Director Manufacturing
About this opportunity
Director Manufacturing
Macclesfield
At AstraZeneca, we are driven by our commitment to deliver accelerated growth and to make people's lives better. We thrive in our often intense and ambiguous environment, seeking out new challenges and working towards new solutions. We are part of an inclusive and giving community, supporting each other on our journeys. We are leading the way in delivering Lean processes that drive greater efficiency and speed. Sustainable practices are at the heart of what we do, ensuring we manage our environmental impact across all our activities and products
Introduction to role
The Director for Manufacturing will play a pivotal role in leading a multi-disciplinary team. You will be accountable for the overall performance of all processes within the boundaries of your Process Execution Team (PET) control. This includes production, material and asset utilization, support, and inventory in process as supplied to next supply chain customer under Vendor Managed Inventory.
Accountabilities
You will be leading a team through transformational change, ensuring compliance with AZ’s financial policies, managing people resources to policy requirements, and delivering budgets. You will be responsible for maintaining compliance in accordance with cGMP, SHE, SOX and business procedures, ensuring capacity and capability is in place to meet demand, maintaining compliance within licenses to operate, managing stakeholder relationships, and contributing to site/EMEA leadership strategy and decision-making.
Essential Skills/Experience
Bachelor’s Degree in Manufacturing, Engineering, Science, Supply Chain Management (or related field) or equivalent experience
Significant experience in manufacturing and supply chain
Aseptic or sterile manufacturing experience
Proven leadership promoting motivation and empowering others to accomplish individual, team and organizational objectives
Ability to lead cross functional working groups and teams; Demonstrated ability to set and manage priorities, resources, performance targets and project initiatives in a regional environment
Proven negotiation, collaboration and interpersonal leadership skills
Budgetary and resource management planning experience
Conceptual, analytical and strategic thinking
Desirable Skills/Experience
Effective problem and conflict resolution skills and proven team focus
Experience in managing projects in a pharmaceutical environment
At AstraZeneca, we are leading our Operations function at an exciting time of growth and evolution. We pioneer new approaches and processes across our sites, empowering our teams to foster a Lean mindset and sustainable practices. Every change we make is to deliver better outcomes for our patients. We are the champions of Lean, ensuring our teams understand and embody the benefits it can bring. There's improved quality and safety, as well as speed. Our manufacturing sites are environments of constant and rapid change. It's a place to expect the unexpected. There's rarely an obvious answer to the varied challenges we face, so it takes adaptability, flexibility and patience to thrive here.
When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we unleash bold thinking with the power to inspire life-changing medicines. In-person working gives us the platform we need to connect, work at pace and challenge perceptions.
Ready to take the next step in your career? Apply today to join us in driving transformational change and pioneering new approaches in our Operations department!
Date Posted
18-Sept-2026
Closing Date
04-Oct-2026
Our mission is to build an inclusive and equitable environment. We want people to feel they belong at AstraZeneca and Alexion, starting with our recruitment process. We welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of characteristics. We offer reasonable adjustments/accommodations to help all candidates to perform at their best. If you have a need for any adjustments/accommodations, please complete the 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 196 comparable Director Manufacturing & CMC roles across 47 biopharma companies.
Salary context
118 of 196 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 196 comparable roles
+ 10 more countries
Seniority mix
196 of 196 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
1 of 196 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.