Director, Human Resources Business Partner

Opportunity awaits those up to the challenge of developing transformative therapies across a broad range of debilitating diseases.

Summary:

Roles and Responsibilities:

Apellis is seeking a strategic, execution-focused Director, HR Business Partner - Tech Ops & Quality (TOQ) to serve as the primary HR partner to senior leaders across Technical Operations, Quality, Manufacturing, Technical Development, Supply Chain, and related regulated and laboratory functions.

This role is accountable for driving organizational effectiveness, leadership capability, workforce planning, and talent governance across a complex, highly regulated operating environment. The Director will partner closely with the Executive Director / Senior Director, People Experience Partners and HRBP G&A, HR Centers of Excellence (COEs), and the People Experience (HR Generalist) team to ensure consistent execution of people programs for employees below the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).

The ideal candidate brings deep experience supporting GMP, Quality, laboratory, engineering, or manufacturing organizations and demonstrates the ability to balance strategic advisory work with disciplined execution in a fast-scaling biotech environment.

As a senior member of the HR team, this role must:

• Operate with an enterprise-first mindset, prioritizing what is best for Apellis over function-specific priorities.
• Build a symbiotic partnership with HR COEs, ensuring operational needs are represented and strategies are executable.
• Ensure COE tools, frameworks, and programs are deployed with consistency across TOQ and the HRG team they lead.
• Demonstrate transparent communication, alignment, and follow-through to build trust across HR and the business.

Roles and Responsibilities, Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strategic HR Partnership
  • Serve as the primary HR Business Partner to Tech Ops & Quality senior leaders, advising on organizational design, workforce strategy, leadership effectiveness, and change management.
  • Translate business and operational strategy into people priorities that enable scale, compliance, and execution excellence.
  • Provide coaching to senior leaders on performance, accountability, communication, culture, and inclusion.
• Workforce & Talent Strategy
  • Lead workforce planning, succession planning, and talent review processes for TOQ functions in partnership with Talent Management.
  • Guide role clarity, spans and layers, capability gaps, and future-state organization design for regulated and technical teams.
  • Support performance calibration, promotion governance, and top-talent identification aligned to enterprise standards.
• Operational & Regulatory Alignment
  • Partner with leaders to ensure talent systems support Quality, compliance, and operational rigor
  • Collaborate with People Relations to proactively manage risk while building leader capability in performance management and employee relations.
• Enterprise & COE Collaboration
  • Partner closely with HR COEs (Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, People Relations, People Operations) to ensure programs are aligned, practical, and consistently executed.
  • Bring forward insights from TOQ leaders to influence enterprise HR frameworks, policies, and governance.
• Data & Insight
  • Leverage workforce analytics and talent data to inform decision-making, identify risks, and support organizational change initiatives.

Required Education

• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree in HR, Business, Organizational Development, or a related discipline preferred.

Required Experience

• 10-12+ years of progressive HR experience, including direct partnership with technical, scientific, Quality, manufacturing, or operational organizations.
• Experience operating in regulated environments (GMP, labs, engineering, manufacturing) strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated success influencing senior leaders and driving organizational change in matrixed environments.

Skills & Competencies

• Strategic HR advisor with strong operational acumen
• Organizational design and workforce planning expertise
• Talent governance and performance management discipline
• Change leadership and executive coaching capability
• Data-driven decision making
• Strong collaboration and enterprise mindset

Physical Demands & Work Environment

• Office-based work environment with periodic time in manufacturing, lab, or operations environments, as needed for partnership.

Travel Requirements

• 10%

Work Arrangements (Hybrid, Remote, Onsite, Field)

• Hybrid

Travel Requirements:

Education:

Pay Information:

Work Arrangement:

Benefits and Perks:

Apellis offers a comprehensive benefits package, including a 401(k) plan with company match, inclusive family building benefits, flexible time off, summer and winter shutdowns, paid family leave, disability and life insurance, and more! Visit https://apellis.com/careers/benefits/ to learn more.

Company Background:

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a global biopharmaceutical company leading the way in complement science to develop life-changing therapies for some of the most challenging diseases patients face. We ushered in the first new class of complement medicine in 15 years and now have two C3-targeting medicines approved to treat four serious diseases. Breakthroughs for patients include the first-ever therapy for geographic atrophy, a leading cause of blindness, and the first treatment for patients 12 and older with C3G or primary IC-MPGN, two severe, rare kidney diseases. We believe we have only begun to unlock the potential of targeting C3 across many serious diseases.

For more information, please visit http://apellis.comor follow us on LinkedIn andX.

EEO Statement:

Apellis is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal, state and local fair employment practices laws. Apellis strictly prohibits and does not tolerate discrimination against employees, applicants or any other covered persons because of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, sex (including pregnancy), gender (including gender nonconformity and status as a transgender or transsexual individual), age, physical or mental disability, citizenship, past, current or prospective service in the uniformed services, genetic information, marital status, AIDS/HIV status, smoker/nonsmoker, and occupational pneumoconiosis or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state or local law.
For San Francisco postings: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Other Duties:

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.