Global Sterility Assurance Director

While this role is advertised in certain locations in Belgium, UK and US, applications from other locations may be considered on a case by case basis.

The Global Sterility Assurance Director at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is a pivotal role within the Strategic Product Quality staff, bringing critical expertise in sterility assurance across various initiatives and projects within GSK's internal and external commercial and R&D vaccine and medicine drug substance and drug product manufacturing sites. This role is essential in ensuring that both internal sterility assurance standards and external regulatory standards and guidance are comprehensively understood and effectively applied throughout the organization.

A key responsibility of the Global Sterility Assurance Director is to partner with various teams, including those in Research & Development (R&D), Materials, Science & Technology (MSAT), Quality, and Operations, to ensure that contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) adhere to these stringent standards. The Director also identifies business solutions to enhance aseptic and low bioburden manufacturing processes, aiming to improve robustness and efficiency while building strong internal and external relationships with key stakeholders.

Beyond these responsibilities, the Global Sterility Assurance Director plays a significant role in due diligence activities during onboarding processes, serves as the person in plant (PIP), and supports routine inspection and pre-approval inspection readiness through to filing and product launch. The Director is also involved in resolving ongoing incidents and deviations.

The Global Sterility Assurance Director is a global staff member, acting as the primary point of contact for sterility assurance across all areas of the business, including departments such as Operations, Engineering, MSAT, and Quality Control (QC), as well as CMOs and third-party R&D/Technical Research and Development (TRD). The main duty of this role is to facilitate interaction between Quality and various sites or departments for the implementation of Quality Management System (QMS) standards and continuous improvement initiatives, including KPI trending and capability development in sterility assurance domains and process confirmations. This position is crucial for embedding GSK's sterility assurance strategy into specific operations and ensuring that future processes and products are developed with sterility by design. Given the high pressure from regulatory agencies on sterility assurance issues, the role is strategic for ensuring the proactive installation of appropriate sterility assurance standards (QMS and standard work) across the business and operations. Additionally, the Director plays a central role in remediation plans following any regulatory observations, making it a highly strategic and impactful position within the organization.

• Facilitate interactions between Global sterility assurance and the CMO under its responsibility by establishing working relationship (Service Level agreement using Key Performance Indicators) with the leaders and main contact people
• Act as a main point of contact for the CMO in supporting the implementation of GSK Sterility Assurance Strategy
• Is the point of contact for supporting the CMO in the establishment of the annual Contamination Control Strategy or Sterility Assurance Road map
• Support CMO in the execution of the annual CCS in the different sterility assurance domains and processes (training, trouble shooting, coaching/mentoring, specific projects) and perform process confirmations on targeted topics
• Partnership with CMO for Key Performance Indicators analysis, trending and escalation, gap assessment versus standards including (Sterility Assurance GQP's and QMS, FDA Guidance, etc.)
• Review with CMO the annual performance in Sterility Assurance and help on the preparation of the next CCS
• Assure availability of Sterility Assurance experts for supporting CMO in a specific domain according to annual CCS priorities
• Accountable for alignment in way of working and standard works between CMO in Sterility Assurance subjects
• Is the Sterility Assurance quality generalist and therefore act as SPOC 9Single Point of Contact) in case of issue/question raised by the CMO
• External advocacy: Lead or influence proactively Sterility assurance external trade associations
• Developing Capability: Supporting the development of sterility assurance capability across key areas of the business through delivery of training, coaching and mentoring

Basic Qualifications
We are looking for professionals with these required skills to achieve our goals:

• Bachelor degree in a Scientific Discipline
• Significant experience in aseptic or bioburden control manufacturing environment (production, QA, validation) with demonstrated successful results, preferably in FDA regulated environment
• In depth knowledge of regulations, guidance, best practices and industry standards related to sterility assurance (for example: GSK, GMP, WHO, PDA, ASTM, ISPE, PhRMA, etc.) including review of regulatory files
• Strong technical and quality skills in sterility assurance issue
• Coaching and mentoring capabilities for shopfloor training and education
• Able to travel up to 30% internationally

Preferred Qualifications
If you have the following characteristics, it would be a plus:

• Excellent ability to influence, challenge and educate the leadership teams in sterility assurance to optimize Vaccines operations
• Personal credibility, confidence and robustness to drive and influence senior colleagues
• Ability to make persuasive recommendations based on rationale analysis
• Ability to network internally and externally and to communicate to a wide base of partners
• Strong verbal and written English language skills
• Strong capability to work in matrix organization inside Sterility Assurance team and outside in GSK networks
• Resilience, capacity for adapting in different environment and resistance to pressure 

Closing Date for Applications – 17th April 2026 EOD

Please take a copy of the Job Description, as this will not be available post closure of the advert.  
When applying for this role, please use the ‘cover letter’ of the online application or your CV to describe how you meet the competencies for this role, as outlined in the job requirements above. The information that you have provided in your cover letter and CV will be used to assess your application. 

If you have a disability and require assistance during the course of the selection process, you will have the opportunity to let us know what specific assistance you require in order to make suitable arrangements.

Why GSK?

Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.

GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases – to impact health at scale.

People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we’re committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people.

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