Executive Director, Head of Facilities and Engineering

Overview

Today, Lonza is a global leader in life sciences operating across three 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.

Ready to step into a key executive leadership role at Lonza AG, a top player in life sciences? As the Executive Director, Head of Facilities & Engineering in Vacaville, CA, you will provide strategic and operational leadership for all engineering and facilities functions on site. You will oversee a large and diverse Facilities & Engineering organization and play a critical role in shaping site strategy, capital planning, compliance, and long‑term infrastructure readiness.

• Lead the full Facilities & Engineering organization, including Facilities & IFM, Utilities, Maintenance & Calibration, Reliability, Engineering/Capital Projects, Automation/OT, CQV/CSV, Cleaning Validation, Electrical Systems, Buildings & Grounds, and Site Security
• Own the site’s capital investment portfolio, including CAR approvals, financial governance, and multi‑year master planning for utilities, infrastructure, automation and digitalization
• Serve as a core member of the Site Leadership Team, shaping site strategy, long‑term capacity planning, risk posture, and business continuity
• Provide engineering leadership during regulatory inspections (FDA, EMA, MHRA) and customer audits, ensuring compliance with cGMP, Good Engineering Practice, and Lonza standards
• Drive modernization efforts, including predictive maintenance, digital engineering, OT cybersecurity, asset lifecycle management, and adoption of global engineering standards
• Ensure departmental KPIs for reliability, maintenance performance, utility uptime, project execution, safety and compliance are achieved and continuously improved
• Lead, develop, and coach a multidisciplinary organization, strengthening leadership capability, succession pipeline and engagement across F&E functions
• Oversee IFM/unionized partners and external EPC/engineering consultants to deliver safe, compliant, and cost‑effective operations and projects

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering; MBA or equivalent experience preferred.
• Demonstrated engineering leadership experience supporting licensed biopharma facilities, with deep exposure to maintenance, utilities, automation/OT, capital projects, and reliability engineering
• Proven success leading large technical teams and managing leaders of leaders in a complex, regulated manufacturing environment
• Extensive experience with GMP, regulatory inspections, engineering compliance, and resolution of complex deviations
• Strong experience working with external design/construction firms and customer stakeholders in CMO environments
• Business‑fluent English

We recognize that attracting, developing and retaining the best talent is key to our strategy and success as a company. As a result, we aim for flexibility in structuring competitive compensation offers to ensure that we are able to attract the best candidates. As required by law in this State, the quoted salary range for this position is $241,000-$437,000.

We use broad salary ranges that reflect the competitive market for similar jobs, provide sufficient opportunity for growth as you gain experience and expand responsibilities, while also allowing for differentiation on performance. Based on the breadth of our ranges, most new hires will start at the company between the lower and the middle part of the applicable range. We tailor our offers within the range based on job-related factors, including organizational needs, internal equity, market data, geographic area and the selected candidate’s experience, education, industry knowledge, location, technical and/or communication skills and other factors that may prove relevant during the selection process.

This range is only inclusive of base salary, and base pay is just one component of Lonza’s…