Director, Manufacturing Operations

Title: Director, Manufacturing Operations

Location: Kansas City, MO

Summary

The Director, Manufacturing Operations provides leadership, direction, and oversight for manufacturing operations at the Kansas City site. The role is accountable for the safe, compliant, efficient, and customer-focused execution of clinical and commercial manufacturing programs while meeting business objectives for employee engagement, quality, delivery, and cost.

As a member of the Site Leadership Team, the Director, Manufacturing Operations partners across functions to develop and execute site strategy, support business growth, and continuously improve operational performance.  The Director establishes a culture of safety, quality, accountability, inclusion, continuous improvement, and employee development.

The Role

• Provide strategic leadership and oversight of manufacturing operations supporting both clinical and commercial programs.
• Ensure safe, compliant, efficient execution of manufacturing activities while meeting customer expectations.
• Lead capacity planning, resource allocation, project onboarding, and operational readiness to support current and future business demand.
• Drive operational performance by prioritizing resources and achieving targets for quality, delivery, productivity, cycle time, and cost.
• Champion a strong culture of safety, GMP compliance, and regulatory readiness across all manufacturing activities.
• Partner with Quality and cross-functional teams to address investigations, deviations, CAPAs, audits, inspections, and compliance matters.
• Own manufacturing metrics, forecasting, budgeting, and financial performance, including operating and capital expenditure planning.
• Identify, justify, and implement operational and capital improvement initiatives that enhance safety, quality, efficiency, capacity, and profitability.
• Foster a culture of Lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, data-driven decision making, and operational excellence.
• Build and develop a high-performing organization through talent acquisition, coaching, succession planning, employee engagement, and inclusive leadership while contributing to overall site strategy and stakeholder relationships.

The Candidate

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Business, or a related field required; advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum 12 years of experience in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, CDMO, or other highly regulated manufacturing environments.
• At least 7 years of manufacturing leadership experience, including leading managers and developing high-performing teams.
• Proven success supporting regulatory inspections, client audits, customer interactions, and pharmaceutical quality systems.
• Strong knowledge of GMP regulations, pharmaceutical manufacturing operations, and Quality-Operations partnerships; oral solid dosage experience preferred.
• Demonstrated business and financial acumen with the ability to balance quality, customer, operational, people, and financial priorities.
• Expertise in Lean manufacturing, operational excellence, continuous improvement, and data-driven problem solving.
• Excellent communication, presentation, client-service, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Strategic and change-oriented leader with the ability to translate business goals into operational priorities while driving organizational alignment and transformation.
• Strong talent development, decision-making, and leadership capabilities, with a track record of building succession pipelines, coaching leaders, influencing stakeholders, and representing the organization with employees, customers, regulators, and senior executives.

Why You Should Join Catalent

• Defined career path and annual performance review and feedback process
• Diverse, inclusive culture
• Potential for career growth on an expanding team within an organization dedicated to preserving and bettering lives
• Dynamic, fast-paced work environment.
• Community engagement and green initiatives
• Generous 401K match and Paid Time Off accrual
• Medical, dental and vision benefits effective day one of employment
• Tuition Reimbursement

Catalent offers rewarding opportunities to further your career!  Join the global drug development and delivery leader and help us bring over 7,000 life-saving and life-enhancing products to patients around the world. Catalent is an exciting and growing international company where employees work directly with pharma, biopharma and consumer health companies of all sizes to advance new medicines from early development to clinical trials and to the market. Catalent produces more than 70 billion doses per year, and each one will be used by someone who is counting on us. Join us in making a difference. 

personal initiative. dynamic pace. meaningful work.

Visit Catalent Careers to explore career opportunities.

Catalent is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and veterans.

If you require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process due to a disability, you may submit your request by sending an email, and confirming your request for an accommodation and include the job number, title and location to DisabilityAccommodations@catalent.com. This option is reserved for individuals who require accommodation due to a disability. Information received will be processed by a U.S. Catalent employee and then routed to a local recruiter who will provide assistance to ensure appropriate consideration in the application or hiring process.

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