Manufacturing Support and planner

Work Schedule

Standard (Mon-Fri)

Environmental Conditions

Adherence to all Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) Safety Standards, Cleanroom: no hair products, jewelry, makeup, nail polish, perfume, exposed piercings, facial hair etc... allowed, No contact lens allowed; prescriptive glasses will be provided, Office, Some degree of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) required (safety glasses, gowning, gloves, lab coat, ear plugs etc.)

Job Description

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue of over $45 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer.

Our global team supports customers who are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving laboratory productivity, advancing diagnostics, and developing and manufacturing life-changing therapies. Through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services, Patheon and PPD, we deliver an outstanding combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services.

At our Lengnau, Switzerland site, our state-of-the-art, multi-purpose manufacturing facility is designed for the large-scale production of biologics, with significant potential for future expansion. The site provides highly flexible biomanufacturing capabilities, from development through large-scale production, including stainless-steel manufacturing equipment.

We are looking for an experienced Manufacturing Support and Planner to play a key role in ensuring the smooth, efficient and compliant execution of our manufacturing operations.

How You Will Make an Impact

As Manufacturing Planner, you will be at the center of our day-to-day manufacturing operations, translating production requirements into clear and executable schedules.

You will coordinate manufacturing campaigns, monitor execution on the shop floor and adjust plans in real time to respond to changing operational priorities. Working closely with Production, Quality, Maintenance, Calibration, Supply Chain and Warehouse, you will ensure that equipment, materials, documentation and resources are aligned to support reliable campaign execution in a GMP environment.

This is a highly collaborative and operational role for someone who combines strong planning capabilities with an understanding of the realities of complex biologics manufacturing.

The position reports to the Operational Support Manager.

What You Will Do

Production Planning & Execution

• Develop, maintain and communicate daily and weekly, monthly production schedules across manufacturing areas.
• Ensure equipment, materials, resources and required documentation are available before batch start.
• Monitor ongoing manufacturing activities against the production plan and maintain clear visibility of progress.
• Adjust schedules promptly in response to deviations, equipment issues, material delays or changing operational priorities.
• Communicate production priorities, schedule changes, constraints and potential risks to Production Managers, Supervisors and Operators.
• Proactively identify scheduling conflicts and work with relevant teams to minimize disruption to manufacturing operations.
• Investigate planning-related issues within Manufacturing, working with relevant stakeholders to identify root causes, assess planning impacts and define appropriate corrective and preventive actions.
• Ensure lessons learned from planning-related deviations are incorporated into future planning processes to improve schedule robustness and operational reliability.

Campaign Planning

• Support the planning, preparation and execution of manufacturing campaigns.
• Coordinate batch sequencing, cleaning intervals and equipment allocation to optimize manufacturing efficiency.
• Ensure required tools, parts, equipment and utilities are available and ready before campaign start.
• Maintain an overview of campaign readiness and execution, identifying potential constraints before they impact production.
• Escalate delays, risks and significant deviations from the production plan to the appropriate stakeholders.

Maintenance, Calibration & Requalification Planning

• Work closely with Maintenance and Calibration Planners to coordinate planned maintenance, calibration and requalification activities with the manufacturing schedule.
• Ensure planned equipment interventions are incorporated into short- and medium-term production plans.
• Coordinate equipment availability and production windows to enable maintenance, calibration and requalification activities while minimizing impact on manufacturing.
• Identify potential conflicts between manufacturing campaigns and planned technical activities and work cross-functionally to develop appropriate solutions.
• Maintain visibility of upcoming planned interventions and ensure relevant manufacturing stakeholders are informed of their potential impact on production schedules.

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Partner with Supply Chain and Warehouse teams to confirm the availability of raw materials and manufacturing components.
• Coordinate closely with Maintenance and Calibration teams to support equipment availability and production readiness.
• Collaborate with Quality to support compliant and timely manufacturing execution.
• Facilitate effective communication across functions and between shifts to maintain continuity of production activities.
• Act as a central point of coordination for short-term manufacturing planning and execution.

Planning Systems & Performance

• Maintain accurate and up-to-date information in production planning and tracking systems.
• Document production plan changes, delays and associated actions in accordance with GMP documentation requirements.
• Prepare short-term capacity, utilization and production planning reports as required.
• Use manufacturing and planning data to identify constraints, support decision-making and improve schedule reliability.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify and implement opportunities to improve scheduling processes, planning tools and coordination routines.
• Participate actively in daily tier meetings and operational performance reviews.
• Support Production in troubleshooting operational issues and reducing downtime associated with planning or coordination gaps.
• Contribute to Practical Process Improvement (PPI) initiatives and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
• Use trends and lessons learned from planning-related deviations to strengthen planning processes and prevent recurrence.

Quality, Safety & Compliance

Quality and safety are fundamental to everything we do. In this role, you will:

• Work in accordance with applicable cGMP requirements, Quality policies, procedures and site instructions.
• Maintain a strong focus on data integrity, documentation accuracy and GMP compliance.
• Actively contribute to continuous quality improvement initiatives, deviation reporting, investigation and follow-up activities.
• Follow all Environmental, Health, Safety and Sustainability (EHSS) requirements, policies and site procedures.
• Proactively contribute to safety initiatives, including near-miss reporting and follow-up.
• Demonstrate Thermo Fisher Scientific values and maintain high standards of ethical and legal compliance.

What You Bring

Education

• Bachelor's, Master's or PhD degree in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Biology, Food Science, or another relevant scientific or technical discipline.

Experience & Skills

• A minimum of 5 years of experience in pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical operations within a GMP-regulated environment.
• Strong understanding of biotech manufacturing processes, sterile processes and production equipment.
• Practical experience and understanding of Clean-in-Place (CIP) and Steam-in-Place (SIP) processes within a GMP-regulated biopharmaceutical manufacturing environment.
• Understanding of the impact of cleaning, sterilization, maintenance, calibration and equipment requalification activities on manufacturing schedules and equipment availability.
• Experience in manufacturing planning, scheduling, production coordination or a closely related operational role.
• Ability to understand complex manufacturing dependencies related bott and translate them into practical and executable production plans.
• Understand automation-related manufacturing constraints and recipe dependencies that may impact production sequencing, equipment availability and campaign scheduling.
• Experience working with deviations, investigations and corrective and preventive actions in a GMP environment is an advantage.
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills, with the ability to respond effectively to changing operational circumstances.
• Demonstrated ability to work successfully with cross-functional teams in a matrix organization.
• Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills.
• A proactive, solution-oriented approach with the ability to identify risks and escalate issues appropriately.
• Professional proficiency in English; German is an advantage.
• Willingness to travel occasionally and participate in remote on-call duties when required.

What Will Make You Successful

You enjoy working close to manufacturing operations and understand that successful planning requires more than creating a schedule. You anticipate constraints, connect information across teams and adapt quickly when circumstances change.

You understand the interdependencies between manufacturing campaigns, equipment availability, cleaning and sterilization activities, maintenance, calibration and requalification, and you are able to bring these elements together into a realistic and executable production plan.

You bring structure to a dynamic manufacturing environment and are comfortable balancing multiple priorities while maintaining a strong focus on quality, safety and delivery.

Resilience and adaptability are key to success in this role. As manufacturing planning continues to mature and production is not yet fully routine, you will be comfortable working through changing priorities, evolving processes and new operational challenges, while maintaining a structured and solution-oriented approach.

You take personal accountability for your performance and commitments, communicate clearly and work collaboratively across organizational boundaries. You think and act with a customer-focused mindset, remain intellectually curious and continuously look for opportunities to improve the way we work.

Above all, you understand the importance of reliable manufacturing execution and the impact it has on our customers and ultimately on patients.

Our Mission Is Our Purpose

At Thermo Fisher Scientific, you'll discover meaningful work that makes a positive impact on a global scale.

Our colleagues bring our Mission to life every day by enabling our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We provide our teams with the resources and opportunities they need to achieve their career goals while helping take science a step beyond.

Join our team in Lengnau and help us deliver reliable, efficient and high-performing biologics manufacturing operations that support the development and production of life-changing therapies.