Chemical Engineering Senior Scientist

General Summary:

Vertex is seeking a talented individual to join the Engineering and Materials Science group in Boston, MA. Chemical Engineering at Vertex plays a vital role in bridging the gap between new pharmaceutical discoveries and commercial products for our synthetic molecule programs. Engineers at Vertex work in multidisciplinary scientific teams to bring medicines to patients and physicians by applying chemical engineering principles to new products and processes. A successful candidate will be a highly productive, results-oriented individual, able to generate and implement original ideas and solutions that contribute materially to the success and development of drug substance candidates. Strong communication, organization, and planning skills and a high level of technical aptitude and creativity are required for success in this position.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Apply engineering principles to design and optimize drug substance manufacturing processes for the synthesis and purification of small molecules, oligonucleotides, and synthetically-derived peptides using both established and novel technologies.

• Independently problem-solve in the laboratory setting to overcome synthetic, purification, and characterization challenges and develop/improve process workflows.

• Support drug substance process development via laboratory development, pilot plant scale-up, drug supply preparation, and technology transfer to contract manufacturing organizations.

• Manage relationships with external CRO/CMO partners

• Independently develop creative solutions to overcome obstacles during development.

• Make use of state-of-the art experimental, monitoring, and modeling approaches and/or data analyses for the evaluation and understanding of engineering unit operations-- including reactions, purification, and isolation technologies.

• Values teamwork and collaboration to solve problems and design strategies.

Knowledge And Skills:

• A successful applicant will have knowledge of peptide and oligonucleotide synthesis, optimization, and isolation. Hand-on experience with solid-phase automated synthesizers is preferred.

• Experience developing and scaling-up solid phase and liquid phase chemistry and purification of resulting product streams. Familiarity with reversed phase chromatography, ion exchange chromatography, size exclusion chromatography and other purification techniques

• Familiarity with high-resolution mass spectrometry and other medium size molecule characterization techniques

• A demonstrated understanding and working knowledge of chemistry and chemical engineering fundamentals including applied kinetics, thermodynamics, and transport phenomena.

• Knowledge and experience in synthetic drug substance process development, process scale-up, troubleshooting, and optimization

• Familiarity with statistical design of experiments, QbD concepts, and common physical property and process modeling tools.

• Ability to successfully interact and collaborate within an interdisciplinary team environment comprised of organic chemists, analytical chemists, project team members, and manufacturing personnel.

• Proven communication (verbal and written) and interpersonal skills.

Education And Experience:

• PhD in Chemical Engineering (or related field) and 2+ years of experience

• Master's Degree and 5+ years, or Bachelor's Degree and 8+ years of related experience

• Up to 15% travel, domestic and international

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