Job Title: Associate Scientist – Formulation & HTS
Location: Milwaukee, WI (Onsite)
Light travel - (5-10% to STL)
Hours: 8/9:00am - 5:00/6:00pm
12 month contract
At MilliporeSigma, they are at the forefront of life sciences, working tirelessly to tackle the industry's toughest challenges. By collaborating with the global scientific community, they strive to enhance health access worldwide. Their mission is clear: to equip scientists and engineers with top-notch lab materials, technologies, and services, making research and biotech production simpler, faster, and more successful. With a dedication to shaping the future of drug development, they’re with our customers every step of the way, pioneering tomorrow's possibilities.
Position Summary
We are seeking a skilled and hands-on Scientist or Engineer for a 12-month contract to develop dry-format, liquid-format, and high-throughput screening (HTS) products supporting drug discovery and drug development workflows. The contractor will be responsible for formulating, prototyping, characterizing, and scaling biochemical products across a range of formats, including tablets, mini-tablets, sachets, vials, and 24, 48, 96, and 384 well plates.
The scope of work encompasses biological buffers, biorelevant media, formulation excipients, stability-challenge reagents, LC-MS workflow reagents, biochemical screening matrices, and focused chemical libraries. The ideal candidate will bring a strong foundation in biomedical, biochemical, pharmaceutical, or chemical engineering sciences, combined with practical experience in formulation development, powder processing, tableting, automated solid and liquid dispensing, HTS plate preparation, analytical testing, moisture control, packaging, and stability studies.
Key Responsibilities Formulation & Product Development:
- Develop biochemical products in tablet, mini-tablet, sachet, vial, and HTS plate formats.
- Formulate buffers, salts, sugars, amino acids, cofactors, excipients, stabilizers, stress reagents, quench reagents, and related biochemical materials.
- Optimize powder flow, blend uniformity, compression parameters, tablet weight, hardness, friability, disintegration, dissolution, and reconstitution performance.
- Support dry-plated reagents, liquid formulations, DMSO stocks, formulation-screening matrices, and focused chemical-library formats.
Equipment Operation & Process Development:
- Operate or support tablet presses, powder blenders, solid and liquid dispensers, analytical balances, plate-handling equipment, and tablet-testing instruments.
- Develop dry and liquid dispensing workflows for 24-, 48-, 96-, and 384-well plates.
- Establish plate layouts, dispensing parameters, dose ranges, fill accuracy, precision, uniformity, and in-process controls.
Plate Qualification & Quality Control:
- Qualify plate sealing, barcode identification, storage conditions, freeze-thaw exposure (where applicable), shipping, reconstitution, and end-use performance.
- Evaluate cross-contamination, carryover, evaporation, edge effects, compound adsorption, solvent compatibility, and plate-to-plate reproducibility.
Analytical & Stability Testing:
- Develop analytical methods using techniques such as UPLC/HPLC, LC-MS, UV-Vis, Karl Fischer moisture analysis, pH, conductivity, osmolality, dissolution, and tablet-performance testing.
- Design and execute accelerated and real-time stability studies for tablets, dry plates, liquid plates, reagents, and final packaging configurations.
- Assess bottles, vials, foil pouches, sachets, desiccants, plate seals, lids, and other moisture- or solvent-barrier packaging systems.
Troubleshooting:
- Identify and resolve tableting, dispensing, and plating issues, including poor powder flow, sticking, segregation, content non-uniformity, precipitation, evaporation, carryover, and inconsistent well dosing.
Documentation & Collaboration:
- Prepare product specifications, plate maps, batch records, dispensing instructions, analytical protocols, development reports, and manufacturing-transfer documentation.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with R&D, Analytical, Manufacturing, Quality, EHS, Product Management, Automation, and internal technical teams.
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Expected 12-Month Deliverables:
- Capability Assessment — Evaluate current tableting, blending, dispensing, plating, analytical, stability, packaging, and data-management capabilities.
- Standardized Workflows — Establish development workflows for tablets, dry reagents, liquid reagents, and HTS plates.
- Dispensing Qualification — Qualify solid and liquid dispensing across relevant dose and volume ranges.
- Product Prototyping — Prototype two to three priority products in tablet, sachet, vial, or plate formats.
- Performance Demonstration — Demonstrate acceptable dose uniformity, plate uniformity, tablet performance, reconstitution, analytical quality, and stability.
- Preliminary Specifications — Establish preliminary specifications, plate maps, barcode and lot-tracking requirements, packaging recommendations, and stability plans.
- Pilot Readiness — Prepare at least one product candidate for pilot-scale manufacturing or customer evaluation.
- Technical Roadmap — Deliver a roadmap for scale-up, automation, manufacturing transfer, and future RUO, GLP-supporting, or GMP-grade development.
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Required Qualifications:
- Education: MS or BS with substantial industrial experience, in Biomedical Engineering, Biochemical Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmaceutics, Chemical Engineering, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Materials Science, or a closely related field.
- Hands-on experience in at least two of the following areas: dry formulation, tableting, powder processing, biochemical reagent development, automated dispensing, or HTS plate preparation.
- Experience with 24-, 48-, 96-, or 384-well plate workflows, including solid or liquid dispensing, sealing, plate maps, storage, and quality control.
- Solid understanding of powder properties, excipient functionality, solvent compatibility, moisture sensitivity, formulation stability, and packaging compatibility.
- Demonstrated experience designing and documenting formulation, analytical, process-development, dispensing, or stability studies.
- Ability to independently translate product concepts into structured experiments, prototypes, and transferable processes.
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Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with biological buffers, pharmaceutical excipients, dissolution media, LC-MS reagents, biochemical screening kits, formulation-screening plates, or chemical libraries.
- Familiarity with automated solid or liquid dispensers, laboratory robotics, low-volume dispensing, DMSO solutions, dry-plated compounds, or plate sealing systems.
- Proficiency with UPLC/HPLC, LC-MS, Karl Fischer analysis, dissolution testing, osmolality measurement, powder characterization, barcode tracking, LIMS, SDF/CSV file formats, or plate-data management systems.
- Experience with Design of Experiments (DoE), Quality by Design (QbD), laboratory-to-pilot scale-up, technology transfer, RUO product development, GLP, GMP, or ICH stability principles.
Duties
- Develop and optimize drug formulations using principles of formulation chemistry, organic chemistry, and materials engineering to improve drug stability, bioavailability, and delivery.
- Design and execute high-throughput screening assays to evaluate compound libraries for activity, toxicity, and pharmacokinetic properties.
- Conduct chemical synthesis, polymer synthesis, and materials analysis to support product development projects.
- Utilize analytical chemistry techniques such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), spectroscopy, chromatography, and other laboratory instruments for quality control and data analysis.
- Implement experimental design strategies including design of experiments (DOE) to systematically investigate formulation variables and process parameters.
- Ensure compliance with pharmaceutical regulatory standards such as GLP (Good Laboratory Practice), GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice), FDA regulations, ISO 9001 standards, and CGMP guidelines during all phases of research.
- Collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams—including manufacturing, quality control, regulatory affairs, and clinical research—to facilitate seamless project progression from concept through scale-up.
- Maintain meticulous laboratory records, prepare detailed reports on experimental outcomes, and contribute to intellectual property documentation when applicable.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Materials Engineering, Biochemistry or related field; PhD preferred for advanced roles.
- Proven experience in drug discovery research with a strong background in formulation chemistry, analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, spectroscopy, chromatography, and laboratory experiment design.
- Hands-on laboratory experience with pharmaceutical research projects involving chemical synthesis, drug formulation development, chemical scale-up projects, and materials analysis.
- Familiarity with GLP/GMP/CGMP regulations as well as FDA regulations governing pharmaceutical manufacturing and clinical trials.
- Proficiency in laboratory techniques including high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), spectroscopy methods, laboratory instruments operation, and experimental design tools like DOE.
- Experience working on polymer synthesis or polymers in materials engineering is a plus.
- Strong cross-functional communication skills with the ability to collaborate effectively across teams involved in product development and regulatory processes.
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously while maintaining attention to detail in a fast-paced environment.
Join us to be part of an innovative team dedicated to transforming pharmaceutical research into life-changing therapies!
The Company is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. No employee or applicant for employment will be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, gender identity, transgender status, marital status, or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. This policy of Equal Employment Opportunity applies to all policies and programs relating to recruitment and hiring, promotion, compensation, benefits, discipline, termination, and all other terms and conditions of employment. Any applicant or employee who believes they have been discriminated against by the Company or anyone acting on behalf of the Company must report any concerns to their Human Resources Business Partner, Legal, or Compliance immediately. The Company will not retaliate against any individual because they made a good faith report of discrimination.
Pay: $30.00 - $32.00 per hour
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Vision insurance
Application Question(s):
- Do you hold a PhD or MS or BS in a scientific/engineering discipline (e.g., Biomedical/Chemical Engineering, Pharmacy, Chemistry) and have relevant industrial experience?
- Do you have hands-on experience in at least two of the following: dry formulation, tableting, powder processing, biochemical reagent development, automated dispensing, or HTS plate preparation?
- Do you have experience with 24-, 48-, 96-, or 384-well plate workflows, including dispensing (solid/liquid), sealing, and quality control (e.g., evaporation/edge effects)?
- Can you provide an example of how you have independently translated a product concept into a structured, documented experiment or prototype?
- This is a 12-month, on-site contract role requiring both equipment operation and technical documentation. Are you comfortable with these responsibilities?
Education:
Experience:
- HPLC: 3 years (Preferred)
Language:
Work Location: In person
