About the role

As Director of Operations you will be fundamental to the smooth running of our company. You will organise and oversee the daily operations and be the one to ensure that our business is well-coordinated and productive by managing its procedures and coaching its people. Your role is based in Bellinzona and comprises a wide area of responsibility, requiring thorough knowledge of various company processes. You are highly competent and able to plan many different kinds of operational activities, including HR, legal and general operational matters across the UK, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. Ideally but not mandatory, you employ your experience in laboratory operations in a biotech or pharmaceutical setting, especially in Switzerland. As an excellent leader you discover the most efficient ways to run the business and lead your operations team to successfully implement and optimise them. By contributing your experience you safeguard and augment the efficiency of the company’s operations which facilitates and accelerates our growth, development and long-term success. You will work in a highly collaborative, team-oriented and fast-paced startup environment with a strong commitment to deliver and in ways that cut across traditional industry boundaries

What you’ll do…

Liaise with C-level executives to make decisions for operational activities and setting strategic goals
Plan and monitor the day-to-day running of business to ensure smooth progress, with a particular focus on HR, company policies, office and laboratory buildings.
With help from the HR manager, lead the top level HR strategy of the company including implementations such as performance management, soft skills training & the definition of job titles across the company.
Work closely with the leadership team on headcount requirements showing good knowledge of team requirements across the company
Ensure that the company runs with legality and conformity to established regulations in the UK, Switzerland, Italy and Germany by involving and managing consultancies where necessary (direct knowledge of the legal frameworks would be ideal but not required)
Ideally supervise the laboratory operations making sure that industry standards are met by guiding the generation of standard operating procedures for the lab team to ensure a high standard of quality control, data handling and storage
Closely work together with the laboratory operations team to continuously improve the laboratory processes and adapt them to the growing team size.
Work closely with your direct reports (including an HR manager, a lab operations manager and two executive assistants) to ensure good collaboration and communication across all teams within the business, giving support to these teams from an operational perspective where required.
Lead and mentor your direct reports and work in close collaboration with the director of finance to ensure a cohesive operational team.
Liaising with and building relationships with key stakeholders, including local authorities and regulatory bodies.
Evaluate regularly the efficiency of operational business procedures according to organizational objectives, address pain points and efficiently apply improvements
You scope and liaise with service providers and consultants where external support and expertise is required
Formulate and revise policies and ensure their company-wide implementation
Gather, analyze, and synthesize information on particular topics as requested by the leadership team
Prepare strategic communications utilizing a clear understanding of the business strategy and issues; develop and maintain consistent, relevant content for use in executive level communications and to support/lead projects to further organizational and business goals
Lead special projects as assigned by the leadership team
Routinely manage confidential information appropriately
Represent the organization at internal and external meetings and act as an interface between the organization and other groups (local stakeholders, institutes and companies)

What you Bring…

Several years of experience in company operations in the biotech or pharma sector with hands-on knowledge of the industry’s legal rules and guidelines
Experience in laboratory operations in an industrial setting are a strong plus
Strategic and operational management skills with the ability to develop and present sound proposals and recommendations; lead discussions on how to determine and prioritize strategic priorities
Proven experience in stakeholder management and ability to effectively collaborate across the organizations
Proven experience leading an HR team as well as implementing key HR initiatives
Capability for problem solving, strategic and critical thinking that results in significant business value
Ability to influence, build consensus, and manage conflict in challenging situations
Ability to work from the ground up, implementing processes from scratch and seeing what is best for a start-up, growing & fast moving company
Fluency in spoken and written English as well as Italian is absolutely mandatory
Ability to work on site in Bellinzona with travelling activities to the London office from time to time

About Us

Peptone is a category-defining translational biophysics company focusing on the intersection of physics, biology and supercomputing. Currently, we are in the scale up phase, where our efforts go into building out our experimental lab capacity in Switzerland while growing the HPC and ML teams in the UK.

Our interdisciplinary team consists of physicists, biologists, computational chemists, software engineers and mathematicians. We have created a company culture that is based on scientific and personal integrity and a highly supportive, inclusive attitude. Our curiosity and drive stem from the shared passion to contribute to our scientific understanding of proteins and to translate these insights into reality by developing drugs that make people’s lives better.

Corporate Culture

Default to transparency. As individuals, we view transparency as a lifestyle of authenticity, respect, and honesty. As a team, we view transparency as an effective way to work remotely and establish a culture of trust.

Cultivate positivity. We strive to approach things in a positive way while realizing all emotions are valid. We encourage constructive feedback from team members and business partners to foster positive collaborations.

Show gratitude. We regularly stop and demonstrate gratitude for our circumstances. We are reverent to our team, investors, advisors, and commercial partners who believed in us from the beginning and will always use this as a guiding light to growth.

Practice reflection. We believe the act of introspection is where true learning and life-changing adjustments originate. We approach discussions intentionally and think through all angles.

Improve consistently. We are biased toward action and have a higher expectation of ourselves and of our technology than others have of us. We aim to be fully engaged in our work and activities, and fully disconnected when we’re not working.

Act beyond yourself. We consider the bigger picture, knowing our work goes beyond ourselves. We are not afraid of the less-traveled path if it holds true to our values and betters the world.

Build Sustainably. Sustainability is at the core of our technology, research, and team values. Oppenheimer’s supercomputer runs on 100% renewable energy and mitigates the need for traditional high-throughput experiments in our Swiss lab. Our team is incentivized and committed to growing a sustainable future and corporate culture.

Diversify. Diversity at all levels is paramount in translating biophysics to first in-class medicines while embracing the serendipity of science. Diversity in mindsets, gender, skills, backgrounds, and — because we are geeks, protein sequences — are key to building an impactful future for our patients.

Patient Passion. Our team is interwoven with a passion for understanding the “why” of protein drug failures to avoid them. The integration of the Oppenheimer platform with our Swiss pre-clinical laboratory is an unwavering commitment to developing first-in-class protein therapeutics for our patients.

Reverence to the giants. We embrace the fortitude and ingenuity of all the great minds and teams who advanced the field of protein biophysics to enable cutting-edge therapeutics. It is our honor to collaborate in this arena to pay homage to scientists who laid the very foundation.

Committed to our Corporate Culture to embrace diversity, Peptone Ltd and affiliates are Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employers building a culturally diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race; color; creed; religion; national origin; age; ancestry; nationality; marital, domestic partnership or civil union status; sex, gender, gender identity or expression; affectional or sexual orientation; disability; veteran or military status or liability for military status; domestic violence victim status; atypical cellular or blood trait; genetic information (including the refusal to submit to genetic testing) or any other characteristic protected by law. We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.

Our Mission

Delivering first-in-class medicines for better patient outcomes is our obsession. Translating biophysics of intrinsic protein disorder to generate de novo protein therapeutics is our passion.

What we bring…

A non-hierarchical environment where everyone has a voice to influence and shape the company’s future direction
An appreciative atmosphere with fair salaries, company benefits and top class working equipment
A highly dynamic environment with plenty of opportunities for career development
A highly skilled and interdisciplinary team that is passionate about proteins, science and business
A unique company giving you the opportunity to push the boundaries of biopharmaceutical drug development
A fast-paced company with novel science and academic rigor at its core
A company that values your contribution to scientific endeavor and supports presentation and publication of your novel discoveries
A flexible working setup to ensure a work-life balance