Senior RNA Chemist – RNA Therapeutics

Senior RNA Chemist – RNA Therapeutics

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.

Let’s do this. Let’s change the world. In this vital role you will focus on advancing programmable mRNA design, synthesis, purification, and characterization strategies to enable the discovery and development of next‑generation mRNA medicines.

You will bring strong expertise in RNA chemistry and nucleic acid therapeutics and will work at the interface of molecular design, analytical characterization, and platform innovation. You will also collaborate across multidisciplinary teams to develop robust RNA technologies that improve therapeutic performance, stability, manufacturability, and translational potential.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design and implement high‑throughput strategies for modular assembly of mRNA elements to achieve maximal payload expression and programmable cellular performance for therapeutic applications.
• Develop and advance mRNA platform technologies, including chemical modification strategies, capping approaches, and sequence/structure optimization.
• Lead experimental efforts to improve RNA quality, purity, stability, and biological activity.
• Develop and apply purification strategies for mRNA, including experience with FPLC‑based purification methods where applicable.
• Utilize and interpret analytical methods for mRNA characterization, including HPLC, FPLC, LC‑MS, gel electrophoresis, capillary electrophoresis, UV/Vis, and related biochemical and biophysical techniques.
• Evaluate the impact of sequence, structure, chemical modifications, and purification approaches on mRNA performance and develop ability through functional in‑vitro assays.
• Collaborate closely with cross‑functional partners in molecular biology, delivery, formulation, process development, bioanalytics, and translational sciences.
• Clearly document experimental work and communicate findings through internal reports, presentations, patent disclosures, and scientific publications.
• Contribute to the development of scalable and reproducible workflows that support RNA therapeutic platform advancement.

The passionate and dedicated Senior RNA Chemist we seek is a researcher with these qualifications.

• Doctorate degree PhD
• or PharmD
• or MD with relevant post‑doc where applicable
• or Master’s degree and 3 years of relevant scientific experience
• or Bachelor’s degree and 5 years of relevant scientific experience

• PhD + 2 years relevant experience in RNA chemistry, oligonucleotide chemistry, nucleic acid therapeutics, or related discipline.
• Strong background in the design, synthesis, and optimization of RNA molecules, including experience with mRNA and/or circRNA.
• Hands‑on experience with in‑vitro transcription, RNA purification, and analytical characterization.
• Experience in cell culture and functional in‑vitro assays for quantification of RNA expression.
• Experience with FPLC purification and familiarity with chromatography‑based workflows for biomolecule purification.
• Knowledge of modified nucleotides, capping technologies, circularization…