Director of Facilities

Our Frederick Manufacturing Centre (FMC) is a biologic manufacturing facility that creates life-changing medicines for people around the world. We are seeking a dedicated and experienced Director of Facilities to provide strategic, operational, and organisational leadership for the site's Facilities function in support of manufacturing, laboratory, warehouse, and office operations.

The Director of Facilities will be responsible for directing the operation of site facilities, maintenance, and utilities, as well as project execution to ensure safe, compliant, reliable, cost-effective, and technologically efficient support for site operations. This role is future-focused and accountable for advancing site infrastructure capabilities through master planning, asset lifecycle management, energy optimisation, digital enablement, continuous improvement, and organisational capability building.

The Director will ensure the function has the appropriate structure, talent, training, governance, and oversight needed to meet operational and regulatory expectations without compromising quality.

Key responsibilities include:

• Leading the Facilities function with responsibility for facilities operations, maintenance, utilities, engineering support, and technical services across the site.

• Directing engineering support to existing operations and providing leadership for new capital construction, installation, commissioning, and infrastructure improvement activities.

• Ensuring reliable utility and facility operations in support of manufacturing, laboratory, warehouse, and office areas, with accountability for uptime, service responsiveness, compliance, and operational continuity.

• Developing and executing the site facilities strategy in alignment with business objectives, regulatory requirements, and long-range site master planning.

• Supporting site master planning activities, including infrastructure capacity planning, asset strategies, future expansion readiness, and long-term capital planning.

• Preparing, managing, and overseeing capital and operating budgets, including forecasting, prioritisation, resource allocation, and financial performance tracking.

• Leading site energy conservation and sustainability efforts, including identification and execution of initiatives that improve energy efficiency, reduce utility consumption, and provide meaningful financial savings.

• Driving Lean, reliability-based maintenance, and continuous improvement initiatives to improve asset performance, reduce downtime, optimise maintenance strategies, and enhance service delivery.

• Establishing departmental goals, policies, procedures, and performance standards that support efficient operations and alignment with organisational and company policies.

• Acting as a senior advisor to subordinate leaders and staff, helping resolve technical, operational, scheduling, resource, and organisational challenges.

• Ensuring appropriate staffing, qualifications, training, and practical experience across the function so that departmental responsibilities are carried out effectively and without compromising quality or oversight.

• Maintaining strong governance over processes, personnel, and procedures to ensure appropriate accountability, operational discipline, and support for critical site functions.

• Providing cross-functional leadership and stakeholder management with manufacturing, quality, technical operations, laboratories, EHS, supply chain, finance, procurement, and senior site leadership.

• Representing the department in internal and external meetings, including technical reviews, operational briefings, contractor meetings, and senior leadership discussions.

• Interpreting, executing, and recommending modifications to organisational and company policies based on operational needs, business priorities, and future-state goals.

• Influencing long-range goals and organisational objectives related to infrastructure, engineering support, operational readiness, and site growth.

Leadership responsibilities include:

• Leading through subordinate managers and functional leaders to achieve departmental and site objectives.

• Establishing organisational structures, roles, and supervisory relationships that support performance, accountability, and scalability.

• Building and sustaining a high-performing team culture grounded in safety, compliance, collaboration, responsiveness, and continuous improvement.

• Coaching and developing leaders and technical staff, including succession planning, talent development, and capability building.

• Driving organisational change and leading transformation initiatives related to systems, processes, technologies, and operating models.

• Promoting clear communication and alignment across all levels of the organisation, including interactions with senior management.

Minimum qualifications include:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline.

• Significant progressive experience in facilities, engineering, maintenance, utilities, capital projects, or technical operations.

• Leadership experience in a GMP-regulated environment supporting manufacturing and/or laboratory operations.

• Experience managing capital projects, operating budgets, and contract service providers.

• Experience leading teams through managers, supervisors, or senior technical leaders.

• Demonstrated knowledge of facilities systems, utility operations, maintenance programs, and engineering support functions.

Preferred qualifications include:

• Advanced degree in Engineering, Business, Operations, or related field.

• Experience supporting pharmaceutical, biologics, or other highly regulated manufacturing environments.

• Experience in site master planning, infrastructure strategy, and asset lifecycle management.

• Formal experience with Lean, Six Sigma, reliability-centred maintenance, or operational excellence programs.

Required knowledge, skills, and abilities include:

• Strong leadership and change management skills.

• Ability to lead Lean and continuous improvement initiatives, including reliability-based maintenance.

• Strong technical problem-solving and analytical skills.

• Excellent interpersonal skills in a cross-functional environment.

• High degree of organisational effectiveness and ability to manage multiple priorities.

• Strong strategic thinking and business acumen.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

• Ability to interact effectively with all levels of management, including senior leadership.

• Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.

• Strong attention to detail and ability to maintain confidentiality.

Experience level: senior Employment type: full-time Workplace type: onsite Category: Engineering Industry: Manufacturing Salary range: Not stated Salary min: Not stated Salary max: Not stated Salary currency: USD Salary period: year Required skills: Facilities management, engineering, maintenance, utilities, capital projects, technical operations, leadership, change management, Lean, continuous improvement, reliability-based maintenance, technical problem-solving, analytical skills, interpersonal skills, organisational effectiveness, strategic thinking, business acumen, communication skills, problem-solving, data collection, fact establishment, conclusion drawing, attention to detail, confidentiality Preferred skills: Site master planning, infrastructure strategy, asset lifecycle management, Lean, Six Sigma, reliability-centred maintenance, operational excellence programs