Our client is an immunotherapy company harnessing new insights into fibroblast-immune interactions to develop impactful treatments for patients. Progressing a pipeline of sophisticated first in class antibodies designed to improve the lives of patients with cancer and inflammatory disease. Together with their collaboration partner Janssen Biotech, Inc. they are also identifying novel targets for future therapies.
Founding investigators comprise global experts in inflammatory disease, cancer, computational biology and fibroblast biology from the University of Oxford, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Supported by leading life science investors SV Health Investors, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc., Forbion, GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Northpond Ventures.
headquartered in Cambridge, UK, and in 2021 was recognized on the Fierce 15 list of innovative biotechnology companies.
Scope of role
This is an outstanding opportunity for a proactive, highly organised team player to oversee the lab and office space of an early stage, ambitious biotech company. Our client currently occupies three units in the Science Village on the Chesterford Research Park consisting of a mix of labs and offices. It really is a great location to work. Their labs and offices are set up to enable them to deliver their scientific programmes, goals and objectives. Your role as Facilities Manager will be critical to their success as you will be managing key processes, health and safety, maintenance of equipment and CAPEX budget, interactions with their IT partner and you will be a key connector on site at Chesterford Research Park.
Key Responsibilities:
· Manage the lab and office space at Chesterford Research Park to provide a safe and productive working environment for all staff, contractors and visitors.
· Act as the primary interface for Health & Safety activities.
· Act as the primary interface with landlords and proactively manage the relationship ensuring a high quality of services are provided, understanding recharge costs including all utilities and service fees and owning the site operations budget. Proactively engage in understanding the development of the Park and other strategic sites around Cambridge to facilitate any potential changes in the UK footprint.
· Lead and project manage any changes to existing or new UK footprint.
· Manage the asset management process, including CAPEX, equipment, scheduling and execution of planned maintenance and repair with suppliers and service providers and liaising with the finance team to meet company policies and compliance requirements.
· Manage IT service providers for software and hardware needs for lab and office operations in line with overall IT strategy and budget.
· Act as a technical expert for cleanroom and laboratory design and operation
· Manage the facilities budget and associated contracts, including services, rates, utility costs and general lab spend.
· Line manage lab support staff to keep labs stocked and organised and running smoothly
· Contribute to Mestag Quality Management processes as required
· Act as the Health and Safety Officer and Biological Safety Officer for the company as required by the UK Health and Safety Executive, make submissions to the HSE as required, chair company health and safety meetings and manage external Health and Safety consultants and provide appropriate training and support for all staff. Act as Biological Safety Officer for the company.
· Contribute to business continuity planning, including project managing the completion of the initial plan.
Qualifications
· Bachelor’s degree in a biological sciences or related field and minimum of 8 years progressive experience in pharmaceutical, biotech, or biologics operations and facilities management
· Strong experience in lab supply chain management and process implementation
· Demonstrable project management experience
· Experience in working with external service providers
· Experience in Contracts negotiations with CROs, external service providers
· Experience leading employee health and safety programs
· Experience and involvement in external regulatory inspections
· Experience and knowledge in dealing with Health and Safety issues
· Ability to effectively negotiate and build collaboration with third parties and service providers
· Energetic self-starter with a highly proactive “can do” attitude
· Good interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills
· Comfortable in a fast-paced small company environment with minimal direction.
· Agile at problem solving and multi-tasking
Desired but not essential
· Experience in Biological and GM risk assessment, preferably as a Biological Safety Officer role
· Line management experience