Senior Scientist II, Recombinant Peptide Process Development

About the role

AbbVie's Biologics CMC organization develops processes to support the advancement and manufacture of biologic medicines. AbbVie is seeking a highly motivated scientist to lead development of microbial-based recombinant peptide production processes. This position will serve as a technical lead across expression-system and strain development, fermentation, recovery, purification, and scale-up.

Recombinant production of short peptides can be challenging due to intracellular degradation, low expression, aggregation, and limited solubility. The successful candidate will develop and optimize practical strategies to address these challenges and advance robust, scalable processes for therapeutic peptide production.

When aligned with program needs, the candidate will also evaluate and apply genetic code expansion (GCE) strategies to enable the site-specific incorporation of non-canonical amino acids. The role will collaborate with cross-functional partners and contribute to process development, technology evaluation, and technology transfer activities.

Responsibilities

• Lead recombinant peptide process-development activities, including expression strategy, host and clone screening, process optimization, and scale-up.
• Design and evaluate expression constructs and microbial hosts, including Escherichia coli and yeast, for peptide production.
• Develop and assess fusion-tag and carrier-protein strategies-including His-tag, GST, SUMO, and inclusion-body expression-to improve peptide stability, expression, host tolerance, and recovery.
• Design and conduct clone-screening studies using microscale cultivation, parallel bioreactors, and other appropriate scale-down or high-throughput approaches.
• Develop and optimize peptide recovery processes, including cell harvest and lysis, inclusion-body isolation and processing, and chemical or enzymatic cleavage of fusion partners.
• Troubleshoot peptide-specific process challenges, such as aggregation, low solubility, degradation, incomplete cleavage, and co-eluting impurities; recommend and pursue appropriate solutions.
• Interpret analytical results, including HPLC, UPLC, and LC-MS data, to assess peptide identity, mass accuracy, purity, and process-related impurities; partner with analytical teams to address characterization needs.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and process approaches for recombinant peptide production, including genetic code expansion when relevant to program needs.
• Apply AI/ML approaches, where appropriate, to analyze peptide sequence, structure, and experimental data in support of design, optimization, and candidate prioritization.
• Communicate scientific plans, progress, challenges, conclusions, and recommendations clearly to project teams and other stakeholders.
• Mentor junior scientists and provide technical direction in recombinant peptide bioprocessing.
• Contribute to scientific publications and presentations at conferences, as appropriate.
• Maintain a high level of productivity while managing priorities and timelines; follow applicable corporate standards for safety, quality, and compliance.

Qualifications & Requirements

• PhD with typically 4+ years of relevant experience, master's degree or equivalent education with 10+ years of relevant experience or Bachelor's degree or equivalent education with typically 12+ years of relevant experience is required.
• Thorough theoretical and practical understanding of relevant scientific disciplines, with hands-on experience in microbial physiology and recombinant expression systems, particularly E. coli and/or yeast.
• Demonstrated ability to independently design, execute, and interpret critical experiments to address scientific or development questions.
• Experience developing or optimizing expression processes for peptides, small proteins, or other products susceptible to degradation, or instability.
• Experience with strain or clone screening, fermentation, and process optimization; familiarity with bioreactors and scale-down or parallel cultivation approaches.
• Demonstrated experience with preparative chromatography and peptide or protein purification, as well as peptide recovery and fusion-partner cleavage strategies.
• Strong experimental design, data interpretation, troubleshooting, scientific writing, and oral communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and timelines and work effectively in a matrixed, cross-functional environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing or manufacturing complex therapeutic peptides, particularly GLP-1 or related incretin peptides, in a pharmaceutical or biotechnology company or start-up environment.
• Experience applying genetic code expansion to incorporate non-canonical amino acids at defined positions using engineered orthogonal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA pairs and codon reassignment.

Additional Information

Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law:

• The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future.
• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.
• This job is eligible to participate in our long-term incentive programs.

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company's sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law.