Director / Senior Director, Strategic CAPEX & Investment Portfolio Management

About the role

Lonza, a global leader in life sciences, is looking for a Director / Senior Director, Strategic CAPEX & Investment Portfolio Management to shape investment decisions across its Specialized Modalities platform. The role leads investment governance, capital planning and portfolio prioritization, turning business needs into financially robust investment proposals. It works closely with sites, Operations, Commercial Development, Engineering, Finance and Global Value Assurance, guiding investments from initial assessment through approval and mobilization, and maintaining oversight through delivery and value realization. The position is based in Basel or Visp (Switzerland), or Houston or Portsmouth (US).

Key responsibilities

• Lead governance of the Specialized Modalities CAPEX portfolio, including growth investments and major projects needing Executive Committee approval.
• Drive annual and long-range CAPEX planning, consolidating investment demand across sites and modalities into a prioritized pipeline.
• Develop capital allocation recommendations for senior leadership, balancing strategic priorities, value, risk, affordability, capacity and interdependencies.
• Run the investment governance process from intake through approval, coordinating stage-gate reviews and ensuring proposals are complete.
• Integrate commercial, operational, engineering, financial, people and risk inputs into business cases, challenging assumptions with the responsible functions.
• Partner with Finance and Global Value Assurance on financial evaluation and scenario analysis.
• Support sites in early investment development and ensure continuity across the investment lifecycle, with clear accountabilities and handovers to E2E Leads and execution teams.
• Monitor portfolio performance against approved business cases, support value reviews and escalate material deviations, risks and decisions.
• Strengthen portfolio management with standardized tools, data-driven analytics and improved reporting, forecasting and decision support; familiarity with AI-enabled approaches is an advantage.

Required profile

• Academic background in engineering, finance, business administration, life sciences or a related discipline.
• Experience in investment portfolio management, strategic CAPEX planning, investment governance or capital project strategy in biopharmaceutical manufacturing, or equivalent experience from a strategy consulting firm advising on capital strategy, manufacturing networks, operations or major investments.
• Strong understanding of biopharmaceutical manufacturing and capital investments, able to evaluate technical feasibility, business cases, financial returns and execution.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex investment initiatives through governance and approval processes, coordinating cross-functional stakeholders.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive alignment in a matrix organization.

Required skills

• Direct engineering experience is an advantage.
• Experience applying digital tools to portfolio reporting, scenario analysis or decision support.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled approaches is an advantage.