Amgen Inc. Posted June 23, 2026

Safety Pharmacology Senior Scientist

Thousand Oaks, United States Full time
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research Senior

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.

Safety Pharmacology Senior Scientist

What you will do

Let’s do this. Let’s change the world. In this vital role you will join the Safety Pharmacology Sciences team. The successful candidate will serve as a subject matter expert in nonclinical safety pharmacology, partnering closely with project teams to develop and execute integrated safety pharmacology strategies that support discovery, candidate selection, IND-enabling packages and regulatory submissions. This role will require strong scientific judgment, regulatory awareness, cross-functional collaboration, and the ability to translate complex nonclinical safety pharmacology data into clear, actionable recommendations for project teams and governance forums. The Senior Scientist will work closely with Safety Pharmacology Sciences colleagues to shape and deliver high-quality safety pharmacology strategies across Amgen’s portfolio to support high-quality development decisions to enable progression of innovative therapeutics for patients. The role includes opportunities to contribute to Amgen’s external scientific influence through collaborations, presentations, publications, or participation in industry working groups with the following responsibilities:

Safety Pharmacology Strategy and Project Team Support

Serve as a Safety Pharmacology subject matter expert on cross-functional project teams, developing fit-for-purpose strategies and providing strategic guidance across discovery, lead optimization, candidate selection, IND-enabling, and clinical development stages, aligned with program biology, modality, target risk, regulatory expectations, and development needs.

Design and oversee GLP and non-GLP safety pharmacology studies conducted internally or at external contract research organizations, ensuring scientific rigor, operational feasibility, compliance, and timely delivery.

Evaluate and integrate nonclinical safety pharmacology data, including cardiovascular, respiratory, CNS, ECG, hemodynamic, telemetry, and related endpoints, to assess biological relevance, translational significance, and regulatory impact.

Integrate safety pharmacology data with toxicology, pharmacology, translational biology, DMPK, clinical, and regulatory information to support weight-of-evidence decision-making.

Contribute to internal governance presentations, project team discussions, regulatory strategy meetings, development milestone decisions, and resolution of study-related scientific or technical issues.

Contribute to safety pharmacology sections of regulatory documents, including IND-enabling summaries, Investigator’s Brochures, briefing documents, responses to regulatory questions, and internal development reports.

Scientific Leadership and Innovation

Contribute to development and implementation of innovative safety pharmacology approaches, including fit-for-purpose study designs, risk-based assessment frameworks, and translational safety strategies.

Stay current with evolving regulatory expectations, industry best practices, scientific literature, and emerging methodologies in safety pharmacology.

Participate in internal initiatives to improve safety pharmacology processes, templates, data standards, reporting practices, and decision frameworks.

Promote high scientific standards, quality, and compliance across internal and external study activities.

Contribute to a culture of scientific curiosity, collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.

External Engagement

Represent Amgen externally through scientific presentations, publications, professional societies, consortia, or cross-industry working groups, as appropriate.

Build external scientific relationships that enhance Amgen’s visibility and influence in safety pharmacology.

Monitor and contribute to emerging best practices in cardiovascular, respiratory, CNS, and integrated nonclinical safety assessment.

Basic Qualifications:

Doctorate degree and 1 year of scientific experience

OR

Master’s degree and 3 years of scientific experience

OR

Bachelor’s degree and 5 years of scientific experience

Preferred Qualifications

PhD in Pharmacology, Neuroscience, Physiology, Biomedical Sciences, or related field

Experience supporting discovery and development project teams as a safety pharmacology SME or toxicology representative.

Broad experience in nonclinical safety pharmacology across cardiovascular, respiratory and CNS domains

Experience serving as a study director, project representative, or subject matter expert for GLP and/or non-GLP safety pharmacology studies

Experience authoring or contributing to regulatory documents such as Investigator’s Brochures, IND sections, briefing documents, or responses to regulatory questions.

Strong cross-functional communication and problem-solving skills.

Demonstrated ability to collaborate across disciplines, influence without direct authority, and manage multiple priorities in a matrixed environment.

Track record of scientific publications and participation in external scientific forums or consortia.

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

129,228.90USD -174,839.10 USD

Job details

Seniority
Senior
Function
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research
Therapeutic area
Not listed
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 188 comparable Senior Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 30 biopharma companies.

188Comparable roles tracked
170Currently active
30Companies hiring similar roles
12Countries represented

Salary context

62 of 188 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
Highest disclosed · Senior Principal Scientist, Pharmacokinetics · Merck $194,100/yr – $305,600/yr
Peer group range $105,700 – $249,850 (median $164,150)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 188 comparable roles

United States153
India8
Germany5
United Kingdom5
Canada4
China's Mainland3

+ 6 more countries

Seniority mix

188 of 188 peers have a known seniority level

Senior110
Principal57
Associate Director21

Therapeutic area mix

29 of 188 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology16
Cardiovascular / CVRM7
Immunology4
Neuroscience1
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.

60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck West Point, Pennsylvania, United States of America Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck West Point, Pennsylvania, United States of America Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck South San Francisco, California, United States of America Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America Senior
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.

60%
Scientist/Sr Scientist, Discovery Strategy and Operations
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Scientist, Computational Safety & Exploratory Pharmacology
Merck · West Point, Pennsylvania, United States of America · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Sr. Scientist, Primary Pharmacology
Pfizer · Groton, United States · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Scientist, Toxicology II
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Senior
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.