Associate Director, Quality Assurance - Operations

Position Summary

We are looking for an Associate Director, Quality Assurance - Operations who will be responsible in maintaining the quality systems and compliance oversight of manufacturing operations activities to ensure medications manufactured meet cGMP and site requirements.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Provide leadership, direction, and support to the people within the Quality Assurance Operations and other department to ensure that they are qualified to achieve a high level of competence, are motivated and carry out their duties in a safe manner.
• Lead the establishment and maintenance of the site’s quality systems compliance oversight related to manufacturing and packaging operations to enable the development and reliable supply of quality sterile medications to patients.
• Responsible for all operational compliance aspects of sterile fill finish manufacturing of medications including but not limited to batch record, change control and deviation investigation review, batch disposition, and shop-floor quality. 
• Ensure that all aspects of the handling, manufacturing, and distribution of pharmaceutical products at the site comply with the company and relevant cGMP regulatory requirements.
• Ensure Standard Operating Procedures, and training is in place to maintain compliance with cGMP through QA shop-floor support.    
• Maintain current knowledge of regulatory and legislative requirements and trends to ensure that expert advice and appropriate technical support on all quality related matters is provided to the site.
• Lead operational inspection readiness activities by working across functions.
• Support and ensure compliance of equipment qualifications and product and process transfers, including validation, from development and/or other manufacturing sites.
• Responsible for ensuring raw materials, excipients, APIs and components are qualified and their suppliers are approved in accordance with the company and GMP requirements. 
• Responsible for ensuring that all components, raw materials, excipients, drug product containers, closures, in-process materials, packaging material, labelling and drug products are released in accordance with the registered specifications.
• Responsible for Quality shop-floor oversight including real-time batch record review, response to deviations and implementation of corrective actions.
• Support quality processes and systems across the product lifecycle including, but not limited to, change control, CAPA, deviations and investigations, label control, laboratory control, product quality complaints, Annual Product Quality Review (APQR), and management notification.
• Participate in or lead quality risk analysis/assessments.
• Proactively identify and work collaboratively to resolve problems taking risk-based and compliant approaches to solutions. Lead deviation investigations as necessary.
• Participate in and/or lead health authority (primarily FDA and E.U.) agency inspections at the site.

Required Qualifications        

• Bachelor’s degree in a scientific discipline with a minimum of 14 years Quality/CGMP management experience in the pharmaceutical industry.  Extensive experience in sterile injectable manufacturing and packaging operations is required.
• Knowledge and experience in translating FDA and European Medicines Agency (EMA) requirements and guidance into operations success including but not limited to Annex 1 requirements for sterile injectable medications.
• Participation and leading activities to support regulatory agency inspections required.
• Prior experience leading and participating in FDA/EMA inspections.
• Experience in Drug Enforcement Agency requirements for the handling and distribution of controlled substances is desired.
• Strong project management, organization, and execution skills with a proven track record of successfully managing multiple projects and priorities.
• Quality assurance management experience across the product development and commercialization lifecycle including change management and associated implementation strategies.
• Minimum of 7 years’ experience in a supervisory role.