Merck KGaA Posted August 15, 2026

Principal Scientist, Bioanalytics

Billerica, Massachusetts, United States FULL_TIME
Manufacturing & CMC Principal

Merck KGaA is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

Work Your Magic with us!  Start your next chapter and join EMD Serono.

Ready to explore, break barriers, and discover more? We know you’ve got big plans – so do we! Our colleagues across the globe love innovating with science and technology to enrich people’s lives with our solutions in Healthcare, Life Science, and Electronics. Together, we dream big and are passionate about caring for our rich mix of people, customers, patients, and planet. That's why we are always looking for curious minds that see themselves imagining the unimaginable with us.

United As One for Patients, our purpose in Healthcare is to help create, improve and prolong lives. We develop medicines, intelligent devices and innovative technologies in therapeutic areas such as Oncology, Neurology and Fertility. Our teams work together across 6 continents with passion and relentless curiosity in order to help patients at every stage of life. Joining our Healthcare team is becoming part of a diverse, inclusive and flexible working culture, presenting great opportunities for personal development and career advancement across the globe.

This role does not offer sponsorship for work authorization. External applicants must be eligible to work in the US.

Your Role:

In the New Biological Entities Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (NBE DMPK) department, the Principal Scientist role is a scientific and operational role in Research and Development (R&D).  Our company is committed to bringing transformational medicines to patients, and you will collaborate in a matrixed environment with other passionate functional experts to deliver novel biotherapeutics. You will be responsible for the development and fit-for-purpose validation of bioanalytical methods to be applied in sample analysis for molecules in discovery and development phases. Your work will support the characterization of multiple molecules and modalities, including multi-specific NBEs, antibody-drug conjugates, antibody oligonucleotide conjugates (AOCs), and other biologics, from molecule design through preclinical and clinical phases, thus fulfilling internal and regulatory requirements. Representative technologies could include innovative immunochemical and ligand binding techniques such as ELISA, MSD-ECLA, Gyrolab, and others. Additional duties will include development of complex experimental study designs, interpretation of analytical data, good knowledge of immunogenicity, and technical report writing according to current company and industry standards. You will be responsible for ensuring timely delivery, with appropriate quality, of LBA bioanalytical deliverables (method development, qualification, and its application to in-vivo animal studies), and if needed, responsible for conducting/supervising critical reagent characterization. You will be able to recommend data decisions to the lab manager by providing solid results, findings and technical solutions to project issues/problems. You will be able to conduct scientific literature research to address complex technical issues and evaluate and implement potential new analytical strategies and technologies as needed. You may also be responsible for monitoring bioanalytical studies at contract research organizations (CROs).

 

Who You Are

Minimum Qualifications:

Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, or related field, with expertise in PK, bioanalytics, immunogenicity, and/or relevant sciences.

Experience with biological molecules (NBEs, ADCs, AOCs, other novel modalities).

Experience with ligand binding techniques such as ELISA, MSD-ECLA, Gyrolab, and related.

Excellent experimental design and troubleshooting skills, and excellent data analysis & data mining skills.

Experience using, optimizing, and troubleshooting the performance of laboratory instrumentations.

Able to conduct appropriate experiments and manage work hours and priorities to meet project timelines.

Experience reviewing bioanalytical methods, qualifications, validations, and bioanalytical study reports.

Knowledge of Watson LIMS, GraphPad Prism, Veeva Vault and/or related software.

5-7+ of professional experience in regulated bioanalysis, supporting drug discovery and/or development projects

Fluent spoken and written English

Preferred Qualifications:

Solid understanding of translational sciences, regulatory requirements and work packages for biotherapeutics (nonclinical and clinical).

General knowledge of disease areas (e.g. Immunology, Oncology, etc.), and an understanding of biology and pharmacology.

Experience in a global matrixed environment.

Role will be on site in Billerica, MA

Pay Range for this position: $126,900- $215,400. The offer range represents the anticipated low and high end of the base pay compensation for this position. The actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, level of experience, education, skills, and other job-related factors. Position may be eligible for sales or performance-based bonuses. Benefits offered by the Company include health insurance, paid time off (PTO), retirement contributions, and other perquisites. For more information click  here .

What we offer: We are curious minds that come from a broad range of backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences. We believe that this variety drives excellence and innovation, strengthening our ability to lead in science and technology. We are committed to creating access and opportunities for all to develop and grow at your own pace. Join us in building a culture of inclusion and belonging that impacts millions and empowers everyone to work their magic and champion human progress!

Apply now and become a part of a team that is dedicated to Sparking Discovery and Elevating Humanity!

Job details

Seniority
Principal
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Billerica, Massachusetts, United States
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Manufacturing & CMC role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 401 comparable Principal Manufacturing & CMC roles across 60 biopharma companies.

401Comparable roles tracked
375Currently active
60Companies hiring similar roles
20Countries represented

Salary context

190 of 401 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.

This roleSubject $126,900/yr – $215,400/yr
Lowest disclosed · Senior Scientist II – CMC Developmental Sciences · AbbVie $0/hr – $0/hr (≈ $0–$0/yr)
Highest disclosed · Director, Global Automation Engineering · AbbVie $182,000/yr – $346,000/yr
Peer group range $0 – $264,000 (median $150,600)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 401 comparable roles

United States285
India43
Singapore10
Ireland10
Switzerland7
Slovenia7

+ 14 more countries

Seniority mix

401 of 401 peers have a known seniority level

Senior258
Principal81
Director62

Therapeutic area mix

2 of 401 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology1
Vaccines & Infectious Disease1

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The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.

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Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.

How we calculate "similar"

No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.

Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.

60%
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Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.