Amgen Inc. Posted August 6, 2026

Principal Scientist - Cardiometabolic Disorders

Thousand Oaks, United States Full time
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research Cardiovascular / CVRM Principal

Amgen Inc. 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

Career Category

Scientific

Job Description

Join Amgen’s Mission of Serving Patients

At Amgen, if you feel like you’re part of something bigger, it’s because you are. Our shared mission, to serve patients living with serious illnesses, drives all that we do.

Since 1980, we’ve helped pioneer the world of biotech in our fight against the world’s toughest diseases. With our focus on four therapeutic areas –Oncology, Inflammation, General Medicine, and Rare Disease– we reach millions of patients each year. Amgen is advancing a broad and deep pipeline of medicines to treat cancer, heart disease, inflammatory conditions, rare diseases, and obesity and obesity-related conditions. As a member of the Amgen team, you’ll help make a lasting impact on the lives of patients as we research, manufacture, and deliver innovative medicines to help people live longer, fuller happier lives.

Our award-winning culture is collaborative, innovative, and science based. If you have a passion for challenges and the opportunities that lay within them, you’ll thrive as part of the Amgen team. Join us and transform the lives of patients while transforming your career.

Principal Scientist – Cardiometabolic Diseases/Obesity Research

What you will do

Let’s do this. Let’s change the world. In this vital role you will provide scientific leadership for the discovery and preclinical development of next-generation therapeutics for obesity and related cardiometabolic diseases. You will lead the design and execution of translational pharmacology strategies to advance innovative therapeutic candidates from target validation through candidate selection.

As a Principal Scientist, you will drive scientific excellence across multiple discovery programs by integrating human biology, in vitro pharmacology, and in vivo efficacy studies to establish a robust pharmacological understanding and enable data-driven decision making. You will work closely with multidisciplinary teams spanning biology, protein engineering, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, biomarker sciences, computational biology, and clinical development.

Key Responsibilities

Provide scientific leadership for obesity drug discovery programs from target identification and validation through candidate selection.

Develop and implement translational pharmacology strategies to evaluate novel therapeutic mechanisms and optimize candidate molecules.

Design, oversee, and interpret in vitro and in vivo pharmacology studies, including efficacy, mechanism-of-action, PK/PD, and biomarker investigations.

Lead cross-functional scientific discussions and influence program direction through rigorous data interpretation and critical thinking.

Identify and implement innovative pharmacology approaches and emerging technologies to advance GPCR-targeted drug discovery.

Mentor and develop scientists while fostering scientific excellence, innovation, and collaboration.

Present scientific findings and recommendations to project teams, senior leadership, and external scientific audiences.

Contribute to publications, presentations, and scientific strategy that strengthen Amgen's obesity research portfolio.

What we expect of you

We are all different, yet we all use our unique contributions to serve patients. The Principal Scientist we seek is an accomplished scientific leader with these qualifications.

Basic Qualifications:

Doctorate degree PhD

OR

PharmD

OR

MD [and relevant post-doc where applicable] and 2 years of experience in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or related drug discovery research

OR

Master’s degree and 5 years of experience in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or related drug discovery research

OR

Bachelor’s degree and 7 years of experience in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or related drug discovery research

Preferred Qualifications:

PhD in Pharmacology, Physiology, Endocrinology, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, or a related scientific discipline with 5+ years of experience in pharmaceutical or biotechnology drug discovery.

Extensive expertise in GPCR biology, pharmacology, and signaling, with a deep understanding of receptor pharmacology, signal transduction, and mechanism-of-action studies.

Demonstrated experience developing, optimizing, and applying GPCR-based in vitro pharmacology assays, including functional signaling assays, ligand-binding assays, receptor internalization, β-arrestin, cAMP, calcium mobilization, and pathway-selective (biased signaling) analyses.

Strong expertise in pharmacological characterization of peptide, antibody, multispecific, or other biologic therapeutics.

Experience designing and interpreting in vivo pharmacology studies to support target validation, mechanism-of-action, and candidate selection.

Demonstrated ability to integrate in vitro pharmacology, in vivo efficacy, PK/PD, biomarker, and human biology data to guide scientific decisions and advance discovery programs.

Proven scientific leadership with the ability to independently develop innovative scientific strategies, solve complex biological problems, and influence multidisciplinary project teams.

Experience mentoring scientists and leading cross-functional collaborations in a fast-paced drug discovery environment.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills with a strong track record of publications, presentations, and scientific contributions.

Demonstrated creativity, scientific curiosity, and a passion for discovering transformative therapies for patients with obesity and related metabolic diseases.

What you can expect of us

As we work to develop treatments that take care of others, we also work to care for your professional and personal growth and well-being. From our competitive benefits to our collaborative culture, we’ll support your journey every step of the way.

The expected annual salary range for this role in the U.S. (excluding Puerto Rico) is posted. Actual salary will vary based on several factors including but not limited to, relevant skills, experience, and qualifications.

In addition to the base salary, Amgen offers a Total Rewards Plan, based on eligibility, comprising of health and welfare plans for staff and eligible dependents, financial plans with opportunities to save towards retirement or other goals, work/life balance, and career development opportunities that may include:

A comprehensive employee benefits package, including a Retirement and Savings Plan with generous company contributions, group medical, dental and vision coverage, life and disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts

A discretionary annual bonus program, or for field sales representatives, a sales-based incentive plan

Stock-based long-term incentives

Award-winning time-off plans

Flexible work models where possible. Refer to the Work Location Type in the job posting to see if this applies.

Apply now and make a lasting impact with the Amgen team.

careers.amgen.com

In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

Application deadline

Amgen does not have an application deadline for this position; we will continue accepting applications until we receive a sufficient number or select a candidate for the position.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship for this role is not guaranteed.

As an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for people around the world, Amgen fosters an inclusive environment of diverse, ethical, committed and highly accomplished people who respect each other and live the Amgen values to continue advancing science to serve patients. Together, we compete in the fight against serious disease.

Amgen is an Equal Opportunity employer and will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

. Salary Range

140,123.35USD -189,578.65 USD

Job details

Seniority
Principal
Function
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research
Therapeutic area
Cardiovascular / CVRM
Location
Thousand Oaks, United States
Employment type
Full time

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 193 comparable Principal Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 31 biopharma companies.

193Comparable roles tracked
172Currently active
31Companies hiring similar roles
12Countries represented

Salary context

65 of 193 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 Not listed on this posting
Peer group range $105,700 – $322,000 (median $165,300)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 193 comparable roles

United States158
India9
United Kingdom5
Canada4
Sweden3
China's Mainland3

+ 6 more countries

Seniority mix

193 of 193 peers have a known seniority level

Senior111
Principal56
Director26

Therapeutic area mix

28 of 193 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology16
Immunology5
Cardiovascular / CVRM4
Neuroscience1
Vaccines & Infectious Disease1
Respiratory1

Similar opportunities

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.

100%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same therapeutic area Same seniority Same country
100%similar
E.R. Squibb & Sons,L.L.C. Princeton, United States Principal
Same function Same therapeutic area Same seniority Same country
90%similar
Amgen Inc. Thousand Oaks, United States Senior
Same function Same therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Same country
85%similar
AstraZeneca Mölndal, Sweden Principal
Same function Same therapeutic area Same seniority
60%similar
AstraZeneca Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country

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.

100%
Advisor / Senior Advisor, Cardiovascular NAMs – Investigative Toxicology
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
85%
Associate Principal Scientist – Metabolism Bioscience Research, CVRM
AstraZeneca · Mölndal, Sweden · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Advisor/Senior Advisor - Discovery Immunology
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Principal Research Scientist I, Process Chemistry (Biocatalysis)
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
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.