AbbVie Posted August 19, 2026

Senior Scientist 1, Bioassay Development, CMC Biologics, Analytical Research & Development

South San Francisco, CA Full-time
Manufacturing & CMC Senior

AbbVie 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

Company Description

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at  www.abbvie.com . Follow @abbvie on  X ,  Facebook ,  Instagram ,  YouTube ,  LinkedIn  and  Tik Tok .

Job Description

Senior Scientist 1, Bioassay Development, CMC Biologics, Analytical Research & Development, AbbVie Biotherapeutics Inc., South San Francisco, CA: Onsite (onsite 5 days per week).

Key Responsibilities

Develop & optimize complex bioassays & target-binding potency assays critical for development of complex biotherapeutics.

Collaborate with analytical teams to elucidate structure/function & interact cross-functionally with teams from Discovery, Chemistry Manufacturing & Controls (CMC), QC, QA to support drug development activities & IND submissions.

Qualify/validate/transfer potency methods to external partners & author technical documents (e.g. test methods, protocols, & reports) to enable regulatory submissions).

Develop new techniques, explore new approaches & technologies, perform troubleshooting & optimization experiments, & present your work to various cross-functional teams.

Qualifications

Education & Experience

Must possess a MS degree in biology, biochemistry, cell/molecular biology, or a related field & 1 year of academic research experience or industry work as a development scientist.

Of academic research experience &/or industry work experience required, must have 1 year:

developing binding potency assays (ELISA, TR-FRET, Octet, flow cytometry, other cell-based formats) to characterize & test protein therapeutics (monoclonal antibodies, ADCs, &/or other biologic modalities);

developing cell-based functional potency assays (cytotoxicity assays, reporter gene assays, proliferation assays, effector function activity assays (i.e. ADCC, CDC) to characterize & test protein therapeutics (monoclonal antibodies, ADCs, &/or other biologic modalities);

performing cell-based target binding potency assays, noncell-based target binding potency assays, &/or functional potency assays to characterize drug mechanism of action;

using GraphPad PRISM, PLA, Softmax Pro, or similar data analysis software;

optimizing & troubleshooting potency assays to improve performance &/or resolve performance issues;

working in a matrixed organization within a crossfunctional scientific environment within a (CMC) organization; &

authoring technical reports, drafting SOPs, writing CMC sections of regulatory filings, & giving scientific presentations to peers & management.

Alternatively, would accept BS Degree in biology, biochemistry, cell/molecular biology, or a related field & 5 years academic research experience &/or industry work experience required as a development scientist.

Of work experience required, must have 5 years of academic research experience &/or industry work experience in each of (i) (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi) & (vii).

Work experience may be gained concurrently. Will accept combination of education, training & work experience.

Additional Information

Salary Range: $143,067.06 - $162,000.00 per year.

Apply online at https://careers.abbvie.com/en or send resume to Job.opportunity.abbvie@abbvie.com . Refer to Req ID: REF49886M

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.   This job is eligible to participate in our short-term and long-term incentive programs.

AbbVie is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives, serving our community, and embracing diversity and inclusion. It is AbbVie’s policy to employ qualified persons of the greatest ability without discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, status as a protected veteran, or any other legally protected group status.

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community.  Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled.

US & Puerto Rico only - to learn more, visit  https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/equal-employment-opportunity-employer.html

US & Puerto Rico applicants seeking a reasonable accommodation, click here to learn more:

https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/reasonable-accommodations.html

Job details

Seniority
Senior
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
South San Francisco, CA
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 459 comparable Senior Manufacturing & CMC roles across 61 biopharma companies.

459Comparable roles tracked
425Currently active
61Companies hiring similar roles
26Countries represented

Salary context

206 of 459 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 $0/hr – $0/hr (≈ $0–$0/yr)
Lowest disclosed · Senior Scientist II – CMC Developmental Sciences · AbbVie $0/hr – $0/hr (≈ $0–$0/yr)
Peer group range $0 – $222,900 (median $150,300)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 459 comparable roles

United States321
India39
Ireland17
Singapore10
Netherlands9
Switzerland8

+ 20 more countries

Seniority mix

459 of 459 peers have a known seniority level

Senior297
Principal93
Associate Director69

Therapeutic area mix

1 of 459 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

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 San Diego, California, United States of America Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Seagen Inc Washington – Bothell, United States Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie Worcester, MA Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country

Notify me about similar jobs

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%
Sr. Scientist - Lab Automation Scientist
Lilly · San Diego, California, United States of America · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Scientist II, Automation Engineering
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Scientist, siRNA Screening Automation and Molecular Analytics
AbbVie · Worcester, MA · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Sr Scientist I, Automation Development
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.