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Kyowa Kirin

Global specialty pharma focused on antibodies

Senior Manager - Supply Chain-Warehouse Set Up and Operations

Full-Time
No salary listed
Senior
Bachelor's
Sanford, NC, USA
In PersonWork is 100% on-site; requires up to 10% domestic and international travel.
Operations & LogisticsSupply Chain Management

About the job

Requirements
  • A bachelor's degree is required, focused in Supply Chain Management, Industrial Engineering, a business management subject area, or a related field.
  • At least 5 years of direct Supply Chain Management or Operations experience, ideally in life sciences manufacturing or another highly regulated industry, preferably in a manufacturing site environment.
  • Deep knowledge of planning processes, including Sales and Operations Planning, New Product Introduction, supply, material and inventory planning, warehouse operations, and compliance.
  • High proficiency using and improving the effectiveness of enterprise resource planning systems; Microsoft Dynamics 365 proficiency is a plus.
  • Experience with data analysis and digital automation.
  • Knowledge of continuous improvement and process improvement methodologies and tools, such as Lean Six Sigma, Kaizen, and Value Stream Mapping.
  • Ability to translate technical and business language effectively for different stakeholders.
  • Familiarity with implementing systems and business processes aligned with requirements for highly regulated industries, including Good Manufacturing Practice, Good Distribution Practice, and Computerized System Validation.
  • Strong critical-thinking and analytical skills.
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
  • Experience with risk and resiliency modeling and contingency planning.
  • Ability to work in a matrixed, diverse-culture environment.
Responsibilities
  • Establish, qualify, and lead Sanford's Good Manufacturing Practice-compliant warehouse and materials management organization, while providing governance and leadership for site planning processes, inventory strategy, enterprise resource planning business processes, and operational readiness activities supporting drug substance manufacturing.
  • Support greenfield development and onboarding of Supply Chain and Warehouse operations for the Sanford Manufacturing site, ensuring efficiency and compliance with company and regulatory standards.
  • Lead warehouse operations, including receiving, put-away, picking, shipping, and internal material movements.
  • Oversee warehouse safety programs, equipment certifications and licenses, and warehouse regulatory compliance.
  • Develop and maintain warehouse standard operating procedures, work instructions, and training programs.
  • Lead warehouse qualification and ensure compliance with Good Manufacturing Practice, Good Distribution Practice, GxP, and company quality standards across material-handling activities.
  • Maintain readiness for internal, external, and regulatory audits.
  • Support operational readiness for Supply Chain and Warehouse Operations, including logistics route risk assessment and lane ship studies, and ensure systems and processes are ready for go-live and ongoing operations.
  • Develop and govern processes for creating and managing production schedules within value streams, including prioritization logic, constraint management, process controls, and flex/buffer strategies, while achieving revenue, customer service, inventory, and lean productivity goals.
  • Identify capacity constraints and collaborate with Manufacturing, Process Engineering, Manufacturing Science and Technology, and Quality to resolve resource constraints and bottlenecks.
  • Develop and implement inventory management strategies that support revenue growth, minimize excess and obsolescence risks for finished goods and raw materials, and balance inventory turns and availability goals.
  • Own planning governance, inventory strategy, and escalation management for monthly demand and supply planning for site-manufactured products, aligned with global Sales and Operations Planning and Sales and Operations Execution processes.
  • Communicate proactively with suppliers and internal stakeholders to mitigate supply risks and maintain operational continuity.
  • Develop the cycle-counting process and govern physical inventory reconciliation with Finance.
  • Lead enterprise resource planning system updates and enhancements, including configuration development, impact assessment, and optimization of business process flows across integrated digital systems.
  • Establish change-management plans for enterprise resource planning updates, identify required standard operating procedure and work-instruction updates, execute user acceptance testing, and lead user adoption and training activities.
  • Establish, monitor, and improve business performance metrics and targets.
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience starting up and operating a biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility is strongly preferred.
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365 proficiency is a plus.

About the company

1) What does this company do? Kyowa Kirin develops specialty pharmaceutical drugs with a focus on nephrology, oncology, and immunology, built on a foundation of fermentation technology and antibody science. 2) How does this company's product(s) work? It uses fermentation-derived biology and antibody-based approaches to create therapies that target kidney disease, cancer, and immune-related conditions, delivered as approved medicines after research, development, and clinical testing. 3) How is this company different from its competitors? It blends deep fermentation and microbiology expertise with antibody technology from its history, plus a global specialty-drug focus, resulting from a merger of Kyowa Hakko Kogyo and Kirin Pharma that combined fermentation know-how with pharmaceutical resources. 4) What is this company's goal? To develop and commercialize innovative treatments that address unmet medical needs in nephrology, oncology, and immunology on a global scale.

Company Size

1,001-5,000

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

Tokyo, Japan

Founded

1885

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • FDA selected Sanford for its PreCheck Pilot Program on June 30, 2026.
  • Kyowa Kirin signed a U.S. access deal August 31, 2026, deferring Section 232 tariffs.
  • Pipeline remains active: KHK4951, OTL-203, and ziftomenib all advanced in 2026.

What critics are saying

  • Rocatinlimab died March 3, 2026 after Kaposi's sarcoma signals and trial termination.
  • Kyowa Kirin faces patent cliffs: major products lose protection in 2032 and 2033.
  • Sanford's $530 million build concentrates execution risk until FDA-ready production starts in 2027.

What makes Kyowa Kirin unique

  • Kyowa Kirin owns antibody, fermentation, and rare-disease manufacturing expertise since 1949.
  • The Sanford, North Carolina plant becomes its first U.S. biologics site, operational 2027.
  • Ziftomenib outside the U.S. gives Kyowa Kirin global AML rights through 2026.

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Benefits

401(k) Company Match

Paid Vacation

Paid Sick Leave

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

Health Savings Account/Flexible Spending Account

Unlimited Paid Time Off

Hybrid Work Options

Pet Insurance

Tuition Assistance

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

0%

1 year growth

-1%

2 year growth

-2%
Yahoo Finance
Aug 26th, 2026
Cognizant wins Kyowa Kirin AI R&D deal to implement Benchling platform in Japan

Cognizant Technology Solutions will support Kyowa Kirin in implementing Benchling, an AI-driven R&D platform, at the Tokyo and Fuji Research Parks in Japan. The engagement includes platform setup, data migration, ongoing maintenance, and workflow optimization for drug discovery research. The deal reinforces Cognizant's enterprise-scale AI automation capabilities in life sciences digitalization. However, it is unlikely to shift near-term catalysts around broader AI adoption or risks that AI may erode demand for labour-intensive services. Cognizant's narrative projects $24.9 billion revenue and $3.1 billion earnings by 2029, requiring 5.2% yearly revenue growth. The most optimistic analysts forecast revenue reaching $26.1 billion and earnings of $3.9 billion by 2029, depending on how AI investments translate into higher-margin work.

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Kyowa Kirin modernizes with Cognizant and Benchling R&D with AI and automation.

Kyowa Kirin modernizes with Cognizant and Benchling R&D with AI and automation. Last updated: August 17, 2026 12:53 pm Kyowa Kirin has chosen Cognizant and Benchling to support the rollout of Benchling's cloud-based R&D platform at its Tokyo Research Park and Fuji Research Park. The platform brings experimental planning, data collection, AI tools, and workflow automation into one place. Researchers can connect experimental equipment directly to Benchling, allowing data to be captured as structured and searchable records instead of being entered manually. That matters as Kyowa Kirin's research work becomes more complex and its pipeline expands. The company expects the platform to help speed up activities ranging from identifying drug targets to selecting new drug candidates. Researchers will also be able to search past experiments, generate reports, examine relationships between studies, and support molecular design using the platform's analytical and AI capabilities. Cognizant will handle the implementation using Benchling, including platform setup, data migration, deployment, and the ongoing upkeep too. This partnership shows where pharma research and development is headed, more or less, these days. More of the work around data handling and routine processes is being moved into connected digital systems, while AI is being brought closer to the research itself rather than treated as a separate tool. ITBT Staffwriter is an in-house contributor at IT Business Today, responsible for delivering timely News and QuickBytes. The author covers the latest developments across IT, tech, and enterprise solutions to keep readers informed with concise and impactful updates. August 17, 2026

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