Director, Manufacturing Operations, MN

Panther Life Sciences is building a new category of consumer-centric health and beauty products powered by its SmartPatch platform. As the company moves from development into commercialization, manufacturing becomes the critical unlock for scale, quality, and customer trust. The Director of Manufacturing Operations will own this transition end-to-end, translating R&D into reliable, high-quality, and scalable commercial production across cosmetic and medical device products, and will serve as the bridge between internal development teams and external CMO partners. This role involves building the manufacturing function from scratch rather than maintenance. Some travel will be required, approximately 10%-30%.

Responsibilities

Serve as the primary relationship owner and day-to-day point of contact for CMO partners; Lead technology transfer from R&D to clinical and commercial manufacturing; Oversee late-stage clinical and commercial production across product lines; Drive manufacturing performance metrics including yield, throughput, and product quality; Support CMO selection and onboarding, including process validation and scale-up; Build and manage supply chain, logistics, fulfillment, and inventory operations; Own material sourcing and supplier relationships; Identify critical dependencies and build supplier redundancy to mitigate risk; Build the manufacturing line from the ground up with a path from ~10K to ~1M units per month; Drive automation, process optimization, and line redesign as production scales; Own manufacturing cost modeling and financial planning (FP&A) for operations; Develop sourcing strategy and budget frameworks in partnership with finance and leadership; Establish systems and processes to support future team growth and internal manufacturing capabilities; Ensure manufacturing quality, regulatory compliance, and adherence to QMS; Partner cross-functionally with leadership, formulation, device, and quality teams; Contribute to customer satisfaction through reliable product delivery and issue resolution

Requirements

Proven experience scaling a product from R&D to commercial manufacturing in a regulated environment; Experience overseeing manufacturing operations for a Class II or III medical device or equivalent regulated product; Hands-on experience scaling production volumes significantly (e.g., 10x or more); Direct experience working with CMO partners including selection, onboarding, and tech transfer; Experience managing supply chain, logistics, inventory, and fulfillment operations; Familiarity with Quality Management Systems (QMS) in regulated environments; Demonstrated ability to lead technology transfer and process scale-up; Experience with manufacturing cost modeling and financial planning; Direct people management experience

Nice to have

Experience with combination products (drug + device), such as auto-injectors, EpiPens, nasal sprays, or microarray-based systems; Background in Material Science & Technology Transfer (MSNT); Experience scaling production to high-volume output (100K+ units per month); Experience across both cosmetic and medical device products; Experience with automation and line redesign in a manufacturing scale-up context; Background in customer support or customer-facing operations within manufacturing; Experience managing managers or building multi-layered organizations; Strong systems orientation with experience implementing or optimizing operational infrastructure

Benefits

Build something unique and high-impact with a world-class team of experts in technology, healthcare, and science; Equity in the form of stock options; Competitive health insurance, including 90% employer-paid medical, plus dental and vision; Life, AD&D and short-term disability insurance; Paid time off and paid company holidays; In-person company events; Fully stocked kitchen, plus in-office lunch twice a week