Principal Scientist, Microbial Process Operations Full-time NEW

Principal Scientist Microbial Process Operations

The Microbial Process Operations (MPO) Team is seeking a Principal Scientist with expertise in microbial process development for the production of enzymes. Our team is part of Biocatalysis within the Small Molecule Process Research & Development (SMPRD) group, focused on advancing technologies for the manufacturing of a diverse small molecule portfolio. As a scientific leader, the successful candidate will contribute to and help translate scientific and platform strategies into experimental execution, ensuring robust, scalable, and compliant microbial fermentation processes that meet or exceed performance targets.

The chosen candidate should possess strong interpersonal, communication, and collaboration skills, and should embrace and model our core values of diversity and inclusion and foster a supportive culture where all employees can thrive.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Partner with functional area project teams and subject matter experts to shape and advance scientific and platform strategy for upstream and downstream process development, translating hypotheses into robust experimental execution.
• Provide scientific oversight for the microbial process development activities, serving as a scientific leader and advisor for complex experimental design, data interpretation, and technology adoption.
• Lead the design and execution of scientifically driven bench-scale process development experiments to meet various project requirements, with the ultimate aim of delivering robust processes for scale-up and manufacturing.
• Work collaboratively to proactively identify diverse scientific and technical challenges and associated solutions to ensure on time delivery of project deliverables.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to support technology transfer, scale-up activities, and process robustness.
• Mentor junior scientists to become our company's next generation of scientific leaders, creating technical depth through coaching, mentoring, and scientific rigor.
• Champion laboratory safety, compliance, and best practices, leading by example and reinforcing a culture of scientific excellence.
• Represent our company externally through scientific presentations and peer-reviewed publications, contributing to our company's scientific reputation within the microbial process development and biocatalysis communities.

Education Minimum Requirement:

• PhD in chemical engineering, bioengineering, biological sciences, or a related field with 10+ years of relevant industry experience
• Master's degree in chemical engineering, bioengineering, biological sciences, or a related field with 13+ years of relevant industry experience
• Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, bioengineering, biological sciences, or a related field with 15+ years of relevant industry experience.

Requirements:

• Demonstrated success in fermentation process development and optimization.
• Excellent problem-solving skills to overcome both technical and non-technical challenges.
• Demonstrated success leading scale-down model development along with scale-up and technology transfer from R&D to pilot and commercial manufacturing scales.
• Demonstrated success in leading complex projects and being leveraged as a technical resource.
• Demonstrated ability to coach and mentor fellow researchers.
• Excellent organizational, documentation, and problem-solving skills, with a strong commitment to maintaining rigorous safety and quality standards.
• Track record of peer-reviewed publications and research presentations.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across multidisciplinary teams and promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Preferred Experience and Skills:

• Knowledge in bioreactor and process in-silico design / modeling.
• Familiarity with drug development cycle, especially the CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Control) aspect, with skills to help advance our digital effort in this area.
• Familiarity with biocatalysis, protein engineering, biotherapeutics, and / or vaccines is advantageous.
• Knowledge and experience in downstream process development, such as flocculation, microfiltration, ultrafiltration, lyophilization, and spray drying.
• Understanding of microbial strain development and genetic engineering techniques to support process optimization.

Required Skills:

Academic Presentations, Biological Sciences, Chemical Engineering, Collaborative Communications, Creativity, Data Analysis, Flocculation, High-Throughput Experimentation (HTE), Laboratory Safety, Professional Networking, Project Leadership, Project Management, Research Proposal Development, Scientific Leadership, Scientific Literature Search, Strategic Thinking, Technology Transfer

Required Salary Range:

$173,200.00 – $272,600.00

This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs.

The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits.