Head of Advanced Bioconjugation Technologies 80-100%

**Location. Visp, Switzerland.**

Today, Lonza is a global leader in life sciences operating across five continents. While we work in science, there’s no magic formula to how we do it. Our greatest scientific solution is talented people working together, devising ideas that help businesses to help people. In exchange, we let our people own their careers. Their ideas, big and small, genuinely improve the world. And that’s the kind of work we want to be part of.

In the current growth environment, Lonza offers multiple career opportunities within the Advanced Synthesis business platform. In this opportunity, we are looking for a motivated and influential leader with solid experience in Bioconjugation. This role directly reports to the Head of R&D in the Business Plattform.

The role's purpose and scope are to contribute to the overall R&D strategy by offering Bioconjugation R&D strategic input/roadmap across the ADS platform to generate industry-leading/ differentiated offerings and outstanding levels of performance in our development and manufacturing operations. The incumbent will lead a team of experts in chemistry, biology, automation, chemical engineering, and modeling deployed across multiple projects to enable the deployment of industry-leading capabilities in close collaboration with internal stakeholders. Coordinate a portfolio of external partnerships addressing key problem statements in an open innovation context.

**What you’ll get**:

- An agile career and dynamic working culture.
- An inclusive and ethical workplace.
- Compensation programs that recognize high performance.
- A variety of benefits dependant on role and location.

**What you’ll do**:

- Act as R&D lead for bioconjugation process technologies across the ADS organization (R&D, MSAT, Development Services, etc) and partner with relevant leads across Lonza.
- Effectively manage resources and projects in line with prioritized platform needs.
- Collaborate with all relevant R&D teams (Portfolio management, chemical technologies, drug delivery, Analytical, data science and modelling), functions (operations, quality, etc) and relevant operational teams across sites e.g. development services, MSAT, manufacturing for bioconjugation, microbial, mammalian and drug product.
- Identify and execute on end to end process optimization opportunities within the innovation portfolio in a collaborative fashion.
- Ensure effective deployment of new tools and capabilities in operations, services, commercial development, etc to deliver value to the business.
- Accelerate the adoption of high throughput automation and analytics and modeling technologies (inc AI, etc) for bioconjugation including through partnerships / external collaborations.
- Work closely with all relevant SMEs to ensure alignment of projects and priorities.
- Manages the bioconjugates process R&D team, including recruitment, the definition of personal and team targets, review and management of staff performance, and supporting individual development.

**What we’re looking for**:

- PhD in Science, an equivalent professional qualification or occupational experience in Chemical engineering, statistics, chem-informatics/chemometrics.
- Minimum of 10 years’ relevant experience in bioconjugation in a pharmaceutical /CDMO setting.
- Solid experience delivering strong value (new offerings, acceleration, etc) through the development and deployment of state-of-the-art bioconjugation technologies in a pharmaceutical /CDMO environment.
- Demonstrated ability to operate in a complex matrix environment
- Proven track record /scientific expertise in the development and deployment of complex bioconjugation technologies (linker/payload, process technologies, automation, modeling approaches,etc)
- Proven track record /scientific expertise in the development and tech transfer of various state-of-the-art bioconjugation technologies ( e.g. drug linkers, process technologies such as TFF, protein chromatography, automation, modeling approaches, etc)
- Established collaboration network and external recognition as SME in the field and ability to operate at multiple levels from strategic planning to site operational deployment in line with broader R&D and platform objectives.
- Support own and matrix team resource planning, project management activities, and prioritization decisions.
- Maintain documentation describing models, best practice with data and associated workflows.
- Confidently prepares high-quality technical analyses and reports for internal or external use.
- Self-initiating / self-directed.
- Strong communication skills and capacity to translate technical information into business insights for decision-making process and demonstrated ability to lead and influence diverse teams.

Every day, Lonza’s products and services have a positive impact on millions of people. For us, this is not only a great privilege, but also a great responsibility. How we achieve our business results is just as important