Process Development Principal Scientist – Drug Product Technologies

Amgen • Thousand Oaks, CA

1d • $141,837 - $191,897

About The Position

Join Amgen’s Mission of Serving Patients. At Amgen, if you feel like you’re part of something bigger, it’s because you are. Our shared mission—to serve patients living with serious illnesses—drives all that we do. Since 1980, we’ve helped pioneer the world of biotech in our fight against the world’s toughest diseases. With our focus on four therapeutic areas –Oncology, Inflammation, General Medicine, and Rare Disease– we reach millions of patients each year. Amgen is advancing a broad and deep pipeline of medicines to treat cancer, heart disease, inflammatory conditions, rare diseases, and obesity and obesity-related conditions. As a member of the Amgen team, you’ll help make a lasting impact on the lives of patients as we research, manufacture, and deliver innovative medicines to help people live longer, fuller happier lives. Our award-winning culture is collaborative, innovative, and science based. If you have a passion for challenges and the opportunities that lay within them, you’ll thrive as part of the Amgen team. Join us and transform the lives of patients while transforming your career.

Process Development Principal Scientist

What you will do
Let’s do this. Let’s change the world. In this vital role you will join the Pre-Pivotal Drug Product Technologies group, which is responsible for early-stage drug product development across diverse modalities, including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), oligonucleotides such as siRNAs, monoclonal antibodies, multispecifics, and other complex biologics. The role involves designing and developing liquid and lyophilized formulations; evaluating critical quality attributes (CQAs); establishing robust, scalable fill/finish processes; and authoring and supporting high-quality regulatory submissions.
The ideal candidate will bring hands-on experience and leadership in biologics drug product formulation, process development, and/or analytical characterization, with experience in ADCs and/or oligonucleotides such as siRNAs strongly preferred. The candidate will integrate formulation, analytical, stability, and process data to guide product design and development, including modality-specific considerations such as linker-payload attributes, stability- and process-relevant degradation pathways, ADC CQAs, oligonucleotide formulation and stability considerations, and phase-appropriate analytical strategies. This individual will apply scientific judgment, emerging technologies including AI/ML, and strong cross-functional collaboration to deliver high-quality, stable, and manufacturable drug products for clinical development in a fast-paced environment.

Requirements

• Doctorate degree
• Master’s degree and 2 years of Scientific experience
• Bachelor’s degree and 4 years of Scientific experience
• PhD in Pharmaceutics, Biotechnology, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or a related field with 3+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Proven experience in biologics drug product formulation development, stability assessment, process development, and/or fill/finish operations; direct experience with ADCs, oligonucleotides such as siRNAs, or other complex biologic modalities is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated understanding of drug product development considerations for biologics and complex modalities, including formulation stability, degradation pathways, aggregation, particulates, manufacturability, product/process comparability, and phase-appropriate control strategies.
• Experience with ADC drug product development considerations, including linker-payload stability, drug-to-antibody ratio, free drug or payload-related impurities, ADC-relevant quality attributes, and process-related stress responses, is highly desirable.
• Experience with oligonucleotide or siRNA drug product development considerations, including formulation stability, degradation pathways, excipient compatibility, analytical characterization, and clinical administration considerations, is highly desirable.
• Experience integrating formulation, stability, analytical, and process data to advance drug product candidates from discovery or preclinical development into clinical manufacturing.
• Strong foundation in analytical and biophysical techniques relevant to biologics, ADCs, and/or oligonucleotides, such as UPLC/HPLC, SEC, IEX, RP-HPLC, HIC, CE-SDS, LC-MS, subvisible particle analysis, viscosity, osmolality, and stability-indicating methods.
• Familiarity with clinical-stage development, manufacturability, technology transfer, and risk-based decision-making.
• Experience applying AI/ML, automation, LLMs, in silico tools, or data science approaches to streamline R&D workflows, improve data integration, and support decision-making.
• Skilled communicator with experience authoring technical reports and contributing to regulatory submissions, including INDs, CTAs, BLAs, or equivalent global filings.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a leader on Drug Product teams responsible for planning, designing, executing, and documenting laboratory studies related to drug product design, formulation, process development, technology transfer, and regulatory authoring in support of advancing Amgen’s diverse biologics pipeline.
• Work effectively in a fast-paced, matrixed environment, collaborating across process development, research, analytical, regulatory, quality, manufacturing, and external partner teams to advance programs, influence development strategies, and communicate technical recommendations to scientific peers and leadership.
• Develop and characterize liquid and lyophilized formulations for complex biologics, including ADCs, oligonucleotides, monoclonal antibodies, multispecifics, and other emerging modalities.
• Build process understanding across unit operations to support scalable drug product development.
• Evaluate in-use compatibility and drug product stability under clinically relevant conditions.
• Investigate biologics- and modality-relevant CQAs, including aggregation, fragmentation, charge and size variants, subvisible particles, surface interactions, concentration-dependent behavior, and, where applicable, ADC- or oligonucleotide-specific attributes such as drug-to-antibody ratio, free payload, linker-payload integrity, and oligonucleotide purity or degradation pathways.
• Leverage high-throughput and data-driven tools for formulation screening, stability assessment, developability evaluation, and processability characterization.
• Identify and address technology gaps impacting drug product stability, manufacturability, excipient interactions, modality-specific degradation pathways, and process-related stress responses.
• Apply machine learning, AI, automation, and data science approaches to predictive modeling, workflow acceleration, data integration, and decision-making.
• Drive continuous improvement in drug product development through scientific innovation, platform approaches, first-principles thinking, and the adoption of new technologies and standardized methodologies.
• Ensure development approaches are phase-appropriate, from discovery through clinical manufacturing.
• Provide scientific and technical expertise and leadership in biologics drug product development, serving as a subject matter expert for formulation, stability, process development, and modality-specific considerations for ADCs, oligonucleotides, and other complex biologics.
• Define and influence drug product development strategies across programs by identifying key risks, recommending phase-appropriate studies, and integrating formulation, analytical, process, manufacturability, and regulatory considerations into program decisions.
• Serve as a recognized scientific resource within area of expertise, providing technical guidance, mentorship, and coaching to junior scientists and cross-functional team members.
• Author and review technical documents, formulation and process development reports, control-strategy inputs, risk assessments, IND/CTA regulatory sections, and technology transfer packages.
• Support internal and external technology transfer activities, including collaboration with CMOs/CDMOs, batch record review, process fit assessments, person-in-plant support, and troubleshooting during manufacturing campaigns.

Benefits

• A comprehensive employee benefits package, including a Retirement and Savings Plan with generous company contributions, group medical, dental and vision coverage, life and disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts
• A discretionary annual bonus program, or for field sales representatives, a sales-based incentive plan
• Stock-based long-term incentives
• Award-winning time-off plans
• Flexible work models where possible.

What This Job Offers

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