Merck KGaA Posted June 3, 2026

Site Head Cherokee, St Louis

St. Louis, Missouri, United States FULL_TIME
Notify me about similar jobs

Merck KGaA is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

Work Your Magic with us!  Start your next chapter and join MilliporeSigma.

Ready to explore, break barriers, and discover more? We know you’ve got big plans – so do we! Our colleagues across the globe love innovating with science and technology to enrich people’s lives with our solutions in Healthcare, Life Science, and Electronics. Together, we dream big and are passionate about caring for our rich mix of people, customers, patients, and planet. That's why we are always looking for curious minds that see themselves imagining the unimaginable with us.

Your Role: 

The St. Louis, MO, Cherokee CDMO site is a center of excellence for antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), bioconjugates, and small molecule production. We are currently completing a $76M investment to optimize existing production capacity and enhance process and analytical labs to support the rapidly expanding ADC market.

The Site Head of the St. Louis, MO, Cherokee site is responsible for the strategic planning, directing, and controlling of development, manufacturing and quality operations. You are responsible for development and implementation of programs to permanently improve safety and quality systems and processes and ensure GMP compliant and cost-efficient manufacturing through effective utilization of resources, equipment, facilities, and materials. In addition, this individual assures production/supply chain schedules are met to fulfill forecasted market demand.

The Cherokee Site Head is critical in the realization of our CDMO business, Advanced Solutions Life Science ambition and Integrated Supply Chain Operation (ISCO) strategic goals to become the market leading CDMO player in the industry with a best-in-class supply chain.

Key accountabilities in this role include:

Ensure safe and compliant operation, making Safety and Quality the top priorities for your site.

Ensure the successful and profitable operation of the facilities, including the General Manufacturing Practices manufacture and the in-spec and on-time release of products.

Provide leadership to the site, supervising the site leadership team including process and analytical development, manufacturing, engineering, quality, and supply chain; total staff 400.

Make final decisions on critical operations matters and ensure best in class services are delivered to customers.

Partner and collaborate with customers, business development, project management, and various Group Functions such as Innovation, Supply Chain, EHS, Quality, HR, Finance.

Ramp-up production capacity in the facility with the approved expansion project, ensuring Commercial Readiness across all functions.

Support and drive development of robust manufacturing processes for drug product from clinical to commercial.

Ensure appropriate staffing of people resources and capabilities and drive production schedule, optimizing utilization of resources and assets.

Develop the budget and manage areas of responsibility within approved budget and contracted scope of work.

Make recommendations concerning long-range capacity planning, as well as upgrading of capital investments into existing site which is in line with strategic planning.

Develop relevant KPIs for CDMO Excellence in collaboration with other CDMO sites and drive performance accordingly.

Ensure highly effective and efficient training.

Drive digitalization, automation and advancement of manufacturing and quality technologies in collaboration with company-wide initiatives.

Support commercial team with customers’ request for proposals, business presentations, etc.

Strengthen site in their customer engagement and focus on value creation for the customer needs.

Ensures service targets and customer’s on-time delivery in full expectations are met.

Be the accountable host for regulatory and customer audits and site visits.

Identify and mitigate risks in operations including manufacturing, engineering, facilities management and quality that could adversely impact project outcomes and timely delivery of critical treatment to patients.

The St. Louis, Cherokee site is dedicated to CDMO business, with close partnership with the Bioconjugation & Small Molecules Modality leadership to ensure strategic business needs are included and voiced in both the manufacturing strategy and operational targets for the site.

Who you are:

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in relevant technical discipline (Chemical Engineering, Immunology, Biochemistry, or related scientific discipline).

A minimum of 10-15 years' experience in Manufacturing/Operations/Quality in the Biotech/Life Science CDMO Industry.

A minimum of 5 years at a senior level leading an organization of significant size in a life science, GMP/FDA regulated industry such as pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical.

Experience with regulated products or services.

Strong cross-functional communication abilities across both Operations and Business communities, as well as customers.

Excellent management and communication skills at C-level as well as at operators’ level.

Excellent working knowledge of US and EU GMP regulations, and direct experience in communicating with regulatory authorities.

Leadership skills in managing change, influencing others outside areas of direct responsibility, attracting/developing talent.

Strong situational leadership - ability to couple high performance standards and can-do attitude with strong coaching and empowerment approach.

Ability and proven track record to build and grow high performing teams.

Interested and experienced in driving digitalization effort.

Strong problem-solving skills based on analytical strengths, active listening, and a diversity mindset .

Experience with troubleshooting and technology transfers.

Strong business acumen and experience with financial management.

Preferred Qualifications: 

Masters, PhD and/or MBA preferred.

Experience with common continuous improvement tools (e.g. six sigma).

Ideally participated in the design, construction and commissioning of expanding manufacturing facilities.

Ability to travel domestically and internationally, up to 10%.

Pay Range for this position: $208,000 - $340,900

The offer range represents the anticipated low and high end of the base pay compensation for this position. The actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, level of experience, education, skills, and other job-related factors. Position may be eligible for sales or performance-based bonuses. Benefits offered by the Company include health insurance, paid time off (PTO), retirement contributions, and other perquisites. For more information click  here .

What we offer: We are curious minds that come from a broad range of backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences. We believe that this variety drives excellence and innovation, strengthening our ability to lead in science and technology. We are committed to creating access and opportunities for all to develop and grow at your own pace. Join us in building a culture of inclusion and belonging that impacts millions and empowers everyone to work their magic and champion human progress!

Apply now and become a part of a team that is dedicated to Sparking Discovery and Elevating Humanity!

Job details

Seniority
Not listed
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
St. Louis, Missouri, 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 3753 comparable Manufacturing & CMC roles across 173 biopharma companies.

3753Comparable roles tracked
3372Currently active
173Companies hiring similar roles
64Countries represented

Salary context

920 of 3753 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.

This roleSubject $208,000/yr – $340,900/yr
Lowest disclosed · Biologics Support Operator I (3rd Shift) · AbbVie $14/hr – $26/hr (≈ $29,099–$54,122/yr)
Highest disclosed · Head of Analytical Development · ModernaTX, Inc. $272,200/yr – $490,100/yr
Peer group range $41,610 – $381,150 (median $125,375)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 3753 comparable roles

United States1738
Germany251
India166
France146
Ireland137
China123

+ 58 more countries

Seniority mix

1670 of 3753 peers have a known seniority level

Senior431
Manager381
Intern/Fellow/Postdoc259
Associate162
Principal138
Associate Director119
Director115
Senior Director57
Executive/VP8

Therapeutic area mix

24 of 3753 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Vaccines & Infectious Disease15
Rare Disease3
Oncology3
Respiratory1
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.

40%similar
AstraZeneca New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
Same function Same country
40%similar
40%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Director
Same function Same country
40%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Director
Same function Same country
40%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Intern/Fellow/Postdoc
Same function Same country
40%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Intern/Fellow/Postdoc
Same function Same country

Notify me about similar jobs

Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.

Or follow a whole field: get every new Manufacturing & CMC job in the United States, and choose locations and companies.

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.

40%
Development Scientist III, Analytical Development and Clinical Quality Control
AstraZeneca · New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America · Seniority not listed
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Director - Analytical Chemistry
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Director - BRD Analytical Development
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Analytical R&D Fellowship – Formulation and Solubility Studies (Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellow)
Merck · West Point, Pennsylvania, United States · Intern/Fellow/Postdoc
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.