Senior Scientist II, Recombinant Peptide Process Development

AbbVie’s Biologics CMC organization develops processes to support the advancement and manufacture of biologic medicines. AbbVie is seeking a highly motivated scientist to lead development of microbial-based recombinant peptide production processes. This position will serve as a technical lead across expression-system and strain development, fermentation, recovery, purification, and scale-up.

Recombinant production of short peptides can be challenging due to intracellular degradation, low expression, aggregation, and limited solubility. The successful candidate will develop and optimize practical strategies to address these challenges and advance robust, scalable processes for therapeutic peptide production. When aligned with program needs, the candidate will also evaluate and apply genetic code expansion (GCE) strategies to enable the site-specific incorporation of non-canonical amino acids. The role will collaborate with cross-functional partners and contribute to process development, technology evaluation, and technology transfer activities.

Responsibilities: 

• Lead recombinant peptide process-development activities, including expression strategy, host and clone screening, process optimization, and scale-up.
• Design and evaluate expression constructs and microbial hosts, including Escherichia coli and yeast, for peptide production.
• Develop and assess fusion-tag and carrier-protein strategies—including His-tag, GST, SUMO, and inclusion-body expression—to improve peptide stability, expression, host tolerance, and recovery.
• Design and conduct clone-screening studies using microscale cultivation, parallel bioreactors, and other appropriate scale-down or high-throughput approaches.
• Develop and optimize peptide recovery processes, including cell harvest and lysis, inclusion-body isolation and processing, and chemical or enzymatic cleavage of fusion partners.
• Troubleshoot peptide-specific process challenges, such as aggregation, low solubility, degradation, incomplete cleavage, and co-eluting impurities; recommend and pursue appropriate solutions.
• Interpret analytical results, including HPLC, UPLC, and LC-MS data, to assess peptide identity, mass accuracy, purity, and process-related impurities; partner with analytical teams to address characterization needs.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and process approaches for recombinant peptide production, including genetic code expansion when relevant to program needs.
• Apply AI/ML approaches, where appropriate, to analyze peptide sequence, structure, and experimental data in support of design, optimization, and candidate prioritization.
• Communicate scientific plans, progress, challenges, conclusions, and recommendations clearly to project teams and other stakeholders.
• Mentor junior scientists and provide technical direction in recombinant peptide bioprocessing.
• Contribute to scientific publications and presentations at conferences, as appropriate.
• Maintain a high level of productivity while managing priorities and timelines; follow applicable corporate standards for safety, quality, and compliance.