Senior Scientist – Biologics Formulation & Drug Product Development

Elanco • Indianapolis, IN

18h • Hybrid

About The Position

At Elanco, a global leader in animal health, the company is dedicated to innovation and delivering products and services to prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets. Driven by its vision of Food and Companionship Enriching Life and its purpose to Go Beyond for Animals, Customers, Society and Our People, Elanco fosters a diverse and inclusive work environment. As a Senior Scientist in the Biologics Formulation & Drug Product Development team, this role is a key, hands-on contributor in developing stable and robust formulations and drug product processes for new biological therapeutics. This laboratory-based position focuses on formulation and drug product process development for biopharmaceutical modalities such as monoclonal antibodies, therapeutic proteins, peptides, and other complex biologics. The Senior Scientist will drive the execution of formulation development studies across development stages for sterile injectable and freeze-dried (lyophilized) drug products, partnering closely with scientists in downstream process development, analytical sciences, and other CMC functions to deliver high-quality formulation and drug product process development packages that enable successful clinical and commercial supply.

Requirements

• Education: B.S. or M.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, or a related scientific/engineering discipline.
• Experience: B.S. with 5-7+ years of relevant industry experience, or M.S. with 3+ years of relevant industry experience, in formulation development of biologics or other biopharmaceutical products.
• Technical Skills: Demonstrated, hands‑on experience in formulation development of monoclonal antibodies, therapeutic proteins, peptides, or other biopharmaceutical drug products.
• Familiarity with biophysical and analytical characterization techniques commonly used in biologics formulation (e.g., DSC, DLS/Zetasizer, SEC or related chromatographic methods).
• Strong skills in quantitative data analysis, scientific problem‑solving, and clear written and verbal scientific communication.
• Comfort working in a highly regulated, quality‑focused laboratory environment and following safety, compliance, and data‑integrity practices.

Nice To Haves

• Direct experience with multiple dosage forms and presentations (e.g., sterile injectables, lyophilized products, multi‑dose vials, pre‑filled syringes, or other device‑containing presentations).
• Direct experience developing freeze-dried formulations and lyophilization cycles.
• Proven technical agility and a track record of proactively identifying and solving complex formulation or process challenges.
• Experience using statistical tools (e.g., JMP or similar) for design of experiments (DoE) and data analysis.
• Prior experience collaborating on cross‑functional CMC teams and/or supporting technology transfer to clinical or commercial manufacturing sites.
• Demonstrated interest in innovation and continuous improvement (e.g., implementation of new biophysical methods, automation, or digital data workflows).

Responsibilities

• Plan and perform early developability and pre-formulation assessments (e.g., stress testing, formulation screening, and phase‑appropriate stability studies) using biophysical and analytical tools (such as DSC, DLS / Zetasizer, particulate analysis, SEC and related techniques) to enable lead candidate and formulation selection.
• Design, plan, and execute formulation and process development studies for biological drug products (e.g., sterile injectables, lyophilized products, multi‑dose vials, and other presentations).
• Anticipate and resolve key technical and process‑related challenges to meet project timelines and deliverables.
• Analyze complex data sets, draw clear conclusions, and provide timely feedback and recommendations to enable data‑driven formulation decisions.
• Document experimental work in electronic lab notebooks and author concise technical reports and presentations to support internal decision‑making and, as appropriate, regulatory submissions.
• Collaborate closely with downstream/process development, analytical sciences, device/packaging, manufacturing, and quality teams to translate laboratory findings into robust, scalable drug product processes.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of formulation development workflows, analytical capabilities, and laboratory practices, including evaluation and implementation of new technologies where appropriate.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees