Senior Scientist Material Sciences

at  Johnson Johnson

The Pharmaceutical and Material Science (P&MS) department plays a crucial role to innovative drug development within Johnson & Johnson’s Innovative Medicine (IM) synthetic modality portfolio. The team is responsible for pre-formulation and biopharmaceutics, solid state form selection and understanding, and material selection and qualification to provide end-to-end support.
In Belgium (Beerse) there is a vacancy for a Senior Scientist Material Sciences. Within this role you will provide scientific expertise in drug development teams to select the right excipients for robust formulations and investigating the impact of their physicochemical properties and interactions on drug delivery, product quality and manufacturability. Our mission is to establish structure-functionality relationships for excipients to innovate and enhance drug delivery and to ensure a robust supply chain for liquid, solid and semisolid dosage forms. As material scientist you lead all aspects of excipient qualification and contribute to the successful development of life-saving drugs using innovative characterization tools and your own creativity.

Key responsibilities:

• Material and supplier exploration, characterization, and introduction for novel formulation platforms
• Designing and executing experiments for testing excipient functionality, processability, compatibility and stability
• Guiding pharmaceutical development teams with the selection of appropriate grades of excipients based on chemical and physical compatibility, processability and functional performance
• Qualification of the selected excipients accounting for critical material properties, material robustness and regulatory compliance
• Development of the excipient control strategy in collaboration with suppliers based on material criticality, robustness and risk assessment
• Lead Project Management activities including accurate planning, timely delivery and reporting for all project work and participate in risk assessments
• Transferring knowledge and principles across platforms and development programs to advance projects
• Identifying and seizing opportunities for scientific development through networking with internal and external experts

QUALIFICATIONS

Education:
Experienced PhD in any of the following or closely related fields: Chemistry, Physics, Chemical Engineering, Bio engineering or Pharmaceutical Sciences
Experience and skills

Required:

• Profound knowledge of material (excipient) properties, characterization and drug product manufacturing methods.
• Hands-on expertise of analytical and physical characterization techniques
• Able to work independently and likes to be part of a team and work cross disciplinary.
• Able to manage multiple projects in parallel and to prioritize based on insights into business value and risk
• You are fluent in English, both spoken and written
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

Preferred:

• Demonstrated expertise in drug delivery of oral peptides. Familiarity with opportunities to enhance permeability and stability, as well as experience with targeted or local delivery is a distinct advantage.
• Experience in lipid-based formulation design and process development (liposomes, solid-lipid nanoparticles, SNEDDS)

Johnson & Johnson is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.
For more information on how we support the whole health of our employees throughout their wellness, career and life journey, please visit www.careers.jnj.com

• Material and supplier exploration, characterization, and introduction for novel formulation platforms
• Designing and executing experiments for testing excipient functionality, processability, compatibility and stability
• Guiding pharmaceutical development teams with the selection of appropriate grades of excipients based on chemical and physical compatibility, processability and functional performance
• Qualification of the selected excipients accounting for critical material properties, material robustness and regulatory compliance
• Development of the excipient control strategy in collaboration with suppliers based on material criticality, robustness and risk assessment
• Lead Project Management activities including accurate planning, timely delivery and reporting for all project work and participate in risk assessments
• Transferring knowledge and principles across platforms and development programs to advance projects
• Identifying and seizing opportunities for scientific development through networking with internal and external expert