-variability environments. Broader supply planning, network planning, manufacturing planning, capacity planning, or S&OP leadership experience is also expected.
• Direct experience in supply planning, network planning, manufacturing planning, capacity planning, or S&OP / S&OE leadership.
• Experience in Cell Therapy, Gene Therapy, ATMPs, autologous or patient-specific supply chains strongly preferred.
• Experience with CGT orchestration tools, advanced planning tools, ERP systems (e.g., SAP), and planning analytics preferred.
• Strong data literacy and analytics fluency; comfortable working with dashboards, interpreting operational signals, defining KPI frameworks, and partnering with data and digital teams to translate business needs into analytics and AI/ML solutions.
• Experience supporting or leading cross-functional planning in complex, high-variability, high-compliance operational environments.
• Experience supporting commercial launch readiness, scale-up, network expansion, or new product introduction is strongly preferred.

The annual base salary for this position ranges from $124,069 to $186,104. However, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition, our positions offer a short-term incentive bonus opportunity; eligibility to participate in our equity-based long-term incentive program (salaried roles) or to receive a retirement contribution (hourly roles). Benefits offered included a qualified retirement program [401(k) plan]; paid vacation and holidays; paid leaves; and, health benefits including medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans. Additional details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment. If hired, employee will be in an “at-will position” and the Company reserves the right to modify base salary (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, Company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.

Date Posted

16-Oct-2026

Closing Date

29-Oct-2026

Our mission is to build an inclusive environment where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and employees. In furtherance of that mission, we welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of their protected characteristics. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please complete the corresponding section in the application form.