Senior Research Associate I (Chemical Engineer)

At Gilead, we’re creating a healthier world for all people. For more than 35 years, we’ve tackled diseases such as HIV, viral hepatitis, COVID-19 and cancer – working relentlessly to develop therapies that help improve lives and to ensure access to these therapies across the globe. We continue to fight against the world’s biggest health challenges, and our mission requires collaboration, determination and a relentless drive to make a difference.

Every member of Gilead’s team plays a critical role in the discovery and development of life-changing scientific innovations. Our employees are our greatest asset as we work to achieve our bold ambitions, and we’re looking for the next wave of passionate and ambitious people ready to make a direct impact.

We believe every employee deserves a great leader. People Leaders are the cornerstone to the employee experience at Gilead and Kite. As a people leader now or in the future, you are the key driver in evolving our culture and creating an environment where every employee feels included, developed and empowered to fulfil their aspirations. Join Gilead and help create possible, together.

Job Description

Gilead Sciences in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is seeking a knowledgeable and motivated professional capable of working effectively in a multi-disciplinary team environment. The successful candidate will assume a full-time employment role in the capacity of Senior Research Associate I, Process Development in Gilead Alberta’s Manufacturing Science and Technology (MSAT) department.

Combining laboratory experimentation, with engineering calculations and modeling, the successful candidate supports manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) by applying chemical engineering fundamentals in process development, characterization, optimization, risk assessments, technology transfer, and scale-up/scale-down models.

Gilead Sciences, Inc. is a research-based biopharmaceutical company founded in 1987. Together we deliver life-saving therapies to patients in need. With the commitment and drive you bring to the workplace every day, you will be part of a team that is changing the world and helping millions of people live healthier, more fulfilling lives. Our worldwide staff is a close community where you can see the tangible results of your contributions, where every individual matters, and everyone has a chance to enhance their skills through ongoing development. Our scientific focus has resulted in marketed products that are benefiting hundreds of thousands of people, a pipeline of late-stage drug candidates, and unmatched patient access programs to ensure medications are available to those who could otherwise not afford them. By joining Gilead, you will further our mission to address unmet medical needs and improve life by advancing the care of patients with life-threatening diseases.

Essential Duties and Job Functions:

• Demonstrates technical proficiency, scientific creativity, and collaboration skills in the research and development of API manufacturing processes.
• Acts as a process engineering subject matter expert for cross-functional teams and collaborates across functional areas including: process development, analytical operations, quality assurance, engineering and manufacturing to accomplish project goals.
• Applies chemical engineering knowledge to provide solutions to issues that are encountered during process development and manufacturing of clinical and commercial API.
• Completes equipment equivalency and equipment selection evaluations to guide process technology transfer to internal and external manufacturing sites.
• Follows established process engineering workflows and procedures to support process development, scale-up, and scale-down of unit operations.
• Effectively presents and discusses results, and draws conclusions independently. Provides regular updates (written and verbal) and proposes future research directions.
• Prepares clear and concise written work summaries, data analyses, and technical reports.
• Applies engineering modeling and simulations to support process development of manufacturing processes and enabling manufacturing technologies.
• Provides technical support for manufacturing processes performed under cGMP in laboratory manufacturing and large-scale manufacturing operations.
• Ensures that all experimentation is carried out in accordance with appropriate standard operating procedures (SOPs), maintaining quality, safety, and environmental standards.

Knowledge, Experience and Skills:

• Strong desire to work in multi-disciplinary teams, learn new skills and proactively solve problems.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and strong interpersonal collaboration skills.
• Must think critically and creatively and be able to work independently to determine appropriate resources for resolution of problems.
• In depth understanding of chemical engineering fundamentals.
• Experience in scale-up and scale-down of chemical process unit operations.
• Familiarity with statistical analysis to evaluate correlations, shifts and trends of chemical processes, and experience of Design of Experiments (DOE) is an asset.
• Familiarity with purification and analytical techniques, including HPLC, LCMS and NMR is an asset.
• Experience with kinetic studies or process analytical technologies (PAT) is an asset.
• Experience with continuous manufacturing is an asset.
• Experience with SAS-JMP, DynoChem, CFD simulation or other statistical analysis or simulation software is an asset.
• Familiarity with process validation and cGMP guidelines is an asset.

Minimum Qualifications:

• MSc in chemical engineering OR
• BSc in chemical engineering or chemistry with chemical engineering training, and 2+ years of relevant pharmaceutical experience.