Principal Research Scientist I, Process Engineering

AbbVie • North Chicago, IL

20h • Onsite

About The Position

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. Process Engineering, a part of AbbVie R&D’s Development Sciences organization, is responsible for designing and developing scalable processes to make drug substances and drug products, including small molecules and antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), throughout pre-clinical and clinical development stages. Process Engineering also partners with Biologics CMC Development and Aesthetics R&D functions to provide active engineering support to enable robust process scale-up and manufacturing of biologics drug substances and drug products including toxins and cosmetic active ingredients (CAIs). They contribute to the development of innovative engineering technologies and create valuable intellectual property. Chemical/Bio Engineers within Process Engineering support pipeline projects through all phases of development, focusing on establishing enabling processes, optimizing drug substance and drug product processes, and leading manufacturing campaigns. They also work cross-functionally to transfer optimized processes to manufacturing sites, develop control strategy, and prepare reports for regulatory filings. The successful engineering candidate will play a key role in the R&D Process Engineering function, developing robust manufacturing processes and advancing innovative technologies using strong engineering fundamentals. The ideal candidate will have prior biologics, peptide, or ADC development experience and a passion for hands-on laboratory process development. The candidate is also expected to lead the identification and development of novel approaches and technologies to enhance process development efficiency and commercialization. The candidate must exhibit a collaborative nature in identifying process challenges on a wide range of projects, take part in a cross-functional team to deliver specific project needs, and take on a leadership role in developing and implementing solutions.

Requirements

• BS, MS, or PhD in Chemical/Bio Engineering or a related field.
• 14+ (BS), 12+ (MS), or 6+ (PhD) years of relevant industrial experience.
• Strong background in chemical engineering and the proven ability to demonstrate their skills in this field.
• Ability to solve difficult technical problems and champion new technologies to achieve project goals.
• Strong team player.
• Demonstrate scientific leadership.
• Effective oral and written communication skills for facilitating collaborations and leading cross-functional process development teams.

Nice To Haves

• Prior biologics, peptide, or ADC development experience.
• A passion for hands-on laboratory process development.

Responsibilities

• Develop robust manufacturing processes, supporting assets through all phases of development.
• Participate in and/or lead project teams towards development and characterization of new small and large molecule assets.
• Establish, communicate, and execute research plans.
• Develop commercial ready manufacturing processes in the laboratory and demonstrate the processes in the pilot plant.
• Set project strategies, define project responsibilities and timelines, and provide leadership in a matrixed team setting.
• Address challenging problems with biochemical reactions, separations, and/or isolations using expertise in reaction kinetics, transport phenomena, and mathematical modeling.
• Author and/or review technical documents summarizing process development efforts and contribute to regulatory filings.
• Exhibit a collaborative nature in identifying process challenges on a wide range of projects and communicate findings and recommendations effectively by multi-disciplinary interactions with organic chemists, analytical chemists, process development engineers, pilot plant engineers, drug product development scientists, program managers, and regulatory affairs specialists.
• Author publications and present at scientific conferences.

Benefits

• Comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick)
• Medical/dental/vision insurance
• 401(k)
• Short-term incentive programs

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree