Scientist II- Biologics CMC Developability
Hourly Rate: $48 - $52/hr with medical benefits available at a cost.
Contract Length: 1 year initial contract with possibility of extension.
Location: Onsite in North Chicago, IL
Orion Project Services has teamed up with a market leading pharmaceutical company on an exciting contract opportunity for a
Scientist II, Biologics CMC Developability in North Chicago, Illinois.
In this onsite role, you’ll help assess promising biologic drug candidates and identify potential stability, formulation, and manufacturing challenges early in development. You’ll work with scientists across Discovery, Analytical, and Process R&D, using techniques such as DSF/DSC, viscosity testing, and biologics characterization to inform development decisions. The work spans a variety of therapeutic biologics, including monoclonal antibodies, bispecifics, ADCs, and fusion proteins.
Job Overview:
The Biologics CMC Developability (BCD) group sits at the interface of discovery and development. The core role of BCD is to generate developability insights that inform candidate selection, molecular optimization, and advancement decisions across the biologics pipeline. Developability assessments focus on identifying manufacturability, formulation, stability, and product quality risks early in development to enable selection of robust drug candidates. Our team works across a wide range of therapeutic areas and diverse classes of biologics therapeutics, including monoclonal antibodies, bispecific and multispecific antibodies, antibody drug conjugates (ADC), fusion proteins, and emerging biologic modalities.
We are looking for a highly motivated person to support these developability efforts and early-stage assessment of candidates to move our ever-evolving pipeline forward. In this role, the candidate will be part of a global team and will work closely with scientists from multiple functional areas, including Discovery, Analytical, and Process R&D.
Key Responsibilities
- Support candidate screening activities by executing characterization studies including conformational stability assessment via differential scanning fluorimetry/calorimetry experiments, solution viscosity determination, and other techniques
- Evaluate drug candidate chemical and physical stability against different solution conditions (pH, ionic strength, temperature, light, etc.) and physical stresses arising from manufacturing process conditions (freeze thaw, mixing, filtration, filling, and lyophilization)
- Communicate scientific findings and development risks through clear presentations and technical reports to cross-functional teams and senior stakeholders
- Stay current with the literature and support new scientific initiatives
Qualifications
- BS or MS in Biochemistry, Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, or a related scientific discipline and typically 4 (BS) or 2 (MS) years of relevant experience
- Experience with formulation, protein stability, or developability assessment of therapeutic biologics is strongly preferred
- Strong laboratory skills focused on chemical and structural characterization of biologics (HPLC/UPLC, SEC, capillary electrophoresis, icIEF, particle analysis, DLS, DSF, DSC, UV-Vis, and related developability assessment techniques)
- Scientific understanding of the structure and function of monoclonal antibodies, antibody constructs/conjugates, bispecifics, and fusion proteins and their modes of degradation.
- Knowledge of protein or antibody chemistry would be a plus.
- Experience with protein characterization would be a plus.
People are our business
worldwide
Orion Group was founded in 1987 and is now one of the largest, independent, international recruitment companies. We have a network of 200 employees working from 24 offices, delivering a range of services – Talent Acquisition, Recruitment Outsourcing Services, Retained Search, Global Workforce Solutions, Completions & Commissioning and Materials Management – across 68 countries. As a global leader in workforce solutions, we recruit personnel across the Engineering & Technical, Office & Commercial, Scientific and Skilled Trades disciplines, for sectors including Oil & Gas, Life Science, Power & Utilities, Constructions & Infrastructure, Manufacturing and Renewables.