Head of Supply Chain and Facilities

Job id: 098747. Salary: £52,874 - £61,921 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.

Posted: 01 November 2024. Closing date: 17 November 2024.

Business unit: Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine. Department: Comprehensive Cancer Centre.

Contact details: Sally-Anne Finn. sally_anne.finn@kcl.ac.uk

Location: Denmark Hill Campus. Category: Professional & Support Services.

About us

The King’s College London Gene Therapy Vector Facility (GTVF) provides comprehensive GMP-grade viral vector manufacturing services. This includes Lentiviral Vector (LV), Retroviral Vector (RV) and Adeno-Associated Viral Vector (AAV) production for early-phase clinical trials, alongside substantial programmes in process innovation, knowledge transfer and training to address critical skills shortages.

In partnership with the Network of Innovation Hubs, our vision is to ensure that the UK capitalises on its outstanding academic medical research to deliver novel gene therapies to patients, providing transformative treatments for currently intractable conditions, and generating a vibrant economic landscape.

The GTVF is run by a large, industry-leading team of >50 people who have extensive experience in delivering end-to-end viral vector manufacture for both academic and commercial clients, with a focus on early-stage clinical trials.

About the role

The Head of Supply Chain and Facility Management for the Gene Therapy Vector Facility (GTVF) at Kings is a new role which will have responsibility for the management of function comprising the Technical and Facility teams. The function is responsible for maintaining the facility, environmental monitoring, procurement and material management activities. The post holder will work with colleagues in Production, Quality Assurance, Project Management, Business Development, Process and Analytical Development, to ensure facility is operational to facilitate project delivery.

The successful candidate will work closely with the Director of GTVF and report to the Quality Director. They will lead the Supply Chain and Facility Management function and be responsible for leading a team of GMP technical specialists and facility management specialist.

The function will be responsible for ensuring the facility is operational, cleanroom and equipment qualification is performed, preventative maintenance is managed, environmental monitoring and reporting is conducted, supplier management, procurement and material management is effective to meet the demand of GTVF project activities. They will also be responsible for managing quality activities and compliance within the function, supporting quality risk assessments, change controls and developing procedures, identifying and implementing improvements in operations.

The post holder will be responsible for managing EHS and sustainability within the Supply Chain and Facility Management function ensuring procedures and risk assessment are conducted. The post holder will have a team of 6 staff ensuring the function has the remit and resources to meet the needs of GTVF, maintaining a compliant facility, contributing to delivery of customer projects and supporting the business plan for the facility.

This is a full-time (35 hours) per week post, and will be offered an indefinite contract.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Degree in a relevant science, engineering or life science discipline
2. Extensive experience working in commercial organisation within GMP Pharma/Biotech/Contract Manufacturing organisation (CMO) sectors
3. Extensive experience with facility and equipment management.
4. Significant experience in supply chain/ material management and knowledge of supply assurance and management.
5. Extensive experience qualification of GMP facilities and equipment.
6. Extensive experience of managing change through GMP change control system.
7. Significant experience of building and leading a team.
8. Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
9. Strong leadership and interpersonal skills.
10. Ability to manage though influence and negotiation in a complex environment.
11. High level of work organization, self-motivation, drive for performance and improvement and flexibility in approach and attitude.
12. Comfortable working independently and building professional networks.

Desirable criteria

1. Understanding of and familiarity with regulatory guidance governing cell-based and biopharmaceutical development