Amgen Inc. Posted June 16, 2026

Quality Control Specialist, Microbiology

Thousand Oaks, United States Full time
Quality

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

Quality

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-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.

Quality Control Specialist, Microbiology

What you will do

Let’s do this. Let’s change the world. In this vital role, you will provide technical and operational leadership for the QC Microbiology and Environmental Monitoring laboratories, leading microbial identification activities, environmental monitoring investigations, and laboratory operations in a highly dynamic, team-oriented environment.

In this role, you will be responsible for:

Lead microbial identification activities, organism assessments, and support routine and non-routine microbiological testing.

Provide leadership for microbiology laboratory operations, coordinate daily priorities, supervise laboratory staff, and support weekend laboratory operations.

Own and lead complex microbiological investigations, deviations, environmental monitoring excursions, and contamination events, including root cause analysis, risk assessments, and product impact assessments.

Provide technical expertise for environmental monitoring, bioburden control, microbial identification, contamination control strategies, and laboratory controls.

Author and drive CAPAs, microbial risk assessments, and change controls to ensure compliant resolution of quality events.

Coordinate contract laboratory activities, including testing support, data review, investigation collaboration, and approval of associated documentation.

Generate and maintain complete, accurate, and inspection-ready documentation using electronic laboratory and quality systems (e.g., LMES, LIMS, CIMS, and Veeva).

Partner with Quality, Manufacturing, Engineering, and global microbiology teams to support process improvements, operational excellence initiatives, regulatory inspections, and strategic microbiology projects.

What we expect of you

We are all different, yet we all use our unique contributions to serve patients. The dedicated professional we seek is a self-starter with these qualifications

Basic Qualifications:

High school diploma / GED and 10 years of Quality, Microbiology or Operations experience OR

Associate’s degree and 8 years of Quality, Microbiology or Operations experience OR

Bachelor’s degree and 4 years of Quality, Microbiology or Operations experience OR

Master’s degree and 2 years of Quality, Microbiology or Operations experience OR

Doctorate degree

Preferred Qualifications:

Microbiology degree and/or microbiology laboratory experience associated with microbial identification.

Demonstrated leadership experience, including coaching and developing staff, prioritizing laboratory workloads, and supporting routine and non-routine microbiological testing.

Understanding of manufacturing processes associated with contamination control.

Experience supporting regulatory inspections and audit readiness activities.

Advanced technical writer who can articulate complex events into concise, clear, and contemporaneous documentation that is inspection ready.

Professional work experience in a fast-paced, flexible GMP laboratory.

Ability to generate, investigate, triage and close deviations and analytical test result assessments in Veeva.

Ability to generate and document validation protocols and reports.

Experience performing aliquoting of samples aseptically.

Operation, maintenance experience with laboratory equipment.

Ability to generate and revise methods and SOPs within CDOCs.

Demonstrated proficiency with electronic systems capturing consumables, testing procedures, results, and investigations (SAP, LIMS, LMES, CIMS, Veeva, etc.).

Demonstrated understanding and use of Maximo (Work Order System)

Ability to manage and lead Operational Excellence initiatives including 5S and Standard Work associated with the testing labs.

Demonstrated written and oral communication skills, project management and presentation skills, and proven ability to manage priorities effectively.

Demonstrated ability to be flexible and adaptable to support business needs.

What you can expect from 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. Amgen is an Equal Opportunity employer and will consider you without regard to your race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability status.

. Salary Range

100,450.45USD -135,903.55 USD

Job details

Seniority
Not listed
Function
Quality
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Thousand Oaks, United States
Employment type
Full time

How this role compares

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

We currently track 644 comparable Quality roles across 85 biopharma companies.

644Comparable roles tracked
597Currently active
85Companies hiring similar roles
45Countries represented

Salary context

110 of 644 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.

This roleSubject Not listed on this posting
Lowest disclosed · Technician - QC Laboratory · Lilly $13/hr – $29/hr (≈ $26,998–$60,507/yr)
Highest disclosed · Executive Director, QA Microbiology · Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) $203,000/yr – $399,400/yr
Peer group range $43,753 – $301,200 (median $159,000)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 644 comparable roles

United States212
Ireland49
India45
China39
Singapore36
France29

+ 39 more countries

Seniority mix

309 of 644 peers have a known seniority level

Manager116
Senior97
Associate Director26
Director24
Associate23
Principal14
Senior Director7
Executive/VP1
Intern/Fellow/Postdoc1

Therapeutic area mix

0 of 644 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

No peers with a known therapeutic area yet.

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.

40%similar
Lilly Lebanon, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same country
40%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Associate
Same function Same country
40%similar
Lilly Lebanon, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same country
40%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Director
Same function Same country
40%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Manager
Same function Same country
40%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Director
Same function 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.

40%
Principal Scientist GMP Environmental Monitoring Lilly Medicine Foundry
Lilly · Lebanon, Indiana, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Director, Clinical Quality Assurance
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Senior R&D Quality Officer, Product Development Quality Assurance
AbbVie · Irvine, CA · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Principal Scientist I/II, Study Quality and Compliance - Nonclinical Safety/Toxicology
Novartis · Cambridge (USA), United States · 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.