About the role
Sana Biotechnology is growing, and we are hiring new team members who believe in the potential of engineered cells as medicines, who are passionate about delivering the possible to patients, and who lead with the desire to work on novel ideas.
As an Associate Director, Clinical Supply Chain Lead, you will report to the Senior Director, Supply Strategy & S&OP to assume accountability for end-to-end clinical supply chain readiness and execution for an innovative cell therapy with unique time-critical and patient-specific logistical constraints. In this role, you will design, operationalize, and execute our clinical supply chain and logistics model—from manufacturing slot alignment through product release, shipment, site receipt, and Day-of-Dose execution. Sitting within Technical Operations, you will serve as the central operational point of contact between Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Clinical Operations to ensure finished product logistics are executed flawlessly and on time to support patient treatment.
What you’ll do
- Supply Model Design & Readiness: Manage the end-to-end clinical supply chain model, developing and continuously refining readiness plans that define critical path activities, dependencies, risks, and decision points for clinical dosing.
- Documentation & Manual Ownership: Lead the development, authorship, and lifecycle management of logistics SOPs, chain of custody processes, and the Drug Product Handling & Preparation Manual, including site training content for Day-of-Dose execution.
- Vendor & Partner Qualification: Oversee the selection, onboarding, qualification, and ongoing operational management of external logistics partners, specialty couriers, and service providers.
- Cross-Functional Scheduling Alignment: Ensure tight alignment between clinical demand, manufacturing slot availability, batch release timing, and logistics execution, working across Technical Operations to proactively escalate and resolve scheduling conflicts.
- Logistics & Shipment Execution: Serve as the operational owner for day-to-day patient-specific product scheduling and shipment coordination, aligning transport constraints with QA release windows for short-shelf-life products.
- Real-Time Exception Management: Monitor live shipments and lead real-time issue resolution, exception handling, and process FMEA development for delays, deviations, or temperature excursions.
- Clinical Site Activation & Support: Act as the primary TechOps contact for clinical sites, partnering with Clinical Operations to identify site-specific constraints (storage capabilities, OR workflows, delivery hours) to execute successful readiness assessments.
- Governance & Escalation Pathways: Establish clear technical escalation pathways—including issue intake, triage, and decision ownership—while ensuring consistent, proactive communication of timelines and risks to internal stakeholders and sites.
- Continuous Improvement & Compliance: Contribute to deviation investigations and CAPAs in partnership with Quality, driving continuous improvement by incorporating lessons learned from mock runs, early patient waves, and site feedback into standard workflows.
- Engage in crucial conversations by providing and receiving feedback supporting the growth and development of team members.
- Demonstrate ability to engage and effectively influence team members across multidisciplinary teams while prioritizing multiple projects and meeting deadlines.
- Drive curiosity, scientific rigor and excellent problem-solving skills across a performance-driven environment.
- Innate ability to assess talent that will help grow the organization and add to Sana’s culture.
What we’re looking for
- A Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Logistics, Life Sciences, or a related technical field; however, a specific combination of extensive professional experience and alternate education will be considered in exchange for this degree.
- 6–10+ years of professional experience in Supply Chain, Technical Operations, CMC, or related roles within the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry.
- Hands-on experience supporting clinical trial supply, specifically with advanced modalities such as cell therapy or gene therapy.
- Deep operational understanding of GMP, GCP, GDP (Good Distribution Practices), and chain of custody principles.
- Proven capability managing project critical paths, dependency tracking, and cross-functional coordination using tools such as Excel, Smartsheet, or MS Project.
- Demonstrated experience authoring SOPs and work instructions within a highly regulated compliance environment.
- Ability to translate complex technical and scientific concepts into clear, error-free operational plans.
What will separate you from the crowd
- Direct operational experience supporting first-in-human or early-phase clinical cell therapy programs.
- Technical expertise handling highly time- and temperature-sensitive logistics configurations.
- Prior exposure to formal qualification, validation, or dry-run readiness testing activities for clinical site delivery.
What you should know
- The base pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between $170,000 and $210,000/year; however, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.
- This position is based in Cambridge, MA, and operates under a hybrid workspace model.
- You will be required to coordinate and monitor time-critical, live logistics windows, which may occasionally require flexible hours aligned with manufacturing release and site delivery schedules.
How we work together for patients
- Lead from every seat – we seek to understand, act with honesty, and engage in the crucial conversations
- Thrive as a team – we hire amazing people, are intensely curious, and cultivate inclusion and personal connectivity
- Make it happen – we value vigorous debate, alignment around our decisions, and resilient execution
Get to know us
At Sana, we believe that a workforce with varied backgrounds strengthens us as a company and helps us to achieve our mission to meaningfully change the outcome of many human diseases. This belief is a pillar of our business and is critical to our success. Our goal is that Sana is the place for talented people to bring their authentic selves to work, to have a great career and to deeply, positively impact patients.
Core to our values, we believe there is nothing more important than the health and wellness of you and your family. For benefit eligible employees, we cover a generous portion of the cost for employee health coverage, making high-quality care more accessible and affordable. We offer ample time-off (various paid time off benefits, such as holidays, vacation, sick time, and parental leave), short- and long-term disability, employer paid basic life insurance, additional voluntary life insurance protection, financial wellness programs including financial planning resources, a 401(k) Plan with an immediately vested employer match, Tuition Reimbursement and Student Loan Repayment, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, commuter subsidy and a variety of wellness offerings to support each person individually. For more details on our benefits, visit Sana’s Benefits Portal.
We are committed to providing a workplace free of discrimination and harassment based on race, color, religion, age, gender, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental or sensory disability (including the use of a trained guide dog or service animal by a person with a disability), genetic information, actual or perceived HIV or Hepatitis C infection, medical condition (cancer or a record or history of cancer and genetic characteristics), marital status, sexual orientation, sexual preference, pregnancy (including childbirth and related medical conditions), disability, veteran status, political ideology, social class (including caste/caste identity), taking or requesting statutorily protected leave, status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.
To perform this job successfully, you must be able to perform each job responsibility satisfactorily. The job description listed above is representative of the knowledge, skills, and/or abilities required for this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions described above.
