Novartis Posted October 9, 2026

Associate Director, Cell Therapy Operations Northeast

Field Non-Sales (USA), United States FULL_TIME
Manufacturing & CMC Associate Director
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About this opportunity

#LI-Remote This is a field-based and remote opportunity supporting key accounts in an assigned geography. Novartis is unable to offer relocation support for this role. Please only apply if this location is accessible for you.The Associate Director Cell Therapy Operations Manager is in the Northeast geography. This is a remote & field-based role that covers the following, but not limited to: New York, NY, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, PA, Boston, MA. Associate must reside within territory, or within a reasonable daily commuting distance of 60 miles from territory. The Associate Director, Cell Therapy Operations Manager (AD, CTOM) is a field-based operational leader responsible for training, onboarding, and qualifying CAR-T treatment centers to support the safe, compliant, and successful delivery of Novartis CAR-T therapies. The AD, CTOM serves as the primary operational partner to assigned treatment centers, supporting ordering, logistics, apheresis collection, site readiness, quality compliance, and operational excellence while collaborating cross-functionally to resolve complex challenges and improve site performance.

Major Accountabilities Execute onboarding, training, qualification, and operational readiness activities for CAR-T treatment centers to support successful site activation and patient treatment. Serve as the field-based operational lead for assigned treatment centers, supporting ordering, logistics, apheresis collection, product receipt, and treatment workflows. Deliver high-quality operational support to treatment centers, care teams, and internal stakeholders to ensure consistent execution of CAR-T processes. Resolve complex operational challenges related to ordering, logistics, apheresis collection, product handling, and site readiness. Ensure compliance with operational, regulatory, quality, and procedural requirements, supporting ongoing inspection and audit readiness. Lead site readiness, operational continuity, and refresher training initiatives to maintain consistent performance and adherence to Novartis standards. Partner cross-functionally with Patient Support, Strategic Account Managers, Quality, Manufacturing, Clinical Operations, Medical Affairs, and other stakeholders to align strategy, improve processes, and drive successful patient outcomes. Identify operational risks, implement process improvements, manage escalations, and drive continuous improvement initiatives across assigned treatment centers.  Essential Requirements  Education: Bachelor’s degree in science, healthcare, nursing, business, or a related discipline. Minimum 7 years of healthcare, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, specialty operations, or related industry experience. Experience supporting complex healthcare systems, treatment centers, academic medical centers, or multi-site institutions. Demonstrated experience in cell therapy operations, specialty therapy operations, or other highly regulated healthcare environments. Proven experience training, onboarding, educating, or supporting external healthcare stakeholders. Ability to effectively operate within matrixed, cross-functional organizations and influence stakeholders without direct authority. Strong project management, problem-solving, and operational execution skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously. Excellent communication, presentation, and relationship-management skills with internal and external stakeholders. Preferred Qualifications Direct experience supporting CAR-T, cell therapy, apheresis, blood or tissue collection, cryopreservation, transplant, or related specialty operations. Experience working within GxP-regulated pharmaceutical, biotechnology, manufacturing, cell processing, hospital, or specialty healthcare environments. Novartis Compensation Summary: The salary for this position is expected to range between $138,600 and $257,400 per year.  The final salary offered is determined based on factors like, but not limited to, relevant skills and experience, and upon joining Novartis will be reviewed periodically. Novartis may change the published salary range based on company and market factors.  Your compensation will include a performance-based cash incentive and, depending on the level of the role, eligibility to be considered for annual equity awards.  US-based eligible employees will receive a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, life and disability benefits, a 401(k) with company contribution and match, and a variety of other benefits. In addition, employees are eligible for a generous time off package including vacation, personal days, holidays and other leaves.

Job details

Seniority
Associate Director
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Field Non-Sales (USA), United States
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Manufacturing & CMC role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 916 comparable Associate Director Manufacturing & CMC roles across 108 biopharma companies.

916Comparable roles tracked
823Currently active
108Companies hiring similar roles
41Countries represented

Salary context

265 of 916 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.

This roleSubject $138,600/yr – $257,400/yr
Lowest disclosed · Senior Technician Calibration - Maintenance · Mylan Technologies, Inc. $37,000/yr – $80,000/yr
Highest disclosed · Regional Manager - Megasys · Merck KGaA $220,000/yr – $250,000/yr
Peer group range $58,500 – $235,000 (median $151,700)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 916 comparable roles

United States498
India80
Ireland39
Netherlands27
Switzerland26
China25

+ 35 more countries

Seniority mix

916 of 916 peers have a known seniority level

Senior429
Manager374
Associate Director113

Therapeutic area mix

12 of 916 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Vaccines & Infectious Disease5
Rare Disease3
Oncology2
Dermatology & Aesthetics1
Immunology1

Similar opportunities

The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.

60%similar
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Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States Associate Director
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Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Amgen Inc. Remote, United States Associate Director
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60%similar
Lilly Richmond, Virginia, United States of America Associate Director
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60%similar
Lilly Lebanon, Indiana, United States of America Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country

Notify me about similar jobs

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How we calculate "similar"

No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.

Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.

60%
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Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
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Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
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Engineering Associate Director (AD) - Device Assembly
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Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
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Associate Director, Maintenance (Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellow)
Merck · Wilmington, Delaware, United States · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.