Senior Process Engineer - Chemical Development

Location: Macclesfield, UK

Date Posted: 02.09.22

Salary: Competitive Salary & Benefits

Make a positive impact, in a team where it means more

In Operations, we have a big ambition – to deliver more medicines to patients, quicker and more affordably. Backed by the investment, leadership and a clear plan to get there, we bring personal dedication and out of the box thinking!

We are driven by our commitment to deliver accelerated growth for AstraZeneca and to make people’s lives better. It pushes us to keep building on our foundations and progressing as we turn our ever-growing and increasingly complex pipeline from molecule to medicine. Be part of evolving how we work with Lean, cutting-edge science, digitalisation and sustainable practices.

Chemical Development:

In Chemical Development, we believe that nothing is impossible, and we are compelled to push the boundaries of science to deliver medicines to our patients. We combine people’s technical knowledge and understanding, with their talent and drive to design, develop and optimise synthetic routes that deliver the active pharmaceutical ingredients of our medicines, in a sustainable, commercially viable way. We believe in innovation and continuous improvement, working closely with colleagues in academia and across industry, to ensure that we apply the newest technologies and principles in the processes we develop.

In our process engineering teams, we currently have an open position for a Senior Process Engineer!

As a Senior Process Engineer you will work closely with fellow chemical engineers, chemists, analysts and crystallisation scientists to develop, optimise and scale-up chemical processes to deliver robust and sustainable drug substance manufacture.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide engineering expertise to the development and optimisation of new chemical processes, to achieve robust and sustainable manufacturing for delivery of drug substances. This will include both laboratory experimentation and in-silico modelling.

• Carry out scale-up and manufacturability assessments of processes to ensure right first-time manufacture, technical transfer and future viability.

• Carry out environmental, materials and process safety assessments in support of the accommodation of chemical processes in our internal manufacturing facility to deliver drug substance for clinical trials.

• Work closely with our Contract Manufacturing Organisations (CMOs) across the globe, providing engineering input into the scale up and accommodation of processes into external manufacturing facilities.

• Champion and drive sustainability of chemical processes with respect to environmental sustainability, efficiency, and patient access.

• Work closely with Supply Chain colleagues, providing engineering input in technical discussions with suppliers.

• Participate in the overall development of drug substance control strategy, ensuring processes are fully understood and will robustly deliver the same drug substance quality.

• Apply technical knowledge to improvement projects and lead the evaluation of new technologies.

• Mentor and supervise junior colleagues and university students.

Essential requirements:

• A degree and / or PhD in Chemical Engineering.

• Experience in pharmaceutical/fine chemical/food manufacturing.

• A well-developed understanding of unit operations such as mixing, distillation, liquid-liquid extraction, isolation and drying and their dependency on scale and equipment.

• Good collaborative skills to enable effective working with different skillsets.

• Good understanding of the requirements, principles and application of process safety and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP).

• Strong communication and influencing skills.

Preferred Requirements:

• Experience of chemical process development scale up and / or technical transfer.

• Experience of working across skillsets (e.g. with chemists, analysts and physical properties experts).

• Ability to use modelling software (e.g. Aspen, DynoChem, gPROMS, Computational Fluid Dynamics) to support process understanding.

• Experience working with external suppliers.

• Experience in leading technical projects or acting as a lead process engineer on a project.

At AstraZeneca, we 're dedicated to being a Great Place to Work. Where you are empowered to push the boundaries of science and unleash your entrepreneurial spirit. There’s no better place to make a difference to medicine, patients and society. An inclusive culture that champions diversity and collaboration. Always committed to lifelong learning, growth and development.

So what's next?

Please apply with your CV and Covering Letter by 18th September 2022.

Close date: 18.09.22

Date Posted

Closing Date

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.