Merck KGaA Posted September 16, 2026

Formulation Associate

Indianapolis, Indiana, United States FULL_TIME
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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 MilliporeSigma.

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.

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

Your Role:

In this role you will be responsible for key formulation and engineering support primarily dedicated to bench-scale formulations and process development activities associated with sterile injectable and lyophilized drug products, particularly liposomes and lipid-based formulations. The primary task would be to plan, support and execute experiments with the aim of optimizing processes for scale-up and/or transfer to the cGMP environment within the constraints of timelines and under minimal supervision by senior scientific staff. Additionally, the job responsibilities would include significant technical collaboration with the manufacturing and analytical technical services department as well as technical support for current processes and product investigations.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Execute developmental and investigational tasks through Quality by Design (QbD)approaches utilizing DOE principles. Associated tasks include formulation development, process design and engineering, equipment specification and engineering, data collection and analysis, generation and testing of critical process parameters (CPPs) to match the critical product attributes (CPAs) of the final drug product.

Provide technical support via lab-scale execution for the manufacturing processes, including process investigations, process changes, and technical transfer and scaleup of new product introductions. Adapt formulation solutions to complex products through guidance from senior scientific staff and collaborators

Develop efficient, appropriate formulation procedures and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for new equipment/processes as well as update of existing SOPs.

Partner with the analytical technical services group to perform sample analyses in support of formulation development, in-process sampling and stability testing of final drug products/samples.

Present quality written documentation, notebooks, methods, data reports and summaries. Report and treat data with a high level of integrity and ethics

Discuss routinely with supervisor, project manager and peers the status of the assigned programs and potential problems. Communicate effectively on research results, issues, and plans.

Conduct laboratory operations in a safe manner. Maintain compliance with the Chemical Hygiene Plan. Exhibit safety awareness and safe work practices.

Follow responsible actions regarding chemical disposal in close collaboration with the EHS staff. Maintain compliance with appropriate SOP’s.

The person may also be expected to interface with external clients and contractors in support of existing projects.

Physical Attributes:

Lift up to 25 pounds.

Who You Are:

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelors Degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemical Engineering, Biochemical Engineering, or other Engineering discipline.

1+ years of experience in engineering, pharmaceutical formulation and process development.

Preferred Qualifications:

3+ years of experience in engineering, pharmaceutical formulation and process development.

Experience with LIMS or Minitab.

Experience performing root cause analysis for investigations.

Experience with statistical designs of experiments (DOE) methodology.

Pay Range for this position: $64,500 - $117,800 / year ​

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 prerequisites. For more information click  here .

RSREMD

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
Associate
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, 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 565 comparable Associate Manufacturing & CMC roles across 80 biopharma companies.

565Comparable roles tracked
517Currently active
80Companies hiring similar roles
32Countries represented

Salary context

124 of 565 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 $64,500/yr – $117,800/yr
Lowest disclosed · Production Associate · Merck KGaA $17/hr – $27/hr (≈ $35,360–$56,160/yr)
Highest disclosed · Regional Manager - Megasys · Merck KGaA $220,000/yr – $250,000/yr
Peer group range $45,760 – $235,000 (median $123,700)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 565 comparable roles

United States321
India62
Germany23
France20
Ireland14
United Kingdom13

+ 26 more countries

Seniority mix

565 of 565 peers have a known seniority level

Manager265
Associate153
Intern/Fellow/Postdoc147

Therapeutic area mix

8 of 565 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Vaccines & Infectious Disease6
Rare Disease2

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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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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%
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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.