Associate Director, Strategic Supplier Partnerships

Associate Director, Strategic Supplier Partnerships

Dublin Permanent Hybrid pattern TBC

The opportunity

Our client, a global biopharmaceutical company, is strengthening how it manages the external partners that make and supply its medicines. In this role you lead a portfolio of those partnerships at senior level and have real influence over how supplier relationships are run across the business.

What you'll do

• Act as the senior owner and point of escalation for a portfolio of strategic suppliers and contract manufacturers.
• Set the relationship strategy for each partner: priorities, how often you meet, and what good performance looks like.
• Run executive business reviews and hold partners to agreed measures on supply, quality, cost and risk.
• Negotiate and lead joint improvement work on capacity, lead times, cost and continuity of supply.
• Get Quality, Supply Chain, Technical Operations, Procurement, Legal and Finance working from one agreed view of each supplier.
• Help shape the supplier relationship framework, processes and tools used across Operations.

What you'll bring

• A degree in science, engineering, supply chain or business.
• Typically 10+ years in pharma, biotech or medical device operations, including at least 5 years owning relationships with contract manufacturers or critical GMP suppliers.
• Examples of improving a supplier's performance, not only managing the contract.
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills with senior people inside the business and at partner companies.
• A working knowledge of GMP and quality agreements, and of how supplier decisions affect compliance and supply.
• Willingness to travel internationally.

Nice to have

Experience with drug product, API, packaging or device component suppliers; experience setting up or maturing a supplier relationship programme; CIPS or APICS