Associate Director, Site Supply Chain - Materials Management

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

Job summary

AstraZeneca plc in the United States seeks an Associate Director, Materials Management to lead patient materials management at Santa Monica and Tarzana manufacturing sites. You will own COI/COC traceability across autologous and allogeneic programs, ensuring compliant receipt, manufacturing, and pack-out of drug products.

You will drive real-time issue resolution, continuous improvement, and coordination with Quality, Production, and Logistics to sustain supply chain integrity for cell therapies

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Life Sciences, or related field.
• 8+ years experience in biopharma supply chain, logistics or cell therapy operations.
• Strong understanding of COI/COC controls and operational requirements.
• Experience in real-time issue resolution, exception management, and CAPA leadership.
• Working knowledge of GDP, GMP, and GxP requirements, including deviation/quality processes.
• Ability to lead through influence and maintain high execution quality.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead patient materials management across autologous programs, ensuring COI/COC from receipt to pack-out.
• Lead healthy donor materials management across allogeneic programs, ensuring COC across chain.
• Coordinate receipt and pack-out schedules with manufacturing, QA, and logistics teams.
• Own COI/COC processes at the site with SOPs, monitoring status via digital tools.
• Ensure discipline for COI/COC traceability and adherence to workflows and data capture.
• Support readiness and hypercare for new studies, products, and countries.
• Lead exception management and escalation for traceability deviations.
• Support investigations, root cause analyses, and CAPAs with Quality.
• Support impact assessments for new product launches and country expansions.
• Track metrics and identify improvement opportunities to enhance reliability.

Skills

Biopharma supply chain exp

COI/COC controls knowledge

Issue resolution

GDP/GMP/GxP knowledge

Leadership through influence

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain/Engineering/Life Sciences

Tools

Power BI

Excel

Smartsheet

Job description

Introduction to role

At AstraZeneca Cell Therapy, we are required to deliver complex, autologous and allogeneic cell therapies that ensure compliance to regulatory expectations for patient and donor materials from apheresis to transformed drug product.

The Associate Director, Materials Management role is responsible for leading patient materials management at the manufacturing site in Santa Monica and Tarzana facilities across autologous cell therapy programs. This role serves as the lead for patient material traceability at the manufacturing site, including processes and systems related to the execution of chain of identity (COI) and chain of custody (COC) verification from patient material receipt to drug product pack-out. Additionally, this role will be responsible for the material flow and verification of GMP healthy donor apheresis for allogeneic cell therapy programs.

This role is integral to the Site Supply Chain operations model, using digital systems, milestone visibility and defined escalation pathways to ensure compliance and integrity of patient and healthy donor materials management at the manufacturing facility. This role reports to the Site Supply Chain Director.

Accountabilities

• Lead patient materials managementacross autologous cell therapy programs, ensuring COI/COC of apheresis through receipt, manufacturing and drug product pack-out.
• Lead healthy donor materials management across allogeneic cell therapy programs, ensuring COC of apheresis and lot traceability from drug substance to drug product manufacturing and drug product pack-out.
• Coordinate apheresis receipt and drug product pack-out schedule in alignment with manufacturing, production scheduling, quality and logistics teams, including day-to-day schedule changes and rescheduling actions.
• Own chain of identity (COI) and chain of custody (COC) process at the manufacturing site including site SOPs/work instructions, and monitor status across receipt, manufacturing release and drug product pack-out using digital tools and real-time milestone visibility.
• Ensure execution discipline for COI/COC traceability, reinforcing adherence to approved workflows, documentation requirements, SOPs, work instructions, and data capture expectations.
• Support operational readiness and hypercare for new studies, products, and countries, including onboarding activities at the manufacturing site and mock shipments where applicable.
• Lead exception management and escalation when patient traceability is not following the expected process, coordinating recovery actions across internal teams and external partners.
• Support fact-finding investigations, root cause assessment and corrective action identification for COI or COC verification execution issues, partnering with Quality where formal deviations or CAPAs are required.
• Support impact assessments and change action identification for new product launches and expansion into new countries, or studies.
• Track operational metrics and identify improvement opportunities, providing insights on recurring issues, execution risks, and corrective actions to improve reliability and consistency.

Essential Skills/Experience

• Bachelor’s degreeinSupply Chain, Engineering, Life Sciences, or a related field.
• 8+ Years experience inbiopharma supply chain, logistics or cell therapy operations.
• Strong understanding ofcell therapy COI/COC controls, and the operational requirements for patient material receipt and drug product pack-out.
• Demonstrated experience inreal-time issue resolution, exception management, shipment recovery, temperature excursion response, escalation handling, operational investigations, and corrective action leadershipin a complex and regulated environment.
• Working knowledge ofGDP, GMP, and GxPrequirements, including deviation and quality processes.
• Ability to lead through influence, balance competing operational priorities, and maintain high execution quality in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to provide concise operational updates and elevate risks clearly.

Desirable Skills/Experience

• Advanced degree such asMSorMBA.
• Experience insite manufacturing operations, cell therapy logistics or 24/7 monitoring environment.
• Experience withPower BI, Excel, or Smartsheet for operational reporting and analysis.
• Experience supporting launches, hypercare and/or expansion into new countries, or studies.

Why AstraZeneca?

At AstraZeneca, you will help shape how life-changing cell therapies are delivered to patients through a more connected, proactive, and digitally enabled operational model. This role offers the opportunity to lead the daily execution of Vein-to-Vein Operations and directly influence service reliability, patient journey continuity, and customer experience.

The annual base pay (or hourly rate of compensation) for this position ranges from $124,069.60 to $186,104.40. Our positions offer eligibility for various incentives—an opportunity to receive short-term incentive bonuses, equity-based awards for salaried roles and commissions for sales roles. Benefits offered include qualified retirement programs, paid time off (i.e., vacation, holiday, and leaves), as well as health, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms of the applicable plans.

Date Posted

04-Nov-2026

Closing Date

22-Nov-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.