Principal Scientist I, Analytical Development Lead (tLNP CMC)

Company Description

About AbbVie

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas including immunology, oncology and neuroscience - and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at  . Follow @abbvie on  LinkedIn, Facebook ,  Instagram ,  X and  YouTube.

Job Description

The Analytical Development group within the Targeted LNP (tLNP) CMC Team at AbbVie is dedicated to advancing state-of-the-art analytical capabilities for mRNA-lipid nanoparticle therapeutics. Our team provides critical support across drug substance (DS) and drug product (DP) manufacturing, drug product formulation, and the development and implementation of robust analytical methodologies to ensure the quality and integrity of tLNP genetic medicines. We leverage advanced biophysical, separations, and mass spectrometry techniques to deeply characterize intact LNP particles. We foster close collaborations with cross-functional colleagues in CMC, drug product formulation, and external partners, and are currently growing a world-class team of scientists who will be instrumental in building and deploying the analytical toolbox necessary to deliver high-quality, innovative tLNP medicines to patients.

Position Description: 

As an Analytical Lead within the Analytical Development team of AbbVie’s Targeted LNP (tLNP) CMC organization, you will be a cross-functional leader for scientific leadership in the development of advanced analytical methods to support tLNP characterization, process understanding, and product development. The successful candidate will independently develop innovative approaches and apply state-of-the-art electrophoresis and chromatography methods, serve as an analytical lead on development teams, and contribute to regulatory strategy and scientific innovation and coordinate testing with external manufacturing and testing organizations.  This position also includes supervisory responsibilities, including leading and mentoring one or more scientists and supporting their performance and development.  Additionally, the candidate must foster productive collaborations within the global Analytical CMC organization and with R&D cross-functional partners such as Discovery, Pre-Clinical Safety, Process Chemistry, Process Engineering, Drug Product Development, and Quality Assurance and CMC-Regulatory Affairs.

Responsibilities:

• Effectively function as a principal research scientist, generating original technical ideas and research or development strategies.
• Represent the tLNP Analytical Research and Development Group as Analytical Lead on CMC development teams and a subject matter expert on cross functional project teams.
• Supervise a team of one or more scientists and be accountable for the performance of the team.
• Develop/optimize, qualify/validate, and transfer fit-for-purpose QC release and stability methods. Provide technical support and oversight for QC testing occurring at internal and external GMP laboratories.
• Plan, author, and review regulatory submission documents, responses to health authority queries, technical reports, lab data, stability protocols/reports and method qualification/validation protocols.
• Generate new scientific proposals and lead those efforts. Anticipate and critically evaluate scientific or regulatory advances or competitive threats and respond with appropriate new strategies.
• Demonstrate scientific initiative and creativity in research or development activities and maintain a high level of productivity in the lab.
• Embraces the ideas of others, nurtures innovation and manages innovation to reality.
• Raises the bar and is never satisfied with the status quo.
• Understand and comply with AbbVie safety, quality and regulatory policies and government regulations. 

Qualifications

• 12 (MS), or 6 (Ph.D.) years related industry experience.
• Demonstrated expertise in analytical method development for biologics, with strong hands-on experience in characterization methods, capillary electrophoresis and HPLC.
• Experience supporting biologics CMC development, QC method qualification/validation, and method transfer.
• Proven ability to interpret complex data, solve technical problems, and propose innovative scientific solutions.
• Experience contributing to regulatory submissions, including quality and characterization sections, and responding to health authority questions.
• Ability to supervise and mentor other scientists; and to coordinate testing work at internal and external laboratories.
• Working knowledge of data integrity, and compliance requirements for GxP-regulated bioassay testing.
• Strong presentation and communication skills with the ability to explain data, controls, and risk assessments to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Demonstrate creative 'out of the box' thinking to solve difficult problems
• Self-motivated, hard-working, detail-oriented individual able to work in a fast-paced team environment.

Additional Information

Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law: ​

• The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future. ​
• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.​
• This job is eligible to participate in our long-term incentive programs. ​

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law.

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community.  Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled. 

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