Director, Nexus Lead

Director, Site Nexus Lead

Location: Vacaville, California

Join Lonza in Vacaville as the Director, Site Nexus Lead, where you will play a critical role in one of the site's most significant transformation initiatives: the transition from SAP RVP to SAP S/4HANA. This highly visible leadership role combines strategic ownership of the Vacaville SAP ERP landscape with leadership of the site's Nexus SAP S/4HANA transformation, ensuring business readiness, compliance, operational excellence, and long-term ERP capability across the organization. You will partner directly with site and global leadership teams to drive successful ERP deployment, maintain a compliant and validated ERP environment, and support the future of manufacturing operations.

This is an office-first role. Working together in person supports close, real-time collaboration and team alignment, enabling us to deliver our best work. You will work primarily in the office, with the flexibility to work remotely for 20% of your time (one day per week).

What you will get:

The full-time base annual salary for this position is expected to range between $177,000-$295,000. In addition, below you will find a comprehensive summary of the benefits package we offer:

• Performance-related bonus
• Medical, dental and vision insurance
• 401(k) matching plan
• Life insurance, as well as short-term and long-term disability insurance
• Employee assistance programs
• Paid Time Off

Compensation for this role will be determined by the candidate's qualifications, skills, experience, and relevant knowledge.

What You Will Do:

• Serve as the Vacaville site lead and primary business representative for the Nexus SAP S/4HANA deployment, ensuring alignment between site leadership, global program teams, and business stakeholders.
• Act as the Business Process Owner (BPO) for the Vacaville ECC SAP ERP environment, ensuring systems, processes, and data remain in a validated and compliant state across all SAP modules, including MM, PP, PM, WM, FI, and QM.
• Serve as the ERP System Business Lead, collaborating with Business Sub-Area Process Owners, Process Managers, and cross-functional stakeholders to implement ERP enhancements and ensure system capabilities meet business requirements, service level agreements (SLAs), and evolving organizational needs.
• Lead end-to-end site deployment activities including planning, testing, data readiness, training, organizational change management, cutover, go-live, and hypercare support.
• Partner closely with the Site Head and Site Leadership Team to provide executive-level reporting, decision support, risk assessments, implementation recommendations, and strategic guidance on ERP and business process improvements.
• Drive strategic initiatives and foster cross-functional collaboration across local and global teams while ensuring data governance policies and procedures align with business objectives and compliance requirements.
• Drive business readiness across people, process, data, systems, compliance, and operational functions to ensure successful adoption of new ways of working.
• Lead the organization in adopting new ERP capabilities and functionality, promoting user competency, process standardization, and implementation of best practices.
• Establish and maintain governance, project management, RAID management, reporting dashboards, steering committee materials, and deployment milestones.
• Lead stakeholder engagement, communications, training, and change management initiatives that build organizational commitment and reinforce adoption of global SAP standards and processes.
• Lead change management activities associated with major ERP projects, upgrades, and enhancements, ensuring successful delivery within approved budgets and timelines.
• Provide input to management and site leadership regarding ERP system improvements, capability enhancements, resource requirements, and technology strategies that support business growth.
• Review and approve ERP system lifecycle documentation, validation deliverables, risk assessments, change controls, and standard operating procedures in accordance with Lonza quality and compliance requirements.
• Ensure ERP access management requirements, training documentation, business continuity plans, and related system records are maintained to support the validated state of the ERP environment.
• Support internal and external audits, inspection readiness activities, and audit responses related to the Vacaville ERP instance.
• Identify and resolve risks, resource constraints, competing priorities, and cross-functional dependencies while ensuring delivery against program objectives and timelines.

What We Are Looking For

• Bachelor's degree in a science, supply chain, business, information systems, engineering, or related discipline. Advanced degrees and certifications such as PMP, Prince2, CPIM, or CSCP are considered advantageous.
• Significant experience leading large-scale ERP deployments, transformation programs, or complex business system implementations within manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, or related industries.
• Experience serving as a Business Process Owner (BPO), ERP Business Lead, or similar role with responsibility for enterprise ERP governance, compliance, and business process management.
• Strong knowledge of SAP ECC and/or SAP S/4HANA, with experience across manufacturing-related modules including MM, PP, PM, WM, QM, and FI.
• Strong knowledge of SAP S/4HANA and manufacturing-related processes, including production planning, quality management, supply chain, inventory management, and logistics integration strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience supporting validated GxP systems, including lifecycle management, change control, audit support, risk management, data integrity, and compliance documentation.
• Proven ability to influence and engage senior leaders, manage complex stakeholder environments, and drive alignment across local and global organizations.
• Experience leading organizational change management, training, communications, business readiness activities, ERP enhancements, system upgrades, and process optimization initiatives.
• Strong project and program management capabilities, including governance, risk management, scheduling, resource planning, and executive reporting.
• Proven ability to partner effectively with technical teams, business stakeholders, process owners, and leadership teams to drive continuous improvement and maximize ERP system value.
• Understanding of regulated manufacturing environments, including GxP requirements, Computer Systems Validation (CSV), 21 CFR Part 11, data integrity principles, and audit readiness expectations.
• Familiarity with ERP access management, training requirements, business continuity planning, and governance practices within regulated manufacturing environments.

About Lonza

At Lonza, our people are our greatest strength. With 30+ sites across five continents, our globally connected teams work together every day to manufacture the medicines of tomorrow. Our core values of Collaboration, Accountability, Excellence, Passion and Integrity reflect who we are and how we work together. Everyone's ideas, big or small, have the potential to improve millions of lives, and that's the kind of work we want you to be part of.

Innovation thrives when people from all backgrounds bring their unique perspectives to the table. At Lonza, we offer equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you're ready to help turn our customers' breakthrough ideas into viable therapies, we look forward to welcoming you on board.

Ready to Shape the Future of Life Sciences? Apply Now.