Associate Director of Automation
About this opportunity
Typical Accountabilities
- Provide expert technical leadership across assigned engineering technology domains, contributing to the development, evaluation, and delivery of advanced technical solutions.
- Act as a subject matter expert for OT/automation systems or engineering technologies, supporting the execution of complex individual projects and ensuring technical and compliance standards are met.
- Lead or oversee the delivery of technical solutions from specification and design through commissioning and stabilization, collaborating with internal stakeholders and external partners.
- Translate business needs into technical strategies, influencing design decisions, technology selection, and implementation approaches.
- Guide the application of internal and industry standards (e.g., URS, DQ/FAT/SAT, GMP) throughout the project or solution lifecycle.
- Support capability development by mentoring engineers and sharing expertise within and across sites.
- Drive technical improvement initiatives by identifying innovations, applying best practices, and supporting standardization across the network.
- Ensure compliance of personal and team work with safety, health, environment (SHE), and regulatory requirements, including risk assessments and documentation.
- Energize and empower teams to effectively explore new digital solutions and practices that drive business value.
- May line manage a team.
Minimum Qualifications:
Fluent English
Subject Matter Expertise of either SCADA/PLC or DCS to include specification, procurement, installation, start-up, and commissioning.
Bachelor’s degree (equivalent experience of (5+) will be considered) in an Engineering related discipline.
YOE in field 10 years
Excellent communication skills including an ability to engage honestly and influentially with internal and external business leaders and partners.
Experience in one or more of the following: IT and OT architectures for manufacturing environments
Integration with IT Systems
Warehouse Control Systems, AGVs, Robotics
Understanding of OT cybersecurity
Engineering standards development and governance
Desired:
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing areas including API, Biotechnology, Oral Solid Dosage, Formulation and Fill, Packaging, Medical Devices
Current GMP regulations and an understanding of regulatory agency expectations and current industry practices. Experience from a different, non-Pharma, regulated industry would also be relevant.
Date Posted
30-Sep-2026
Closing Date
30-Oct-2026 Our mission is to build an inclusive environment where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and employees. In furtherance of that mission, we welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of their protected characteristics. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please complete the corresponding section in the application form.
Job details
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.
Salary context
266 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.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 916 comparable roles
+ 35 more countries
Seniority mix
916 of 916 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
12 of 916 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
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.
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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.
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.