Senior Manager, Separation and Characterisation Sciences

Job Introduction Position:
Senior Manager, Separation and Characterisation Sciences

Location:

Liverpool About Pharmaron Pharmaron is a global contract research and manufacturing organization (CRO/CDMO) helping pharma and biotech companies bring new therapies to life. With over 25,000 employees worldwide across 28 locations in the UK, US, China, and Singapore, we support drug discovery through to manufacturing with fully integrated high-quality services.

We're proud of the impact we make and just last year, we supported 887 discovery projects, 1,100+ CMC programs, and 1,397 clinical trials across all phases. Our teams are involved in everything from small molecules, ADC's, biologics, and gene therapies and we work with more than 3,300 global customers. To learn more, visit .We are seeking an experienced and people-focused Senior Manager to lead our newly combined Separation and Characterisation Sciences team in Liverpool.

This is a key leadership opportunity for someone who can bring together two complementary scientific groups, build a cohesive and high-performing team, and shape the future direction of our biologics analytical capabilities.

You will provide scientific, technical and strategic leadership across analytical CMC programmes supporting the development, characterisation, transfer, validation and GMP manufacture of biologics and advanced therapies. The role combines team leadership with technical oversight, client engagement and the opportunity to expand our standalone analytical CRO offering alongside CDMO project delivery.

This position would suit an established scientific leader or a highly credible Principal Scientist or Group Leader who already has meaningful people-leadership experience and is ready to take on broader responsibility.

What you will doLead, coach and develop a team of Senior Scientists, Scientists and a Scientific Associate, creating a strong culture of collaboration, scientific excellence, accountability and continuous improvement. Bring together the Separation Sciences and Characterisation teams, establishing clear priorities, effective ways of working and a shared team identity. Provide subject-matter expertise and technical direction in biologics analytical development and physicochemical and biophysical characterisation.

Guide complex characterisation activities, with particular emphasis on mass spectrometry and peptide mapping, alongside chromatography-based methods such as HPLC/UHPLC, (reverse phase, SEC and IEX). Oversee method development, optimisation, phase-appropriate validation, method lifecycle management, comparability studies and technology transfer into QC for routine GMP release testing. Review and approve protocols, reports, specifications, development strategies and relevant regulatory submission content. Lead or support analytical programmes, complex investigations, manufacturing support activities and cross-functional CMC discussions.

Act as a technical partner to clients through project meetings, capability presentations, proposal development, technical due diligence and issue escalation. Work with commercial and scientific colleagues to help develop the site’s analytical CRO business and win standalone characterisation projects. Drive operational excellence, digitalisation, Lean and 5S initiatives, and contribute to technology and CAPEX planning. Support audits and inspections and ensure delivery in accordance with quality, regulatory, GMP and EHS requirements.

What we are looking for Essential:

A BSc, MSc or equivalent qualification in a relevant life sciences discipline, with substantial biopharmaceutical experience.

Demonstrable expertise in biologics analytical development and product characterisation, for a range of biological modalities including but not limited to monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins.  Understanding of mass spectrometry and peptide mapping techniques and experience of chromatography-based separation techniques such as HPLC/UHPLC and Capillary Electrophoresis is also expected. Credible people-leadership experience, ideally gained over at least three years, with evidence of coaching, performance management, team development and building effective scientific teams.

The ability to balance scientific depth with an engaging, collaborative and people-focused leadership style.

Experience of method development, comparability assessment, reference standard qualification, method lifecycle management, analytical validation and/or technology transfer. Strong knowledge of GMP, Quality Management Systems and the requirements for transferring analytical methods into a regulated QC environment. Confident communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to explain complex science clearly and influence decisions. Strong problem-solving, prioritisation and decision-making skills, with the ability to lead through change.

Desirable:

Experience with in a client-facing biologics CDMO, CRO or biopharmaceutical environment. Experience…