The processes run, the audits pass, the team delivers.

What is missing is the step that truly changes something.

Perhaps you already run a GMP site or a large production unit and sense that the big levers have long been pulled. Perhaps you are a deputy site head, waiting for someone to vacate a chair they will never vacate.

Or you have learned, as head of production, plant manager or operations lead in a larger corporation, how to lead, deliver and defend quality. And you wonder what it would be like to do that at a site small enough for your signature to show.

In all three cases, this mandate is worth a closer look:

What would emerge if you did not administer a site, but shaped it?

Whether that fits your situation is best clarified in confidence.

The Mandate

Not a caretaker role. A builder's role.

Our client manufactures medicinal products of botanical origin and related products under GMP. We are looking for a site leader who runs production, quality, engineering and logistics under one roof and at the same time takes on the statutory role of Managing Director.

The facilities are in place. The site has been invested in, modernized, planned ahead, and new lines are being built. The infrastructure is there, the products have substance, the market is asking. What matters now is a person who thinks of this site not primarily in terms of machines, but in terms of people. Someone who gives leadership instead of administering it.

Operational excellence and lived GMP compliance are not ends in themselves. They are the foundation that brings products to people who rely on their effect.

01Site and statutory office. You lead production, quality, engineering and logistics and take on the statutory role of Managing Director. All lines converge with you, internally and externally. You are accountable for every batch leaving the site with what defines it: a quality that is not negotiable.
02Operational excellence. You look at processes, OEE, lead times, scrap and qualification. And you look just as closely at what happens between the numbers: at shift handovers, at conversations on the line, at whether people know why they do what they do.
03New lines. You integrate the new lines into ongoing operations without the day-to-day business taking damage. You plan ramp-ups, validations and staffing together with your team, not over their heads.
04Authorities and audits. You are the point of contact for authorities and for internal and external audits. For you, GMP is not a compliance topic but a matter of course that you live by example.
05Culture and leadership. This is not a workshop assignment, it is daily work. Which leaders do you develop further, which ones do you develop from scratch? And what will people say about your site leadership in five years?

What You Bring

We are not looking for a résumé. We are looking for the person who leads this site into its next decade.

You have led a site or a large production unit in a GMP-regulated environment. Whether that was herbal medicinal products, food supplements, sterile liquids or solid dosage forms is secondary. Contract manufacturing with demanding customer audits is also an excellent fit.
You know how an authority thinks, how an audit unfolds and how to build a quality culture that makes audit day a non-event.
You lead people because you want to, not because it is in your title. Shift leads, foremen, operators and QA colleagues speak different languages, and you are clear in every one of them.
You can do both: read the numbers a site is steered by, and walk the shop floor where it comes to life. You spend time on the line because you see things there you cannot see anywhere else.
You have owned change before, without the team falling apart. You know what it means to deliver and rebuild at the same time.
Academically, typically a degree in pharmacy, food technology, process engineering, biotechnology or comparable. What matters is that you have mastered the subject, not which paper says so.

What You Will Find

The heavy investments have been made. What remains is leadership.

01A clear mandate. A modernized plant, a funded expansion path and a group of companies that thinks in generations, not quarters. The structural questions are settled.
02A rare degree of creative freedom. You are not entering a fully sorted operation where every decision has already been made, but a site whose next chapter you write.
03A portfolio that makes sense. Things are made here that actually help people.
04A region where things fall into place. Main-Franconia with a high quality of life, well reachable from Würzburg, Schweinfurt, Kitzingen, Bamberg and the greater Nuremberg area. Family, nature and work fit together here, and not just in the image film.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a background in herbal medicinal products?

Whether your experience comes from herbal medicinal products, food supplements, sterile liquids, solid dosage forms or from contract manufacturing with demanding customer audits: what matters is that you have mastered the GMP-regulated environment.

I run a production unit today but have not been a Managing Director yet. Can I apply?

Yes. What matters is that you have carried strategic responsibility for a GMP site or a production unit and lead people with disciplinary authority. For many candidates the statutory office is the next logical step, and this role is cut precisely for that.

What does the statutory role of Managing Director mean in practice?

Plant management and the office of Managing Director in one role. All lines converge with you, internally and externally: you lead the site with production, quality, engineering and logistics, and you are the point of contact for authorities and for internal and external audits.

How far along is the site expansion?

The site has been invested in, modernized and planned ahead, and new lines are being built. Your task is to integrate them into ongoing operations without the day-to-day business taking damage: you plan ramp-ups, validations and staffing together with your team.

Where is the site located?

In Main-Franconia, Germany, in the Würzburg and Schweinfurt area. Well reachable from Würzburg, Schweinfurt, Kitzingen, Bamberg and the greater Nuremberg area.

Will my current employer learn about my application?

No. We work in strict confidence: your name does not leave our office until you explicitly release it. A first conversation also stays between us.

Who is filling this position?

ANDRIS Consulting, a pharma executive search boutique based in Munich. Christoph Andris personally leads this search under an exclusive mandate from the company.

How does the process work?

We manage this search as external advisors, confidentially and under an exclusive mandate. If you sense between the lines that this is about something real, send us a few lines and your CV.

Contact · Confidential

Let's talk.

Informal, discreet, at eye level. A few lines and your CV are enough. Your first step stays between us.

Did we reach out to you via LinkedIn?
Please reply directly to the message. We will get back to you promptly.

ANDRIS Consulting · Pharma Executive Search Boutique
pharmaheadhunting.de · Gender note · kontakt@acolifesciences.de · Deutsche Version