Senior Director Site Engineering Lead

We are searching for the best talent for Senior Director Site Engineering Lead to be in Leiden, Netherlands.

Purpose:

The Senior Director, Site Engineering Lead, supports the Leiden (Drug substance site) for BioTherapeutics production and Lentivirus production in Sassenheim. This is a critical leadership role responsible for overseeing all engineering functions at one of the company’s most strategically important manufacturing locations with multi-node responsibilities. This role ensures the delivery of high impact engineering projects and supports operational excellence in a fast-growing environment. Managing a very substantial capital investment portfolio, the position plays a key role in the successful execution of complex and strategic projects that support site expansion, reliability, and innovation. This position is part of the Leiden Site Leadership team.

You will be responsible for:

Project Execution, Automation and Maintenance – Muti-node site:

• Lead the development and execution of the Site Asset Master Plan and Business Planning (BP) process, ensuring seamless integration of capital investment priorities into the Long-Range Financial Plan (LRFP) to enable sustainable growth, operational continuity, and long-term site readiness.
• Manage the site’s capital project portfolio and investment performance, ensuring alignment with global, regional, and site-specific strategies while consistently delivering on capital spend, project milestones, and business value outcomes.
• Direct the implementation of global automation strategy (ISA S95 Levels 0-1-2) at the site, driving digital capability advancement, system standardization, and operational efficiency through optimized automation infrastructure and processes.
• Define, implement, and govern site maintenance strategies to maximize asset reliability, operational performance, and cost efficiency. Oversee technical operations performance metrics, including unplanned downtime, asset utilization, and cost-to-serve, ensuring robust operational resilience.
• Ensure full compliance with regulatory requirements, internal standards, and engineering governance in capital project execution, automation systems, and maintenance operations. Serve as executive owner for Facilities & Equipment readiness during regulatory inspections, internal audits, and external assessments such as Health Authorities and FM Global.
• Drive the deployment of the Asset Management Framework and site-specific maturity roadmap, advancing asset lifecycle management, operational continuity, and asset risk management practices in line with global expectations.
• Demonstrate strong financial and business acumen, including capital investment planning, cost structure optimization, risk management, and business case development to support strategic decision-making and operational performance improvements.

Cross-functional Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement:

• Act as a strategic partner to site leadership, platform leaders, and global functional counterparts including Project Execution, Automation, Maintenance, Process Engineering, and Engineering & Property Services (E&PS) Centers of Excellence. Ensure alignment of engineering strategies and priorities with site business goals and enterprise objectives.
• Lead site-level governance forums, capital project reviews, and operational performance management routines to consistently deliver against safety, quality, cost, and delivery targets.
• Build and maintain strong, trusted partnerships with key external vendors, contractors, and industry networks to ensure effective delivery of capital projects, maintenance services, and infrastructure initiatives while continuously benchmarking and adopting best practices.

Digital Tools & Software:

• Provide site-level executive oversight of digital tool implementation to enable data-driven decision-making, asset performance analytics, predictive maintenance, and project execution tracking.
• Identify, sponsor, and accelerate the adoption of digital and AI-enabled tools within the site engineering function to drive productivity, reliability, and operational efficiencies, in alignment with network-wide initiatives.

Leadership & Development:

• Demonstrate strong influencing, leadership, and analytical skills to support sound operational and strategic decision-making.
• Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing site engineering leadership team with deep technical expertise, business acumen, and a continuous improvement mindset.
• Collaborate with site leadership team and demonstrate customer focused service
• Collaborate with the Global Capability Development team to ensure continuous upskilling of the site engineering organization, develop a strong talent pipeline, and actively manage succession plans for critical roles.
• Foster a culture of accountability, operational discipline, innovation, and continuous improvement across the site engineering organization.

Governance & Compliance:

• Ensure that all capital project execution, automation, and maintenance activities at the sites adhere to global standards, regulatory requirements, and internal engineering governance frameworks.
• Conduct regular reviews of project execution, automation systems performance, and maintenance execution at the site, driving corrective actions and continuous improvement initiatives as needed.
• Represent the site engineering function in site leadership and platform governance forums to assure ongoing alignment with enterprise engineering, operational, and compliance priorities.

Qualifications / Requirements:

Education: Bachelor’s degree in engineering, preferably Chemical/Bio and/or Mechanical/Electrical. Master’s degree in Engineering, Project Management, or a related field is preferred.

Experience:

• 12+ years of progressive engineering leadership experience, including multi-site or network level responsibility within a regulated manufacturing environment.
• 5+ years of People management experience is required.
• Demonstrated experience leading global engineering platforms, site engineering organizations, or large-scale technical functions.
• Strong track record in capital project execution, and operational excellence.
• Experience supporting or deploying automation, digital manufacturing, and advanced analytics in a regulated environment.
• Proven ability to influence without direct authority, operate effectively in a complex matrix, and align diverse stakeholders around common objectives.
• Excellent strategic thinking, decision-making, and communication skills, with the ability to operate at both executive and operational levels.

This position is required to be on site full time and requires up to 10% international travel, based on business needs.

Preferred Skills:

Developing Others, Facility Management, Inclusive Leadership, Leadership, Leading Change, Lean Manufacturing Principles, Lean Supply Chain Management, Manufacturing Compliance, Manufacturing Engineering, Manufacturing Flow Management, Performance Measurement, Predictive Maintenance, Product Design, Safety-Oriented, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Application, Stakeholder Engagement, Strategic Thinking, Transparency Reporting