Pilot Plant Lead

Haleon plc.; Richmond (VA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 207,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

On-target bonus 18%

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

Haleon in Richmond, VA seeks a Lead, Pilot Plant Operations to set the standard for operational excellence. You will oversee pilot plant availability, GMP compliance, and collaborate with Innovation Leads to shape a forward-looking capital plan.

You will manage a team of scientists and technicians, drive capacity improvements and ensure safety, quality and cost targets are met in a fast-paced, regulated environment.

Qualifications

• Experience leading teams and technical programs in regulated environments.
• Strong ability to influence stakeholders across Quality, R&D, Manufacturing and global teams.
• End-to-end lifecycle experience across innovation, transfer, maintenance and readiness.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end operations across the Richmond GMP warehouse, pilot plant manufacturing and primary packaging.
• Manage and develop a team of scientists and technicians (11).
• Collaborate with innovation teams, scale-up engineers, and manufacturing sites to plan investments.
• Provide governance for pilot plant capital projects within scope, time and cost.
• Maximize utilization and asset performance across pilot plant and assets.
• Ensure GMP compliance and inspection readiness with Site Quality.
• Drive operational readiness for facilities, equipment and personnel.
• Recruit and build capabilities to safely deliver all demands.
• Champion EHS excellence and machinery/process safety.

Skills

End-to-end lifecycle

Team leadership

Stakeholder influence

Technical operations

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree preferred

Job description

Welcome to Haleon. We’re a purpose-driven, world-class consumer company putting everyday health in the hands of millions. In just three years since our launch, we’ve grown, evolved and are now entering an exciting new chapter – one filled with bold ambitions and enormous opportunity.

Our trusted portfolio of brands – including Sensodyne®, Panadol®, Advil®, Voltaren®, Theraflu®, Otrivin®, and Centrum® – lead in resilient and growing categories. What sets us apart is our unique blend of deep human understanding and trusted science.

Now it’s time to fully realise the full potential of our business and our people. We do this through our Win as One strategy. It puts our purpose – to deliver better everyday health with humanity – at the heart of everything we do. It unites us, inspires us, and challenges us to be better every day, driven by our agile, performance-focused culture.

About the role

The Richmond Pilot Plant is a critical enabler of Haleon’s innovation agenda—accelerating the development and delivery of new products while safeguarding continuity at our manufacturing sites. By providing agile, high-quality in-house development and scale-up capability, the pilot plant maximizes the return on our innovation investment and reduces reliance on external partners.

As Lead, Pilot Plant Operations, this role sets the benchmark for operational excellence across the facility. The Lead will cultivate a high-performance culture grounded in GMP and EHS discipline, continuous improvement and right-first-time execution. With end-to-end accountability for pilot plant availability, the Lead will ensure the Richmond Pilot Plant consistently delivers both GMP and non-GMP batches that enable process development and process improvement, scale‑up, registration batches, and product supply for clinical and consumer studies.

The lead will partner closely with Innovation Leads and the Scale‑Up team to shape the pilot plant master plan and define a forward‑looking capital investment roadmap—evolving today’s capabilities while building what’s required for the future pipeline.

Key responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end operations across the Richmond GMP warehouse, pilot plant manufacturing and primary packaging; partner with project teams and Scale‑Up engineers to develop and deliver schedules aligned to Haleon innovation priorities.
• Manage and develop a team of scientists and technicians (11), ensuring clear accountability, capability building, and performance excellence.
• Collaborate with innovation teams, scale‑up engineers, and manufacturing sites to anticipate future capability needs and shape the capital investment plan required to deliver them.
• Provide leadership and governance for the execution of pilot plant capital projects, ensuring delivery to scope, timeline, cost and quality.
• Maximize utilization and asset performance by designing and implementing programs that optimize capacity, efficiency and throughput across the pilot plant and associated assets.
• Ensure sustained GMP compliance and inspection readiness in partnership with Site Quality, maintaining audit‑ready standards for internal and external inspections.
• Drive operational readiness across warehouse, pilot plant and packaging areas—ensuring on‑time availability of qualified equipment, facilities and trained personnel; ensure facilities and equipment are qualified, maintained and controlled for GMP use.
• Recruit, onboard and capability‑build to ensure the team has the skills and expertise required to safely deliver all operational and project demands.
• Champion EHS excellence, adhering to global standards; act as Duty Holder for Workplace Transport and Warehouse Safety and as SME for machinery and process safety.

Qualifications and skills

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or a related technical field.
• 10+ years of technical experience in formulation, packaging, manufacturing technologies, validation, or technical operations within regulated consumer healthcare, pharmaceutical, FMCG, or related environments.
• Strong end-to-end product lifecycle experience across innovation execution, technical transfer, product maintenance, optimization, simplification, and technical readiness.
• Proven ability to lead teams and technical programs and resolve technical risks
• Strong matrix leadership and stakeholder influence across Quality, R&D, Manufacturing, Category, and global technical teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Business, or a related field.
• Operational Excellence, Lean, Six Sigma, or continuous improvement experience.
• Ability to translate Category and OU strategy into prioritization and delivery
• Experience making sound decisions in regulated environments while balancing speed, compliance, quality, cost, supply resilience, and long‑term technical stewardship.

Location: This role iis onsite in Richmond, VA

The salary range for this role is: $150,463- $206886 plus a 18% on target bonus.

Benefits

Haleon offers a robust Total Reward package that consists of competitive pay and a comprehensive benefits program. This includes a generous 401(k) plan, tuition reimbursement and time off programs including 6 months paid parental leave. On day one, you are eligible for benefits, including our healthcare programs where the company pays for the majority of your medical coverage for you and your family. We also offer the opportunity to receive a discretionary bonus based on the achievement of key business performance and other incentive/recognition programs as part of the offering.

Job Posting End Date

2026-09-26

Equal Opportunities

Haleon are committed to mobilising our purpose in a way that represents the diverse consumers and communities who rely on our brands every day. It guides us in creating an inclusive culture, where different backgrounds and views are valued and respected – all in support of understanding and best serving the needs of our consumers and unleashing the full potential of our people. It’s important to us that Haleon is a place where all our employees feel they truly belong.

During the application process, we may ask you to share some personal information, which is entirely voluntary. This information ensures we meet certain regulatory and reporting obligations and supports the development, refinement, and execution of our inclusion and belonging programmes that are open to all Haleon employees.

The personal information you provide will be kept confidential, used only for legitimate business purposes, and will never be used in making any employment decisions, including hiring decisions.

Please note that if you are a US Licensed Healthcare Professional or Healthcare Professional as defined by the laws of the state issuing your license, Haleon may be required to capture and report expenses Haleon incurs, on your behalf, in the event you are afforded an interview for employment. This capture of applicable transfers of value is necessary to ensure Haleon’s compliance to all federal and state US Transparency requirements.

Accommodation Requests

• If you require a reasonable accommodation or other assistance to apply for a job at Haleon at any stage of the application process, please contact us by sending an email to [e-mail]. Please include the following in your email:
• Use subject line: ‘Haleon Careers: Job Accommodation Request’
• Your Name and contact information
• Requisition ID and Job Title you are interested in
• Location of Requisition (city/state or province/country)
• Description of specific accommodation you are requesting
• Please note: Resumes, CVs, or other requests outside of accommodation support submitted to this email box will not be accepted.

Note to candidates

The Haleon recruitment team will contact you using a Haleon email account (@haleon.com). If you are not sure whether the email you received is from Haleon, please get in touch.