Company Description
Cell and gene therapies are changing what is possible in medicine but have been limited by a lack of manufacturing scale. Cellular Origins exists to solve this problem..
As Chief Operating Officer, you’ll design and run the operating system that takes our platform from engineering achievement to dependable capital equipment installed in real facilities across the UK, Europe and the US. You’ll be accountable for how our systems are built, delivered, installed, and supported, so that customers can trust them on their most critical manufacturing lines.
You’ll join at a pivotal moment. The technology is proven, the opportunity is global, and the next step is disciplined, confident execution. This role gives you the remit and the resources to build an operations organisation that matches that ambition.
Job Description
About the role
As COO, you’ll be a key member of the executive team, reporting to the CEO and working closely with peers across product, engineering, commercial, and finance. Your focus will be to turn a powerful platform into a predictable, scalable delivery engine that serves customers in regulated and highly controlled environments. In short, you’ll build and run the operation that enables the manufacture, delivery, installations and support of our systems reliably as volumes grow.
You’ll bring together manufacturing and industrialisation, supply chain and procurement, installation and field service, sustaining engineering, facilities, health and safety, and operational IT into a coherent, data-led operating model. Quality will also report to you, with clear safeguards in place to preserve its independence. A particular emphasis will be on the life of high-value capital manufacturing systems, from engineering handover through build and test, to installation and commissioning at customer sites.
Your work will shape how customers experience Cellular Origins: how quickly and smoothly systems are installed, how robust they feel in use, and how confident they can be when regulators look closely at their manufacturing operations.
Crucially you will be comfortable, and excited by, the opportunity be part of a business as it evolves from development towards commercial scale.
What you’ll do
You’ll get to define how operations work at Cellular Origins, from first pilot builds to deployment of multiple commercial systems.
In practice, you’ll:
- Ensure smooth transfer of systems from product development into manufacturing and supply chain, deciding release to manufacture jointly with Quality, and subsequent shipping and installation into GMP environments.
- Lead manufacturing and industrialisation, building the capability and capacity to scale while driving down cost and improving yield.
- Own supply chain and procurement, including the supplier base, supplier selection, make-vs-buy decisions, inventory and long-lead planning.
- Own sales and operations planning (S&OP), bringing build, supply and installation together into one integrated plan, and setting the build plan and the installation dates we commit to customers.
- Build and develop the teams, processes, and performance measures that allow us to move from early deployments to a growing installed base across multiple sites and geographies.
- Shape how we plan and execute installations and customer deployment projects across the UK, US and Europe, how we manage commissioning and validation in collaboration with customers, and how we sustain high uptime and reliability over the life of each system through the field service model and spares strategy you set.
- Lead sustaining engineering for released products, making sure field issues are resolved quickly and permanently.
- Oversee our facilities, including specialist labs and manufacturing space, health and safety and our operational IT systems.
Alongside this, you’ll set the tone for operations across the company. That means embedding a culture that values safety, quality, and accountability, while still leaving space for learning and continuous improvement as we grow.
Qualifications
About you
You are an experienced operations leader who enjoys turning complex technology into something customers can rely on every day. You will be skilled at responding to changing needs, recognising what the Company needs today, may not be what it will need in 12-18 months’ time and you will be able to navigate these evolving needs alongside bringing others with you along the way. You are comfortable thinking at the level of network design and capital allocation and equally interested in how a specific installation will land in a specific facility.
You’re likely to bring:
- Senior operational leadership in a regulated or highly controlled environment such as medtech, bioprocessing, biotech automation, semiconductor, advanced industrial automation, or a similar setting
- Direct experience of the installation, commissioning, and lifecycle support of high-value capital manufacturing systems, ideally across multiple customer sites and countries
- A strong track record of translating innovative engineering into repeatable, documented, field-ready operations that feel dependable to customers
Direct experience of GMP cell therapy manufacturing is not essential. What matters is that you understand how production environments operate when quality, safety, and compliance are non-negotiable, and how capital equipment must perform in those conditions.
You’re likely to enjoy this role if you like building organisations as much as building systems.
You may have:
- Structured and grown operations teams spanning manufacturing, supply chain and procurement, logistics, field service, and customer support
- Used digital systems such as ERP and QMS to improve visibility, decision-making, and accountability
- Run an integrated S&OP process and made make-vs-buy and supplier decisions that held up as volumes scaled
- Worked closely with customers, partners, and regulators to align expectations, manage risk, and deliver long-term value
If you are thoughtful, collaborative, and motivated by impact on both patients and performance, you’ll find a great deal to shape here.
Additional Information
Cellular Origins is based at Melbourn Science Park, just 10 miles south of Cambridge. Our newly renovated premises offer modern office, laboratory and engineering spaces, surrounded by green spaces. We foster an entrepreneurial and collaborative culture, where ideas are encouraged, innovation thrives, and everyone has the freedom to do their best work.
Our employee benefits include:
- Annual bonus
- 25 days holiday
- Employer pension contribution of 10% of salary
- Private medical insurance for employees and dependants
- Subsidised lunches
- Enhanced family friendly leave
- Life insurance worth 6x salary
- Electric car leasing scheme
- Cycle to work scheme
- Season ticket loan
