Associate Director, Production Planning & Procurement

Job Description

Job Description

More than one million people in the United States today are fighting blood cancer. While a traditional allogeneic stem cell transplant has been the best hope for many, the transplant itself can prove fatal or lead to serious conditions, such as graft vs. host disease. Orca Bio is a late-stage biotechnology company redefining the transplant process by developing next-generation cell therapies with the goal of providing significantly better survival rates with dramatically fewer risks.   With our purified, high-precision investigational cell therapies we hope to not only replace patients' blood and immune systems with healthy ones, but also restore their lives.

 

We have built a state-of-the-art, 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Sacramento, CA (7910 Metro Air Pkwy) to ensure the consistent and reliable delivery of our high-precision cell therapy products. This site is essential to advancing our clinical pipeline and supporting future commercial availability of our life-saving therapies.

The Associate Director, Production Planning & Procurement leads planning and procurement functions while driving the design, implementation and optimization of manufacturing execution systems (MES) and enterprise resource planning connections across cell therapy manufacturing sites.  This role ensures robust, compliant and scalable planning and procurement processes with digital systems to enable accurate, real-time visibility and uninterrupted production of clinical and commercial cell therapy products.  The Associate Director will partner with Manufacturing, Finance IT, Facilities and Quality to deliver a reliable planning foundation that supports operations and data-drive decision-making.  

Key Responsibilities

Production Planning

• Lead site production planning, production scheduling, and material planning to meet customer service and operational targets.
• Manage production and material capacity planning aligned with clinical and commercial demand forecasts developing and analyzing operational scenarios to support capacity and demand needs.
• Ensure effective inventory strategies to maintain optimal raw material, consumable, and finished product levels.
• Develop Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) processes for cell therapy programs across internal manufacturing sites.
• Facilitate relationships with internal commercial stakeholders and suppliers and vendors, where appropriate.

 

Digital Systems

• Serve as site business lead for MES and ERP system deployment, configuration, and optimization.
• Partner with IT, Engineering, and other functions to define requirements, ensure seamless integration, and enable end-to-end planning functionality.
• Translate planning processes into digital workflows, ensuring master data accuracy, transactional discipline, and real-time visibility.
• Drive user adoption, training, and change management for MES/ERP solutions at the site.

 

Process Improvement & Analytics

• Implement best practices in production planning, leveraging system capabilities to improve forecast accuracy, scheduling efficiency, material availability, and cost competitiveness.
• Establish KPIs and dashboards for planning performance, leveraging ERP/MES data for decision-making.
• Identify and resolve systemic bottlenecks in planning processes through digital solutions
• Team Leadership & Development
• Lead, coach and develop a team of planners and system users.
• Build a culture of digital fluency, continuous improvement and data-driven decision-making within the planning function. Build a culture of digital fluency, continuous improvement, and data-driven decision-making within the planning function.

 

Leadership

• Effectively lead, mentor, and coach a team
• Oversees the daily workflow of the department and performance to goals and deliverables
• Recruits, interviews, hires, and trains new staff 
• Provides constructive and timely performance feedback and evaluations 

 

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Life Sciences, or related fields.
• 5-7 years of progressive supply chain experience in biomanufacturing, cell therapies or advanced therapies.
• Leadership of digital transformation initiatives including MES and ERP systems .
• Strong knowledge of production planning, material requirements planning (MRP), and capacity planning within manufacturing.
• Proven success leading cross-functional teams and driving operational results.
• Excellent interpersonal, leadership, and communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with autologous or allogeneic cell therapy supply chains.
• Familiarity with both clinical and commercial supply chain models.
• Knowledge of manufacturing, chain of identity/custody requirements, and vein-to-vein workflows.

Personal Qualities & Physical Demands

• Demonstrates strong work ethic, curiosity to learn and contribute in a fast-paced collaborative environment. 
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to communicate effectively. 
• Ability to work in a collaborative manner. 
• Strong problem-solving skills. 
• Domestic and international travel may be required from time to time as needed (approximately 10-25%). 
• May require occasional lifting up to 25 lbs. and gowning into cleanroom areas. 
• Requires sitting, standing, working in an office environment and computer use.

The anticipated annual salary range for this job is based on prior experience in the role/industry, education, location, internal equity, and other job-related factors as permitted by law. For remote-based positions, this range may vary based on your local market. Full-time employment positions will also be eligible to receive pre-IPO equity and annual bonus, in addition to competitive medical, dental, and vision benefits, PTO, 401(k) plan, life and accidental death and disability coverage, and parental leave benefits. Other perks include subsidized daily lunches and snacks at our on-site locations.

 

Who we are

 

We are driven by a passion for science and compassion for patients. We act with urgency to ensure our treatments are one day accessible to all who need them.

 

We live by our core values of passion, courage, and integrity. Excellence in our work means the chance to unlock a better quality of life for our patients, and with that comes tremendous responsibility.

 

We innovate on a path that hasn’t been paved. We embrace an entrepreneurial spirit and take calculated risks to achieve our mission. We aren’t afraid to ask “why not” and challenge the status quo.

 

We maintain a start-up culture of camaraderie and leadership by example, regardless of title.

 

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and recognize that celebrating our differences creates stronger, lasting solutions that better serve our team, our patients and their healthcare providers.

 

Notice to staffing firms

 

Orca Bio does not accept resumes from staffing agencies with which we do not have a written agreement and specific engagement for a particular opening. Our employment activities, inquiries and offers are managed through our HR/Talent team, and all candidates are presented through this channel only. We do not accept unsolicited resumes, and we rarely outsource recruitment.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.