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Job Function:
Supply Chain Engineering
Job Sub Function:
Process Engineering
Job Category:
People Leader
All Job Posting Locations:
Leiden, South Holland, Netherlands
Job Description:
Position Summary
The Senior Manufacturing Supervisor – Equipment Engineering DSP leads a team of Equipment Engineers within the Downstream Processing Center of Expertise.
The role is responsible for building and maintaining strong equipment engineering capability to support safe, compliant and reliable manufacturing operations. The supervisor provides people and technical leadership across the equipment lifecycle, ensuring that equipment remains fit for purpose and that technical issues, improvements, projects and lifecycle risks are effectively managed.
Working closely with Manufacturing, Maintenance, Process Engineering, Quality, Automation, Reliability, Validation and other Engineering functions, the supervisor ensures that equipment-related priorities are translated into effective technical solutions while developing a highly capable and engaged engineering team.
Specific responsibilities – Equipment Engineering
- Lead, coach and develop the DSP Equipment Engineering team, creating clear priorities, ownership and accountability.
- Ensure strong technical ownership of DSP manufacturing equipment throughout its lifecycle.
- Ensure equipment is safe, compliant, reliable, available and fit for intended use to support manufacturing needs.
- Provide direction and prioritization for equipment-related operational support, technical investigations, improvements and projects.
- Drive effective resolution of recurring and complex equipment issues through structured problem solving and strong root-cause analysis.
- Partner with Manufacturing and Maintenance to improve equipment reliability, availability and maintainability and reduce recurring failures and unplanned downtime.
- Ensure appropriate equipment lifecycle management, including identification of obsolescence, end-of-life risks and replacement or upgrade needs.
- Support equipment qualification, requalification and validated-state activities in collaboration with Quality and Validation.
- Ensure equipment changes are appropriately assessed and executed through applicable change-control and GMP processes.
- Lead and support equipment improvements, modifications and CAPEX initiatives from identification of business need through implementation and handover.
- Ensure technical requirements and user needs are appropriately defined for new or modified equipment.
- Strengthen equipment knowledge, standards and documentation and ensure effective knowledge transfer within the engineering team.
- Use equipment performance data, trends and KPIs to identify risks and proactively drive improvements.
- Perform Gemba walks and maintain a strong connection between engineering activities and actual shop-floor needs.
- Represent DSP Equipment Engineering in cross-functional projects and technical forums.
- Build strong collaboration across Equipment Engineering, Process Engineering, Manufacturing, Maintenance, Quality, Automation and other site/global engineering functions.
- Promote standardization and sharing of engineering best practices across equipment and manufacturing areas.
- Foster a culture in which engineers go beyond solving today’s issue and actively improve the long-term robustness and reliability of the manufacturing asset base.
Additional Responsibilities
- Assess current and future engineering capability needs and develop the technical competencies of the Equipment Engineering team.
- Develop and maintain a longer-term equipment improvement and lifecycle roadmap based on manufacturing needs, reliability performance, compliance risk and asset condition.
- Identify and develop business cases for equipment improvements, upgrades and replacements.
- Support prioritization of CAPEX and engineering resources based on risk and business value.
- Benchmark and introduce engineering best practices, technologies and innovative solutions where they provide meaningful operational value.
Minimum Qualifications
- Relevant Bachelor’s and/or Master's degree in Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Process Engineering, Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Engineering or a comparable technical discipline with at least 9 and/or 7 years of relevant experience, respectively.
- Experience within pharmaceutical, biotechnology, food, chemical or another highly regulated manufacturing environment.
- Experience working with manufacturing/process equipment and technical problem solving.
- Demonstrated ability to lead people, projects or multidisciplinary technical teams.
- Understanding of GMP and equipment qualification/lifecycle principles.
- English language proficiency at B2 level or above.
- Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with biopharmaceutical downstream processing equipment, such as chromatography systems, filtration/TFF systems, process vessels, centrifugation, buffer preparation or other product-contact equipment.
- Experience with equipment lifecycle management, reliability engineering or asset management.
- Experience with qualification/validation and GMP change control.
- Experience with technical investigations and structured root-cause problem solving.
- Experience developing or executing CAPEX projects.
- Knowledge of automation and manufacturing systems and their interfaces with process equipment.
- Lean, Six Sigma or Operational Excellence experience.
- Previous formal people-leadership experience.
What Makes You Successful
You are someone who:
- Enjoys developing engineers and creating an environment where technical experts can perform at their best.
- Can distinguish an urgent operational issue from an important long-term engineering risk.
- Combines technical depth with pragmatic decision-making.
- Is comfortable challenging existing solutions and asking whether recurring problems are truly solved.
- Builds strong relationships between Engineering and Manufacturing.
- Uses data and engineering judgement to make decisions.
- Can translate complex technical issues into clear recommendations for different stakeholders.
- Creates ownership rather than becoming the owner of every technical problem.
- Balances short-term manufacturing support with long-term equipment reliability and lifecycle needs.
- Remains calm and provides direction when manufacturing or technical situations become challenging.
What You’ll Lead
You will lead the DSP Equipment Engineering team, responsible for supporting and continuously improving the equipment and technical systems that enable reliable downstream manufacturing.
The team works at the intersection of Manufacturing, Engineering, Maintenance, Quality, Automation and Process Engineering, giving the supervisor both significant operational exposure and the opportunity to influence the longer-term technical direction of DSP.
What the Role Offers
This role provides an opportunity to:
- Lead and develop a team of highly skilled Equipment Engineers.
- Have a visible impact on the reliability and future readiness of a complex biologics manufacturing operation.
- Work with a broad range of advanced biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies.
- Combine people leadership with technical and operational decision-making.
- Influence equipment strategy, lifecycle management, reliability improvements and future investments.
- Lead improvements from shop-floor problem identification through engineering solution and implementation.
- Collaborate with experts across Manufacturing, Quality, Maintenance, Automation, Validation and Engineering.
- Build experience across operations, engineering leadership, reliability, CAPEX and asset lifecycle management, creating strong opportunities for further leadership development within J&J.
- One year contract duration with the intention to extend
Required Skills:
Preferred Skills:
Agile Decision Making, Developing Others, Efficiency Analysis, Emerging Technologies, Inclusive Leadership, Leadership, Lean Supply Chain Management, Problem Solving, Process Control, Process Engineering, Process Improvements, Product Costing, Product Improvements, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Application, Situational Awareness, Supply Planning, Team Management, Technical Research, Technical Support, Vendor Selection