Director of Operations

About the role

An innovative, growth‑stage life sciences company based in Munich is seeking a Director of Operations to own end‑to‑end operational execution and scaling readiness across the organization. Reporting to the COO, the role leads functional heads in production, supply chain, operations systems/IT and related areas.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and develop the Operations leadership team, defining structure, roles and performance expectations.
• Drive manufacturing scale‑up to meet global demand and geographic expansion plans.
• Design and execute a multi‑year Operations capability roadmap covering people, processes, systems, suppliers and sites.
• Ensure operational performance targets such as OTIF, capacity utilization, throughput optimization and quality execution.
• Oversee supplier and contract‑manufacturing qualification, resilience, cost management and continuity.
• Establish disciplined operating cadence, governance, escalation pathways and a single source of truth for performance and risk visibility.
• Implement robust production planning, daily management processes and capacity expansion initiatives.
• Build integrated supply planning capability, inventory strategy and lead‑time optimization.

Required profile

• Proven hands‑on leader with an entrepreneurial, self‑directed mindset.
• Extensive experience scaling operations in a highly regulated, life‑sciences or manufacturing environment.
• Strong track record of building high‑performance cultures focused on documentation discipline and operational excellence.
• Ability to design and implement scalable, quality‑centric operating systems, KPIs and risk‑management frameworks.

Required skills

• Operations management
• Supply chain management
• Manufacturing scale‑up