Director, Manufacturing Operations

Panther: Better Health Is Skin Deep

Panther is unlocking the tremendous biological power of our skin, delivering efficacious, shelf-stable treatments directly to customers. Panther's precisely engineered smart microarray patches (SmartPatches) address a wide range of needs in Skin Health (cosmetics, medical aesthetics) and are designed to treat conditions in Systemic Health (infectious diseases, allergies, cancer, autoimmune diseases, metabolic disorders). Billions of people around the world lack access to effective treatment, and we will change this.

SmartPatches enable effective, tech-enabled customer experiences, and our AI platform provides valuable insights for improved patient outcomes and the development of even better treatments. SmartPatches are affordable to manufacture and distribute, and easy to apply, resulting in greater access and market expansion. Panther is developing clinically validated products, the first of which launches in 2027.

The Opportunity

Panther Life Sciences is building a new category of consumer-centric health and beauty products powered by our SmartPatch platform. As we move from development into commercialization, manufacturing becomes the critical unlock for scale, quality, and customer trust.

We are seeking a Director of Manufacturing Operations to own this transition end-to-end. This role is responsible for translating innovative R&D into reliable, high-quality, and scalable commercial production across both cosmetic and medical device products. You will lead the build-out of Panther's manufacturing strategy, serving as the bridge between internal development teams and external CMO partners.

You will define how manufacturing operates at Panther, from selecting and standing up partners, to leading technology transfer, to building the systems that allow us to scale from thousands to millions of units. This is not a maintenance role. You will be building the manufacturing function from scratch. Your work will directly impact product availability, customer experience, and the company's ability to grow.

You will work closely with the leadership team and cross-functional team members in formulation, device development, and quality to establish a manufacturing engine that supports both near-term commercial goals and long-term platform expansion. This is for someone who wants to build, scale, and set the standard for manufacturing in a category-defining company with a great team and a platform that is already generating clinical results. If you want to build something that matters, we want to hear from you.

Some travel will required approximately 10% -30%

This role is ideally based in Pittsburgh, with New York as an alternative location."

Responsibilities

• CDMO & Manufacturing Operations
• 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
• Scaling, Systems & Financial Planning
• 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
• Quality, Compliance & Cross-Functional Leadership
• 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

Qualifications

• 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

Preferred Qualifications

• 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