Principal Scientist, Upstream Process Development

About the role

The Biologics Process Research & Development organization within our Company's Research Labs is responsible for developing the drug substance manufacturing processes for our Company's biologics pipeline. We work closely with colleagues in Discovery, Pre-clinical and Early Development to rapidly develop manufacturing processes for varied biotherapeutics and efficiently manufacture material to supply clinical trials.

We are also responsible for late-stage process development and process characterization to prepare for commercial manufacturing. We work with our partners in our Company Manufacturing Division to commercialize and launch new products.

We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced individual to join our team as a Principal Scientist. In this role, the successful candidate will lead cross-functional teams to develop CMC packages for our pipeline assets.

The successful candidate will also collaborate with fellow Bioprocess Development colleagues to develop and refine technical strategy related to next generation processing for assets in early- and late-stage clinical development. Applicants must have effective organizational and multi-tasking skills, demonstrated excellent scientific leadership, and superior written and oral communications abilities.

A track record of leveraging data science and digital tools for delivering impactful solutions to complex problems are distinguishing. Evidence of strong cross-functional collaboration, experience successfully mentoring junior scientist, leading projects, and strong external presence through scientific excellence are expected.

Job Responsibilities

The successful candidate will contribute to CMC development of our Company's pipeline, playing an active role in development of cell culture processes and transfer to clinical and commercial manufacturing sites. They will also develop strategies for process and pipeline-facing innovation. Responsibilities include:

• Leading biologic upstream process development for first-in-human and commercial processes by efficiently developing high yield, robust and scalable cell culture processes.
• Providing technical direction for process development, characterization, commercialization, and regulatory filing activities to ensure a smooth and clear path to successful PPQs an BLAs for our company pipeline.
• Advancing upstream platform process technical strategy and championing creative process improvement initiatives
• Initiating new collaborations to assess new technologies and industry strategies with relevance to our Company.
• Collaborating with academia, industry partners, and vendors to drive development, innovation and adoption of new process technologies with broad impact to projects or platform.
• Keeping current with the external patent and literature environment; actively presents and publishes externally and pursues patenting strategies.
• Mentoring and educating junior scientists

Minimum education required

Ph.D. with 6+ years of industry experience or Master with 8+ years industry experience in Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, Biochemistry or a related field.

Required experience and skills

• Proven record of accomplishments in upstream process and technology development with a strong scientific publication and presentation track record.
• Experience in CHO fed-batch cell culture and a working understanding of downstream & analytics.
• Understanding and hands-on experience on cell culture bioreactors including microbioreactors, bench-scale and pilot-scale bioreactors, and scaleup/tech transfer activities.
• Working knowledge of cell culture media, CHO cell biology and metabolism, DOE statistics and computational fluid dynamics.
• Ability to direct the planning, execution, analysis, and documentation of all stages of cell culture process development.
• Ability to work in a matrixed team environment and collaborate with both internal and external partners including vendors.
• Knowledge of biologics CMC development cycle.
• Experience with late-stage commercial process development, technology transfer, scale-down model qualification and process characterization.
• Demonstrated ability for taking initiative, creativity, and innovation in problem solving.
• Demonstrated ability to develop staff to maximize utilization of talent and actively guides career development; builds strong and collaborative teams.

Preferred experience and skills

• Experience with state-of-the-art cell culture processes including intensified inoculum and perfusion process development.
• Experience with high throughput microbioreactor systems, and advanced in situ analytics for process monitoring and control.
• Expertise in media development, media/solution chemistry.
• Background in data science approaches related to cell culture and predictive modeling e.g., metabolic flux analysis (MFA), omics, machine learning; experience integrating PAT efforts) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
• Experience leading cross functional, program development teams.

Required Skills

Biologics, Bioreactors, Biotherapeutics, Cell Culture Process Development, Cell Line Development, Combination Products, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Pharmaceutical Process Development, Process Characterization, Process Development (PD), Product Development Lifecycle, Regulatory Filings, Technology Transfer

Preferred Skills

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US and Puerto Rico Residents Only

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• The primary location for this posting is: USA - New Jersey - Rahway

Pay and benefits

Where required by law, the compensation range for this role is provided below.

The salary range for the primary location of this role is

$173,200.00 - $272,600.00

This range reflects the Company's reasonable expectation of the base salary applicable to this role at the time of posting. An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs. The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days.

Additional location(s): Please note the salary range above applies to the Primary Location of the position. Where a role has other listed locations, different compensation guidelines may apply. You may find the salary ranges for additional locations below. If the salary range is not listed for the location you are applying to, our Talent Acquisition team will provide further information to you relevant to your location.

Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully

Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company.

No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails.

• Employee Status: Regular
• Relocation: Domestic
• VISA Sponsorship: Yes

Travel Requirements

• 10%
• Flexible Work Arrangements: Not Applicable
• Shift: Not Indicated
• Valid Driving License: No
• Hazardous Material(s): n/a
• Job Posting End Date: 11/28/2026

Additional information

*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.