Associate Scientist – Formulation & HTS

*** THIS IS A 12-MONTH CONTRACT WITH POSSIBILITY OF EXTENSION***

Pay: $27-33/hr

100% onsite

At Millipore Sigma, they are at the forefront of life sciences, working tirelessly to tackle the industry's toughest challenges. By collaborating with the global scientific community, they strive to enhance health access worldwide. Their mission is clear: to equip scientists and engineers with top-notch lab materials, technologies, and services, making research and biotech production simpler, faster, and more successful. With a dedication to shaping the future of drug development, they’re with our customers every step of the way, pioneering tomorrow's possibilities.

We are seeking a skilled and hands-on Scientist or Engineer for a 12-month contract to develop dry-format, liquid-format, and high-throughput screening (HTS) products supporting drug discovery and drug development workflows. The contractor will be responsible for formulating, prototyping, characterizing, and scaling biochemical products across a range of formats, including tablets, mini-tablets, sachets, vials, and 24, 48, 96, and 384 well plates.

The scope of work encompasses biological buffers, biorelevant media, formulation excipients, stability-challenge reagents, LC-MS workflow reagents, biochemical screening matrices, and focused chemical libraries. The ideal candidate will bring a strong foundation in biomedical, biochemical, pharmaceutical, or chemical engineering sciences, combined with practical experience in formulation development, powder processing, tableting, automated solid and liquid dispensing, HTS plate preparation, analytical testing, moisture control, packaging, and stability studies.

Formulation & Product Development

• Develop biochemical products in tablet, mini-tablet, sachet, vial, and HTS plate formats.
• Formulate buffers, salts, sugars, amino acids, cofactors, excipients, stabilizers, stress reagents, quench reagents, and related biochemical materials.
• Optimize powder flow, blend uniformity, compression parameters, tablet weight, hardness, friability, disintegration, dissolution, and reconstitution performance.
• Support dry-plated reagents, liquid formulations, DMSO stocks, formulation-screening matrices, and focused chemical-library formats.

Equipment Operation & Process Development

• Operate or support tablet presses, powder blenders, solid and liquid dispensers, analytical balances, plate-handling equipment, and tablet-testing instruments.
• Develop dry and liquid dispensing workflows for 24-, 48-, 96-, and 384-well plates.
• Establish plate layouts, dispensing parameters, dose ranges, fill accuracy, precision, uniformity, and in-process controls.

Plate Qualification & Quality Control

• Qualify plate sealing, barcode identification, storage conditions, freeze-thaw exposure (where applicable), shipping, reconstitution, and end-use performance.
• Evaluate cross-contamination, carryover, evaporation, edge effects, compound adsorption, solvent compatibility, and plate-to-plate reproducibility.

Analytical & Stability Testing

• Develop analytical methods using techniques such as UPLC/HPLC, LC-MS, UV-Vis, Karl Fischer moisture analysis, pH, conductivity, osmolality, dissolution, and tablet-performance testing.
• Design and execute accelerated and real-time stability studies for tablets, dry plates, liquid plates, reagents, and final packaging configurations.
• Assess bottles, vials, foil pouches, sachets, desiccants, plate seals, lids, and other moisture- or solvent-barrier packaging systems.

Troubleshooting

• Identify and resolve tableting, dispensing, and plating issues, including poor powder flow, sticking, segregation, content non-uniformity, precipitation, evaporation, carryover, and inconsistent well dosing.
• Prepare product specifications, plate maps, batch records, dispensing instructions, analytical protocols, development reports, and manufacturing-transfer documentation.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with R&D, Analytical, Manufacturing, Quality, EHS, Product Management, Automation, and internal technical teams.
• Capability Assessment — Evaluate current tableting, blending, dispensing, plating, analytical, stability,…