I was contacted by a recruitment consultant who described the role and enquired if I was interested. I expressed an interest and an interview was arranged. I was interviewed by HR and my current boss. It was a general interview exploring pharmaceutical experience to date, general interests etc.

I was invited to attend for a second interview, again with HR and my current boss. This was a more specific interview based on the star interview model (situation, task, action taken, result). I was presented with a number of situations (20-30) to describe what was the action I had taken and the outcome. Th recruitment consultant then arranged a medical test and reference check.and I was informed in a number of days that I had been successful and the company would like to make an offer. The company contacted me directly and made an offer. I had some extra requests and these were met. I accepted the role. The entire process took about two months.

My role can really be divided into two sections - R&D projects and manufacturing. Each day I have tasks relating to both sections of my role. I manage approx 30 people who have different responsibilities within each of these two sections of our company.

I spend time monitoring progress on the various projects that are ongoing at any one time. Each project has a time line that must be met to ensure the projects deliver products to the market on time to keep us competitive. My role would be to remove any compliance / regulatory roadblocks to the time line that may arise. I need to make decisions or suggestions that maintain the timeline and ensure product quality , safety and efficacy are maintained. We could have up to five development projects running at one time. A lot of time is taking up with project meetings to review progress etc.

We are also a manufacturing facility manufacturing product for up to 50 different markets. My group is responsible for the review and release of the product before shipment. Each day I meet the staff involved and review shipments for the week and any deviations that have occurred which might affect the product. I need to decide if the product is affected and needs to be rejected. If this is the case it must be reproted to the site and investigated to ensure it cannot happen again. We work to a shipment plan which must be met each week. We also have improvement projects to deliver each quarter which have to be managed.

My main ares of responsibility are;

• Ensure the Quality, safety and efficacy of all product manufactured and released
• Ensure all process are validated
• Facility, process and equipment validation
• Work with R&D to ensure all development projects meet the requirements for quality and compliance
• Department budget control
• Site regulatory compliance
• Customer complaint management and investigation
• People management and development
• Vendor and internal auditing

Main challenges in my role are:

Time management & people management - when managing a group of people there is always a variety of different needs and approaches. The team works best when all feel they can contribute in their way etc and this needs to be accommodated

Technical - I need to stay abreast with changes in the regulatory environment in Europe and US especially. The pharmaceutical are is highly automated and I need to be familiar with the manufacturing processes so any decision I make is sound and based on good science.

• I am technically sound, I understand the regulatory environment and also the manufacturing processes used to manufacture our products
• I have good experience in problem solving using various methodologies
• I believe I have good people skills, being able to relate to the different people types you meet at work
• I have good project management skills

My current role allows me to maintain a healthy work / life balance. I have a family with four children which takes up a large amount of time. I am active in a number of sports especially rugby and triathlon, also time consuming. I have progressed in my career satisfactorily so far but I would still have ambitions to progress further.

The company I currently work with encourages such ambition and allows people to seek responsibility and develop. It is important for a company to reward good / excellent performance and I am fortunate to work for such a company. Financial reward, while not being the most important aspect, is still important. My current role within the pharmaceutical industry pays well especially since I gained the Qualified Person qualification in 2001.