Associate Director, Automation Engineering

Associate Director, Automation Engineering in Albuquerque, NM

Build your future at Curia, where our work has the power to save lives.

Curia is a global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) with over 30 years of experience partnering with pharmaceutical and biotech companies to provide life‑saving treatments to patients. At Curia, we are on a mission to advance our customers’ therapies from curiosity to cure and ultimately to improve patients’ lives.

• Generous benefit options (eligible first day of employment)
• Paid training, vacation and holidays (vacation accrual begins on first day of employment)
• Career advancement opportunities
• Education reimbursement
• 401K program with matching contributions
• Learning platform
• And more!

The Associate Director of Automation Engineering is responsible for managing a team of automation engineers and supporting contractors to ensure operations performance for various manufacturing, quality, and research automated systems. Team responsibilities include automation system administration, computerized system maintenance, and capital project support. This position also requires developing and implementing additional/expanded automation capabilities.

• Provide visible and active leadership for front-line automation engineers, representing the team in tiered value stream meetings, spending time on the shop floor, developing and nurturing relationships with peers, setting direction for the team and operational stakeholders, and ensuring customer satisfaction.
• Lead the improvement of site automation systems through continuous improvement initiatives and capital projects.
• Identify improvement opportunities and communicate the business case to site leadership.
• Manage the planning and execution of improvements by applying project management practices assuring alignment with the approved scope, considering at a minimum: resource allocation, budget planning and monitoring, scheduling and adherence tracking, cost/benefit, and communication/escalation.
• Review, propose and optimize standard procedures, and continuously improve the overall documentation set within the automation department.
• Serve as a conduit for new technology and the latest in industry trends by working with strategic partners and staying current on new developments in the field of automation.
• Build and maintain good working relationships with external partners and manage contracted work for scope and budget.
• Understand and support all GMPs, safety, and environmental regulations.
• Complete Safety and Quality records on time and in full and manage a team in a state of audit-readiness.
• Ensure systems are well positioned from aspects of data integrity, backup and archival, and cybersecurity, among others.
• Propose the department’s strategy, objectives, prioritization of tasks, and short and long term road maps.
• Effectively translate strategy and site objectives, allowing that strategy to inform the allocation of resources, prioritization of team tasks, and messaging.
• Responsible for the delivery of strategy and site objectives as they pertain to site automation.
• Foster Curia’s values on team members, and identify areas of opportunity concerning the competency and capability composition of the team.
• Read/interpret SOPs to ensure compliance.
• Maintain up to date trainings.
• Other duties as assigned.

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Computer Engineering or related field of study.
• Minimum of eight (8) years’ automation engineering experience.
• Minimum of five (5) years of experience in a bio/pharmaceutical manufacturing.
• Minimum of two (2) years’ experience in a professional management role.
• PLC experience (i.e., Rockwell, Allen Bradley, Siemens, and Simatic), preferred.

This role is responsible for leading and supporting a team, overseeing day-to-day operations, managing departmental goals, and ensuring adherence to organizational policies and procedures. This role also involves fostering a positive work environment, providing guidance and support to your team members, and evaluating performance to drive continuous improvement…