Senior Director, Facilities & Engineering (Cell Therapy Manufacturing)

Were here for one reason and one reason only to cure cancer. Every moment is dedicated to developing treatments and every action moves us one step closer to our goal. Weve made incredible scientific breakthroughs and our pioneering personalized CAR T-cell therapies have changed the paradigm. But were not finished yet.

Join Kite as we make even bigger advances in cancer therapies and help shape where our business and medical science goes next.

We believe every employee deserves a great leader. People Leaders are the cornerstone to the employee experience at Gilead and Kite. As a people leader now or in the future you are the key driver in evolving our culture and creating an environment where every employee feels included developed and empowered to fulfil their aspirations. Join Kite and help create more tomorrows.

Job Description

Senior Director Facilities & Engineering (Cell Therapy Manufacturing)

Position Summary

The Senior Director Facilities & Engineering (Cell Therapy Manufacturing) is a strategic hands-on leader responsible for keeping our site running safely reliably and in full complianceso our teams can deliver life-changing therapies without interruption. You will own end-to-end performance across facilities engineering maintenance calibration utilities and site services and you will set the long-term roadmap for asset lifecycle resilience and capacity in a highly regulated cGMP environment.

In this role you will lead an organization of approximately 50 employees and a significant contractor population. Youll build a high-performing safety-first culture with clear accountability strong technical capability and disciplined execution. You will also serve as the senior owner for key service providerssetting expectations governing performance through metrics and driving continuous improvement in quality responsiveness and cost.

What youll do

As member of the Site Leadership team you will lead facilities and engineering strategy and day-to-day execution across the site ensuring safe operations inspection readiness and reliable utilities and infrastructure to support manufacturing and QC labs.

1) Site Reliability Compliance & Operational Excellence

• Provide overall leadership for site engineering maintenance calibration and facilities services to ensure manufacturing continuity and GMP compliance.

• Ensure critical utilities and systems (e.g. HVAC automation/controls compressed gases cryogenic infrastructure temperature controls) are robust qualified maintained and fit for purpose.

• Establish and sustain strong preventive maintenance and calibration programs with right-first-time documentation and inspection readiness.

• Maintain compliance with applicable codes/standards and good practices including cGMP/GLP expectations where relevant.

• Accountability for the problem solving of complex high-impact facility and equipment issuesdriving root cause analysis and durable corrective actions.

2) Environment Health & Safety (EHS) Leadership

• Role-model a proactive safety culture across employees and contractors with strong risk assessment and safe systems of work.

• Partner with cross-functional teams to embed safety into planning shutdowns and project executionespecially for high-risk activities.

• Drive the implementation of sustainability initiatives locally and in alignment with the global network strategy (energy utilities waste and emissions reduction) balancing compliance resilience and cost.

3) Capital Projects Engineering Strategy & Lifecycle Management

• Set the site engineering strategy and multi-year roadmap for asset lifecycle resilience capacity and modernization aligned to business priorities.

• Lead CAPEX planning governance and deliveryfrom scope and business case through design procurement construction commissioning/qualification/validation and close-out.

• Build pragmatic contracting and procurement strategies maintaining schedule and budget discipline with transparent stakeholder communication.

• Ensure robust design review change control and risk management so projects meet internal standards and external requirements.

• Own contractor strategy and performance across outsourced services (maintenance calibration pest control and more) building strong partnerships and clear accountability.

4) People Leadership & Organizational Development

• Lead coach and develop a multi-disciplinary organization (50 employees plus contractors) building strong leaders and deep technical bench strength.

• Set clear direction priorities and operating rhythms; create effective resource plans talent development and succession plans.

• Foster a culture of collaboration accountability and continuous improvement across Engineering Manufacturing Quality Supply Chain and other stakeholders.

How youll partner

• Drive collaboration within the Site Leadership Team and with the relevant functional leaders across Manufacturing Quality QC Labs Supply Chain EHS Finance and Procurement locally or globally.

• Manage External partnership including engineering firms contractors OEMs and other relevant stakeholders.

• Represent Kite EU BV with key external parties including regulatory city Business Park and state agencies as needed for facilities and infrastructure topics.

Required qualifications

• BS degree in Engineering and minimum of 12 years of relevant experience in related field.

• A MA/MBA degree can be substituted for 2 years of related experience.

• A Ph.D. degree can be substituted for 4 years of related experience.

What you bring

• 12 years of progressive experience in facilities/engineering leadership within regulated environments with a track record of building and managing high-performing teams.

• Deep expertise in utilities and critical systems maintenance and calibration programs and contractor-led service models.

• Demonstrated ownership of OPEX/CAPEX planning and delivery including project execution through construction and commissioning/qualification.

• Sound judgment and comfort operating in ambiguityable to make decisions when precedent may not exist.

• Strong cross-functional leadership and stakeholder management translating business needs into engineering strategy and execution.

Leadership strengths

• Strategic thinking with operational rigor: you can build multi-year roadmaps and still drive daily execution excellence.

• People-first leadership: you develop leaders build engagement and create clear expectations and accountability.

• Metrics-driven management: you use governance KPIs/SLAs and disciplined cost control to improve performance.

• Influence and partnership: you collaborate across functions and levels to deliver results.

What Success Looks Like (1218 months)

• Improved utilities and critical systems reliability enabling stable manufacturing throughput and QC lab readiness.

• Stronger preventive maintenance and calibration performance with sustained inspection-ready documentation.

• A contractor governance model with clear KPIs/SLAs and demonstrable gains in responsiveness quality and cost/value.

• On-time on-budget delivery of prioritized capital projects with robust commissioning/qualification and handover.

• A strengthened safety-first F&E organization with clear structure capable leaders and a culture of continuous improvement.

Kite is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of innovative cancer immunotherapies with a goal of providing rapid long-term durable response and eliminating the burden of chronic care. The company is focused on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and T cell receptor (TCR) engineered cell therapies designed to empower the immune systems ability to recognize and kill tumors. Kite is based in Santa Monica CA. For more information on Kite please visit . Sign up to follow @KitePharma on Twitter at Employment Opportunity (EEO)

It is the policy of Gilead Sciences Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively Gilead or the Company) to recruit select and employ the most qualified persons available for positions throughout the Company. Except if otherwise provided by applicable law all employment actions relating to issues such as compensation benefits transfers layoffs returns from layoffs company-sponsored training education assistance social and recreational programs are administered on a non-discriminatory basis (i.e. without regard to protected characteristics or prohibited grounds which may include an individuals gender race color national origin ancestry religion creed physical or mental disability marital status sexual orientation medical condition veteran status and age unless such protection is prohibited by federal state municipal provincial local or other applicable laws). Gilead also prohibits discrimination based on any other characteristics protected by applicable laws.

For Current Kite Pharma Employees and Contractors:

Please apply via the Internal Career Opportunities portal in Workday.