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The Role
The Associate Director leads supply chain planning and procurement, optimizing manufacturing systems, ensuring process compliance, and developing strategies for capacity planning. They also mentor teams and drive data-driven decision-making.
Summary Generated by Built In
More than one million people in the United States today are fighting blood cancer. While a traditional allogeneic stem cell transplant has been the best hope for many, the transplant itself can prove fatal or lead to serious conditions, such as graft vs. host disease. Orca Bio is a commercial-stage biotechnology company redefining the transplant process by developing next-generation cell therapies with the goal of providing significantly better survival rates with dramatically fewer risks. With our purified, high-precision investigational cell therapies we hope to not only replace patients' blood and immune systems with healthy ones, but also restore their lives.
We have built a state-of-the-art, 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Sacramento, CA (7910 Metro Air Pkwy) to ensure the consistent and reliable delivery of our high-precision cell therapy products. This site is essential to advancing our clinical pipeline and supporting future commercial availability of our life-saving therapies.
The Associate Director, Procurement & Production Planning leads planning and procurement functions while driving the design, implementation and optimization of manufacturing execution systems (MES) and enterprise resource planning connections across cell therapy manufacturing sites. This role ensures robust, compliant and scalable planning and procurement processes with digital systems to enable accurate, real-time visibility and uninterrupted production of clinical and commercial cell therapy products. The Associate Director will partner with Manufacturing, Finance IT, Facilities and Quality to deliver a reliable planning foundation that supports operations and data-drive decision-making.
Key Responsibilities
The Associate Director, Production Planning & Procurement leads planning and procurement functions while driving the design, implementation and optimization of manufacturing execution systems (MES) and enterprise resource planning connections across cell therapy manufacturing sites. This role ensures robust, compliant and scalable planning and procurement processes with digital systems to enable accurate, real-time visibility and uninterrupted production of clinical and commercial cell therapy products. The Associate Director will partner with Manufacturing, Finance IT, Facilities and Quality to deliver a reliable planning foundation that supports operations and data-drive decision-making.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Life Sciences, or related fields.
- 5-7 years of progressive supply chain experience in biomanufacturing, cell therapies or advanced therapies.
- Leadership of digital transformation initiatives including MES and ERP systems.
- Strong knowledge of production planning, material requirements planning (MRP), and capacity planning within manufacturing.
- Proven success leading cross-functional teams and driving operational results.
- Excellent interpersonal, leadership, and communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with autologous or allogeneic cell therapy supply chains.
- Familiarity with both clinical and commercial supply chain models.
- Knowledge of manufacturing, chain of identity/custody requirements, and vein-to-vein workflows.
Personal Qualities & Physical Demands
- Demonstrates strong work ethic, curiosity to learn and contribute in a fast-paced collaborative environment.
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to communicate effectively.
- Ability to work in a collaborative manner.
- Strong problem-solving skills.
- Domestic and international travel may be required from time to time as needed (approximately 10-25%).
- May require occasional lifting up to 25 lbs. and gowning into cleanroom areas.
- Requires sitting, standing, working in an office environment and computer use.
The anticipated annual salary range for this job is based on prior experience in the role/industry, education, location, internal equity, and other job-related factors as permitted by law. For remote-based positions, this range may vary based on your local market. Full-time employment positions will also be eligible to receive pre-IPO equity and annual bonus, in addition to competitive medical, dental, and vision benefits, PTO, 401(k) plan, life and accidental death and disability coverage, and parental leave benefits. Other perks include subsidized daily lunches and snacks at our on-site locations.
Who we are
We are driven by a passion for science and compassion for patients. We act with urgency to ensure our treatments are one day accessible to all who need them.
We live by our core values of passion, courage, and integrity. Excellence in our work means the chance to unlock a better quality of life for our patients, and with that comes tremendous responsibility.
We innovate on a path that hasn’t been paved. We embrace an entrepreneurial spirit and take calculated risks to achieve our mission. We aren’t afraid to ask “why not” and challenge the status quo.
We maintain a start-up culture of camaraderie and leadership by example, regardless of title.
We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and recognize that celebrating our differences creates stronger, lasting solutions that better serve our team, our patients and their healthcare providers.
Notice to staffing firms
Orca Bio does not accept resumes from staffing agencies with which we do not have a written agreement and specific engagement for a particular opening. Our employment activities, inquiries and offers are managed through our HR/Talent team, and all candidates are presented through this channel only. We do not accept unsolicited resumes, and we rarely outsource recruitment.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Life Sciences, or related fields
- 5-7 years of progressive supply chain experience in biomanufacturing, cell therapies or advanced therapies
- Leadership of digital transformation initiatives including MES and ERP systems
- Strong knowledge of production planning, material requirements planning (MRP), and capacity planning within manufacturing
- Proven success leading cross-functional teams and driving operational results
- Excellent interpersonal, leadership, and communication skills
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The Company
What We Do
Orca Bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a pipeline of high precision allogeneic cell therapy products that are designed to safely replace patients’ diseased blood and immune system with a healthy one. Our manufacturing platform sorts donor blood with single-cell precision and a high level of purity and speed, enabling us to create proprietary, optimal therapeutic mixtures of immune and stem cells that have the potential to transform allogeneic cell therapy. Our talented team is driven by a passion for science and compassion for patients.
