Cell-Culture Media Continuity Recovery Leader

The mandate

A strategic media supplier placed multiple powder and liquid lots on hold after a contamination signal, and site teams responded by reserving anything bearing a familiar catalogue number. In practice, product supply depends on formulation revision, manufacturing location, raw-material genealogy, animal-origin statement, testing status, storage, preparation equipment and process-specific approval. Aggregate litres and kilograms now exaggerate batch-ready cover across six biologics. The manufacturer needs a single temporary executive to reconcile usable media and protect the highest-consequence campaigns.

The executive begins in Cambridge within twelve days for eight months. The first ten working days will identify every on-hand, in-transit, held and ordered lot by formulation, source, genealogy, quality state and authorised product use. By day 35, campaigns will reserve complete media-and-feed sets rather than isolated quantities. Two commercial campaign waves, one supplier-disposition outcome and a simulated loss of the leading alternate will precede four weeks of shadow operation by the permanent supply head.

Exit requires the six products to have evidence-backed campaign cover, lot reservations without double counting, approved alternatives or explicit latest decision dates, preparation and test capacity, supplier recovery cases and a permanent control cadence. The successor must reproduce each exposure from source genealogy to manufacturing need and run two monthly portfolio decisions unaided. Open comparability work transfers with authorised owners and cannot be relabelled as available supply merely to close the appointment.

Within approved budgets, the interim controls reservation of released company-owned media, campaign supply priority, supplier escalation, expedited production and transport, approved testing capacity and recovery spend up to GBP 22 million. Quality owns lot disposition and release; Process Sciences and Regulatory approve formulation or source use; Manufacturing authorises campaigns; Procurement awards structural supply; site biosafety governs handling. The leader may block a campaign promise unsupported by a complete approved material set.

Media formulation redesign, laboratory investigation conclusions, process comparability approval, regulatory filing, biological batch disposition, permanent supplier strategy and manufacturing-process change sit outside scope. The leader cannot pressure a technical owner to generalise use from a catalogue match or clean result. Each quantity reported as cover must show exact formulation, revision, site, lot genealogy, quality state, storage, approved product set and preparation constraint.

Why this seat is open

The existing supply leader left during the hold after procurement, technical and site inventories produced irreconcilable answers. A permanent search is underway, but the next campaign bank cannot wait for recruitment. The interim must combine bioprocess-material fluency with allocation authority, converting supplier and laboratory uncertainty into explicit campaign decisions without becoming the contamination investigator or release authority.

What you will own

• Reconcile every media, feed and supplement lot by formulation, revision, source, genealogy, quality state, storage and authorised product.
• Build complete campaign material sets with preparation, testing, thaw or dissolution capacity and required delivery dates visible.
• Allocate released material across six biologics using patient consequence, campaign feasibility, expiry, alternate path and recovery time.
• Challenge supplier recovery at raw-material, formulation, production-line, test, release and transport level rather than quoted shipment dates.
• Govern alternate-source readiness through approved technical gates without counting pending comparability or regulatory work as supply.
• Run a loss-of-alternate exercise and expose campaign, patient, capacity, cash and inventory consequences to the executive committee.
• Induct the permanent leader through live lot reservations, supplier dispositions, campaign decisions and two independent monthly reviews.

Candidate qualifications

• Held executive biologics raw-material, cell-culture media, manufacturing supply or technical-operations authority across commercial products.
• Has allocated scarce media after contamination, supplier hold or formulation change while protecting approved product use.
• Understands media and feed formulations, genealogy, preparation, testing, storage, comparability and campaign-set dependencies operationally.
• Can command material reservations while respecting Quality, Process Sciences, Regulatory, biosafety and Manufacturing authority.
• Has challenged catalogue-level inventory by tracing exact formulation, revision, source, lot and authorised product applicability.
• Completed a regulated recovery with durable lot controls, alternate evidence and an independently operating permanent successor.

Non-negotiables

• Can work onsite in Cambridge within twelve days and travel to suppliers, laboratories and manufacturing sites throughout the term.
• Brings direct commercial biologics and cell-culture material depth; general pharmaceutical procurement or laboratory sales is insufficient.
• Will disclose media, raw-material, laboratory, logistics, manufacturer and investor relationships before receiving controlled evidence.
• Accepts no Quality disposition, investigation conclusion, comparability, regulatory, biosafety, biological-release or process-change authority.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe media inventory you removed from campaign cover after formulation genealogy disproved its usability.
2. 49 words maximum. Which attribute beyond catalogue number determines whether a held media lot protects a commercial batch?
3. 49 words maximum. What media supplier, laboratory or biologics-manufacturer interest could constrain your independence?

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