Principal Scientist, Material Sciences (Excipients & formulation) Full-time NEW

Principal Scientist, Material Sciences (Excipients & Formulation)

Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science-based advancements. Visionaries like you work on teams that save lives by developing the medicines of tomorrow.

Join us in developing treatments, finding cures, and pioneering the path from lab to life while championing patients every step of the way.

The Material Sciences team, part of Johnson & Johnson's Pharmaceutical Product Development & Supply (PPDS) organization, plays an important role in the development of innovative drug products for the synthetic modality portfolio. Guided by our mission—”empowering drug design through excipient intelligence and innovation”—we aim to shape the future of drug products by leveraging our expertise in excipients.

A position is available in Beerse, Belgium for a Principal Scientist, Material Sciences (Excipients & formulation). In this capacity, you will offer scientific expertise to drug development teams by suggesting appropriate excipients based on your profound knowledge how their physicochemical properties and interactions affect drug delivery, stability, and manufacturability. The mission focuses on establishing structure-functionality relationships for excipients, driving innovation in drug delivery, and maintaining a secure supply chain for liquid, solid, and semisolid dosage forms. As a material scientist, you will oversee all aspects to qualify an excipient for clinical and commercial use and support the successful development of critical therapies by utilizing advanced characterization methods and innovative creativity.

Join us to work at the forefront of material and supplier exploration, experiment with novel formulation platforms, and lead impactful projects that shape the future of drug development!

Key responsibilities:

• Support drug product development teams with the selection of appropriate excipients and their grades based on chemical and physical compatibility, functional performance and processability.
• Development of innovative drug delivery platforms by collaboration with internal and external experts, focusing on excipients.
• Material and supplier exploration for novel formulation platforms, leading a cross-functional assessment including strong interactions with e.g. toxicology, analytical development, quality and procurement.
• Designing and executing experiments for excipient characterization, generating in-depth material understanding to support formulation design and process development.
• Development of the excipient control strategy in collaboration with the product development team and suppliers based on material criticality to the product and typical batch-to-batch variability.
• Qualification of the selected excipients for clinical and commercial use, accounting for regulatory compliance.

Qualifications:

• PhD in any of the following or closely related fields: Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemistry, Physics, Chemical Engineering or Bio engineering.
• More than 5 years experience in industry, in (pharmaceutical) formulation design.
• Profound knowledge of material (excipient) properties and drug product manufacturing processes.
• Good understanding of analytical and physical characterization techniques
• Likes to be part of a team and work cross disciplinary.
• Able to manage multiple projects and to prioritize and plan activities based on insights into business value, project timelines and risk.
• You are fluent in English, both spoken and written.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

Required Skills: Budget Management, Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Control (CMC), Clinical Trial Protocols, Critical Thinking, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Drug Discovery Development, Industry Analysis, Interdisciplinary Work, Market Research, Organizing, Pharmacokinetic Modeling, Process Improvements, Product Development, Product Strategies, Report Writing, Safety-Oriented, Scientific Research