Senior Scientist, Cell Culture Development

About AbbVie
AbbVie’s mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines 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: immunology, oncology, neuroscience, eye care, virology, women’s health and gastroenterology, in addition to products and services across its Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

The BioProcess Development organization at the AbbVie Bioresearch Center in Worcester, MA is seeking a highly motivated and experienced Senior Scientist to join the Cell Culture Development team. The scientist will advance AbbVie’s biotherapeutics pipeline through the development and characterization of highly-productive CHO cell culture processes suitable for cGMP protein manufacturing for both early and late phase clinical programs. The selected candidate will also have a major role in process optimization.  They will focus on new methods and technologies that significantly enhance productivities and process efficiencies, specifically creating methods and data analysis techniques to fully utilize high-throughput automation-based approaches.

 

Key responsibilities include:

• Develop and characterize highly productive CHO cell culture processes suitable for cGMP biotherapeutic manufacturing within project timelines, performing technical transfer and manufacturing support activities.
• Conceive, investigate, and execute scientific research and development to significantly improve platform processes and workflows, develop new methods, build technical expertise and intellectual property, and deepen scientific understanding.
• Utilize liquid handlers and integrated robotic platforms to improve efficiencies of CHO cell line development activities.
• Participate in programming and implementation of new methods to expand throughput and capacity for CHO cell line process development through automation-based approaches. Identify bottlenecks and perform new technology evaluations
• Manage large data sets, perform data analysis and high throughput data management including data visualizations.
• Work collaboratively and cross-functionally on multiple projects with colleagues in other functional areas (Bioprocess Development, Discovery, and Manufacturing) to meet team and company goals.
• Contribute to the smooth and effective operation of the cell culture process development labs.
• Effectively present scientific data and concepts to internal and external audiences.  Author and review technical reports, protocols, and other key documents.
• Understand and adhere to corporate standards regarding code of conduct, documentation, safety, appropriate handling of materials, and GxP compliance.

Equal Opportunity Employer Minorities/Women/Veterans/Disabled

Qualifications

Qualifications

 

• Ph.D. in biological sciences, chemical engineering, or related discipline with 0-3 years of relevant experience in the biopharmaceutical industry (or BS/MS degree with at least 6 years relevant experience).
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills. Ability to work effectively in a highly collaborative and dynamic environment. 
• Strong understanding of cell culture process development to enable cGMP biotherapeutics manufacturing and associated areas of expertise (e.g., cell and molecular biology, process development, process scale up and scale down, recombinant protein production, protein characterization).
• Strong interest in automation method development and programming
• Familiarity with programming languages (such as Python, VBA, SQL, etc.)
• Experience with statistical data analysis tools such as design of experiment and multivariate data analysis.
• Demonstrated ability in experimental planning and execution.
• Strong scientific curiosity with a passion for problem-solving and optimization.  Self-motivated with excellent attention to detail and ability to multi-task.  Strong organizational, planning and trouble-shooting skills. 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strong knowledge and experience with aseptic technique
• Experience with one or more robotic liquid handlers from Hamilton, Tecan, Beckman Coulter or Agilent Technologies
• Supervisory experience.

Significant Work Activities
N/A
Travel
No
Job Type
Experienced
Schedule
Full-time
Job Level Code
IC
Equal Employment Opportunity
At AbbVie, we value bringing together individuals from diverse backgrounds to develop new and innovative solutions for patients. As an equal opportunity employer we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic.