Site Director

HRM Search Partners; Indiana; On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

HRM Search Partners seeks a Site Director to establish and lead a new advanced manufacturing facility in Indiana, overseeing commissioning, ramp-up and long-term commercial operations.

The role requires building a high-performing leadership team, ensuring regulatory readiness, quality and customer delivery, and shaping an efficient, continuous improvement culture across Operations, Quality, Engineering and Supply Chain.

Qualifications

• Significant site leadership experience within pharmaceutical manufacturing.
• Experience leading start-up, expansion, commissioning programmes or major operational transformation.
• Experience in FDA-regulated pharmaceutical environments, including inspections and quality compliance.
• Experience building and leading large, multifunctional teams across Operations, Quality, Engineering and Supply Chain.

Responsibilities

• Lead the start-up, commissioning and commercial ramp-up of the new manufacturing facility.
• Build, develop and lead a high-performing multifunctional site leadership team.
• Establish a strong site culture focused on accountability, quality and customer delivery.
• Ensure regulatory, quality and operational readiness for commercial manufacturing.
• Build strong relationships with key customers and act as senior site interface.
• Drive site performance and organizational capability as operations scale.
• Embed continuous improvement across the site.

Skills

Site leadership

Cross-functional leadership

Regulatory readiness

Customer relationship management

Education

Engineering/Manufacturing degree

Job description

Our client is a global leader within the healthcare and life sciences manufacturing sector, providing critical packaging, drug delivery and manufacturing solutions to pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers worldwide.

Operating through an international manufacturing network, the organisation combines significant technical and operational expertise with a strong focus on quality, customer delivery and continuous improvement. As part of its continued investment in advanced manufacturing capability, the business is developing a new US manufacturing operation that will play a strategically important role within its future network.

The Role

The Site Director will hold overall leadership responsibility for the establishment, commissioning and commercial ramp-up of a new advanced manufacturing facility in Indiana.

The position will be responsible for building the leadership team, establishing the operating culture and ensuring the site achieves the operational, quality and regulatory readiness required to support long-term commercial manufacturing.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Lead the start-up, commissioning and commercial ramp-up of the new manufacturing facility.
• Build, develop and lead a high-performing multifunctional site leadership team.
• Establish a strong site culture focused on accountability, quality, pace of execution and customer delivery.
• Ensure the site achieves the required operational, quality and regulatory readiness for commercial manufacturing.
• Build strong relationships with key customers and act as a senior site interface.
• Drive site performance and organisational capability as the operation scales.
• Embed strong operating disciplines and a continuous improvement mindset across the site.

The Person

The successful candidate will be an accomplished senior manufacturing leader with significant experience operating within pharmaceutical, drug delivery, drug product or drug handling environments.

You will bring strong site leadership capability, experience leading through start-up, expansion or significant operational change, and the ability to build high-performing teams while managing demanding customer, operational and regulatory requirements.

Candidates should demonstrate:

• Significant site leadership experience within pharmaceutical, drug delivery, drug product or drug handling manufacturing.
• Proven experience leading a site start-up, major expansion, commissioning programme or significant operational transformation.
• Experience within pharmaceutical CDMO or CMO environments, ideally with responsibility for multiple customer programmes.
• Strong exposure to drug handling, drug-product manufacturing, pharmaceutical packaging or combination products.
• Experience building and leading large, multifunctional teams across Operations, Quality, Engineering, Supply Chain and supporting functions.
• Strong customer-facing experience, including ownership of senior relationships and delivery against critical customer commitments.
• Demonstrable experience within FDA-regulated pharmaceutical manufacturing, including regulatory inspections, audits and quality compliance.
• A degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Science or a related technical discipline is preferred.

This opportunity will suit a senior site leader who combines strong operational credibility with the ability to build an organisation from the ground up, establish a high-performance culture and lead a strategically important manufacturing site through commissioning and into commercial operations.