About the role
Sana Biotechnology is growing, and we are hiring new team members who believe in the potential of engineered cells as medicines, who are passionate about delivering the possible to patients, and who lead with the desire to work on novel ideas. As a Director of External Quality Assurance, you will report to Head of Technical Quality to provide Quality oversight on manufacturing operations at Contract and Development Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs). The scope of work will include Sana’s programs from pre-clinical, clinical and subsequently commercial operations serving the US and ex-US regions. The role will include performing Quality person in the plant (PIP) activities at CDMOs for critical operations. This role will also require supporting external audits of Sana’s suppliers and contract services. Approximately 30% travel may be required.
What you’ll do
- Provide leadership and quality oversight for operations at Sana CDMOs, which may require onsite support at the CDMO.
- Represent Quality at internal and external project team meetings and build relationships with Quality counterparts at CDMOs and CTLs.
- Perform batch review and ensure timely and accurate batch disposition of materials and/or Sana products.
- Partner with technical departments to help ensure success of technical transfer activities from Sana to the CDMO partners.
- Partner with CDMO to identify and address gaps or areas for improvement in systems, procedures, and quality initiatives.
- Collaborate with other functions in CDMO Manufacturing, QC, and Process Development teams to evaluate, investigate and resolve issues.
- Responsible for batch release of Sana products manufactured at CDMOs.
- Understand the Quality Management System and influence phase-appropriate SOPs, change control, investigations, CAPA, compliance, document management, training management and validation.
- Establish and maintain Quality Technical Agreements and ensure alignment with other legal contracts as needed with CDMOs and CTLs.
- Maintain a Quality Risk Management system to identify and mitigate compliance risks.
- Ensure that CDMO facilities, utilities, and equipment are maintained in a validated or qualified state.
- Support qualification activities for suppliers, contract testing laboratories, contract manufacturing organizations and contract services.
- Perform supplier audits in accordance with Sana requirements.
- Support the complaint program; review and approve the complaint reports to ensure all quality complaints are thoroughly investigated and ensure the CAPA plans for the resolution of the complaints are developed and executed.
- Serve as the Sana business process owner for Quality batch disposition activities.
- Support inspection and/or audit readiness activities for inspections by Health Authorities, and partners.
What we’re looking for
- Self motivated leader who can influence others and exercise sound judgement when managing issues during critical operations.
- Experience in working with CDMOs in various product lifecycle stages.
- Operational experience in manufacturing aseptic environments, in quality or manufacturing.
- Experience in leading and managing complex investigations.
- Experience in batch disposition activities.
- Familiar with the US, EMA, and ICH regulations and guidance documents
- Effective communicator where you can articulate concerns and/or issues in a clear and concise manner.
- Demonstrated ability to engage team members across diverse teams.
- Ability to effectively prioritize and deliver high-quality results on tight timelines.
- Demonstrated ability to independently problem solve including the ability to devise and implement practical solutions to resolve QA issues while being mindful of impact to timelines, resources and conflicting priorities.
- Experience in inspection readiness activities, presenting during inspections and/or hosting Health Authority inspections.
- Bachelors or Masters plus 10-12 years of work experience.
What will separate you from the crowd
- Cell and Gene Therapy product experience preferred
- Experience in expedited release processes
What you should know
- Approximately 30% travel may be required.
- The role will be based at the Sana Cambridge, MA location and will require onsite presence.
- The base pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between $200,000 - $250,000 annually; however, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience
How we work together for patients
- Lead from every seat – we seek to understand, act with honesty, and engage in the crucial conversations
- Thrive as a team – we hire amazing people, are intensely curious, and cultivate inclusion and personal connectivity
- Make it happen – we value vigorous debate, alignment around our decisions, and resilient execution
Get to know us
At Sana, we believe that a workforce with varied backgrounds strengthens us as a company and helps us to achieve our mission to meaningfully change the outcome of many human diseases. This belief is a pillar of our business and is critical to our success. Our goal is that Sana is the place for talented people to bring their authentic selves to work, to have a great career and to deeply, positively impact patients.
Core to our values, we believe there is nothing more important than the health and wellness of you and your family. For benefit eligible employees, we cover a generous portion of the cost for employee health coverage, making high-quality care more accessible and affordable. We offer ample time-off (various paid time off benefits, such as holidays, vacation, sick time, and parental leave), short- and long-term disability, employer paid basic life insurance, additional voluntary life insurance protection, financial wellness programs including financial planning resources, a 401(k) Plan with an immediately vested employer match, Tuition Reimbursement and Student Loan Repayment, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, commuter subsidy and a variety of wellness offerings to support each person individually. For more details on our benefits, visit Sana’s Benefits Portal.
We are committed to providing a workplace free of discrimination and harassment based on race, color, religion, age, gender, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental or sensory disability (including the use of a trained guide dog or service animal by a person with a disability), genetic information, actual or perceived HIV or Hepatitis C infection, medical condition (cancer or a record or history of cancer and genetic characteristics), marital status, sexual orientation, sexual preference, pregnancy (including childbirth and related medical conditions), disability, veteran status, political ideology, social class (including caste/caste identity), taking or requesting statutorily protected leave, status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.
To perform this job successfully, you must be able to perform each job responsibility satisfactorily. The job description listed above is representative of the knowledge, skills, and/or abilities required for this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions described above.
Top Skills
What We Do
Sana Biotechnology is focused on utilizing engineered cells as medicines for patients. The ability to modify genes and use cells as medicines will be one of the most important advances in healthcare over the next several decades. Sana is building differentiated capabilities across the spectrum of cell and gene therapy.
Three aspirations drive Sana as we look to discover treatments for patients with poor outcomes or currently untreatable diseases. The first is the ability to repair and control the genes in any cell in the body. We are advancing novel delivery technologies with the goal of being able to deliver any payload to any cell in a specific, predictable, and repeatable manner, paving the way for next-generation in vivo gene therapy. Next is the ability to differentiate pluripotent stem cells ex vivo into immune-cloaked functional cells with the aspiration of being able to replace any missing or damaged cells in the body. Last is a belief we can enable broader access to our therapies through focusing on scalable manufacturing solutions, the cost of manufacturing, and aligning with key stakeholders.
Sana launched in early 2019 and has over 350 employees in Seattle, Cambridge, and South San Francisco. Sana was founded with the long view – bringing together great people and the best technologies to deliver on the challenging promise of using engineered cells to meaningfully change the outcome of many human diseases.
