Principal Scientist, Upstream Development

Job Description

Location: USA - New Jersey - Rahway.

The Biologics Process Research & Development organization within our Company Research Labs is responsible for developing the drug substance manufacturing processes for our biologics pipeline. The role is a Principal Scientist in the Upstream Development Department, focused on next‑generation processing for assets in early and late‑stage clinical development.

• Leading biologic upstream process development for first‑in‑human and commercial processes by efficiently developing high‑yield, robust and scalable cell culture processes.
• Providing technical direction for process development, characterization, commercialization, and regulatory filing activities to ensure a smooth path to successful PPQs and BLAs for our pipeline.
• Advancing upstream platform process technical strategy and championing creative process improvement initiatives.
• Initiating new collaborations to assess new technologies and industry strategies relevant to the Company.
• Collaborating with academia, industry partners, and vendors to drive development, innovation and adoption of new process technologies with broad impact.
• Keeping up to date with the external patent and literature environment; actively presenting and publishing externally and pursuing patenting strategies.
• Supervising, coaching and educating junior scientists.

• Ph.D. with 8+ years of industry experience.
• Master’s with 10+ years of industry experience.
• Bachelor’s with 14+ years of industry experience in Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, Biochemistry or a related field.

• Proven record of accomplishments in upstream process and technology development with a strong scientific publication and presentation track record.
• Experience in CHO fed‑batch cell culture and a working understanding of downstream & analytics.
• Hands‑on experience with cell culture bioreactors, including microbioreactors, bench‑scale and pilot‑scale bioreactors, and scale‑up/tech transfer activities.
• Working knowledge of cell culture media, CHO cell biology and metabolism, DOE statistics and computational fluid dynamics.
• Ability to direct planning, execution, analysis, and documentation of all stages of cell culture process development.
• Ability to work in a matrixed team environment and collaborate with internal and external partners including vendors.
• Knowledge of biologics CMC development cycle.
• Demonstrated ability to take initiative, creativity, and innovation in problem solving.
• Demonstrated ability to develop staff to maximize talent utilization and guide career development; builds strong and collaborative teams.

• Experience with state‑of‑the‑art cell culture processes including intensified inoculum and perfusion process development.
• Experience with early and late‑stage commercial process development, technology transfer, scale‑down model qualification, and process characterization.
• Experience with high‑throughput microbioreactor systems and advanced in‑situ analytics for process monitoring and control.
• Expertise in media development, media/solution chemistry.
• Background in data science approaches related to cell culture and predictive modeling (e.g., metabolic flux analysis, omics, machine learning); experience integrating PAT efforts and computational fluid dynamics.
• Experience leading cross‑functional program development teams.

Salary Range: $ – $. The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long‑term incentive, if applicable.

Benefits include medical, dental, vision, retirement (401(k)), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information is available at

As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other legally protected characteristics. We comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.