Amgen Inc. Posted September 17, 2026

Scientific Associate Director, Human Disease Biology, Inflammation Research

South San Francisco, United States Full time
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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.

Scientific Associate Director, Human Disease Biology, Inflammation Research

What you will do

Let’s do this. Let’s change the world. In this vital role you will work at the intersection of disease biology, multi-omic profiling, computational analysis, and drug discovery, generating insights that advance therapeutic opportunities in respiratory, dermatologic, and/or rheumatologic diseases.

The successful candidate will combine deep expertise in human disease biology with experience translating discoveries into therapeutic hypotheses and drug discovery programs. They will serve as a scientific leader who integrates data across human genetics, transcriptomics, proteomics, spatial biology, and single-cell technologies to identify disease mechanisms, patient subsets, biomarkers, and novel therapeutic opportunities.

Key Responsibilities:

Develop and execute a disease-focused discovery strategy leveraging multi-omic and human data to deepen mechanistic understanding of respiratory, dermatologic, or rheumatologic diseases.

Continuous adoption of technology, AI/computation and innovation to improve efficiency and quality of work. Integration of systems immunology, multi-omics, AI-enabled biology, and human disease research to bring unique insights and innovative approaches to Amgen's discovery efforts.

Lead cross-functional scientific initiatives that integrate human genetics, single-cell biology, spatial biology, proteomics, and computational analyses to identify and validate first/best-in-class therapeutic targets, patient segments and biomarker strategies.

Drive generation and interpretation of multimodal datasets and translate findings into actionable hypotheses for target discovery and program prioritization/advancement.

Partner closely with computational biology, translational sciences, human genetics, pathology, and disease-area biology teams to build integrated disease models and prioritize therapeutic opportunities.

Serve as a scientific leader for disease-focused discovery efforts and provide expertise in human tissue biology, disease pathogenesis, and emerging technologies.

Design and oversee internal and external collaborations with academic investigators, clinical researchers, consortia, and technology partners.

Contribute to advancement of programs through target validation, indication selection, biomarker identification, and patient stratification strategies.

Mentor scientists and foster rigorous, collaborative, and innovative scientific practices across project teams.

Leads multiple cross-functional projects and scientific initiatives focused on disease understanding and target discovery.

Influences the direction of several discovery programs through generation of disease insights and translational hypotheses.

Serves as a recognized expert in disease biology and multi-omic analysis within the department.

Contributes to departmental strategy related to human biology, disease understanding, and technology deployment.

Builds productive collaborations across research functions and external scientific communities.

What we expect of you

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

Basic Qualifications:

Doctorate degree PhD

OR

PharmD

OR

MD [and relevant post-doc where applicable] and 4 years of relevant scientific experience

OR

Master’s degree and 7 years of relevant scientific experience

OR

Bachelor’s degree and 9 years of relevant scientific experience

Preferred Qualifications:

Significant experience in both academic research and biopharmaceutical drug discovery.

Experience integrating human genetics, transcriptomics, proteomics, single-cell, spatial, imaging, and clinical datasets to generate actionable biological insights that inform target validation, biomarker strategies, patient stratification approaches, and drug discovery programs.

Strong understanding of the drug discovery and development process, including target identification, validation, translational strategy, and preclinical development.

Demonstrated ability to lead matrixed teams and build productive collaborations across scientific disciplines.

Record of scientific achievement as evidenced by high-impact publications, presentations, patents, external collaborations, or contributions to advancing therapeutic programs.

Curiosity-driven scientist with a passion for understanding human disease biology and leveraging emerging technologies to accelerate discovery.

Excellent communication skills and ability to influence scientific strategy across diverse stakeholders.

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.

Amgen will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. Salary Range

190,951.65USD -258,346.35 USD

Job details

Seniority
Associate Director
Function
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
South San Francisco, 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 134 comparable Associate Director Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 31 biopharma companies.

134Comparable roles tracked
132Currently active
31Companies hiring similar roles
12Countries represented

Salary context

51 of 134 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 $91,450 – $231,700 (median $159,000)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 134 comparable roles

United States103
India8
Canada5
Belgium5
Spain4
United Kingdom2

+ 6 more countries

Seniority mix

134 of 134 peers have a known seniority level

Senior104
Associate Director22
Manager8

Therapeutic area mix

8 of 134 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology4
Respiratory1
Neuroscience1
Cardiovascular / CVRM1
Vaccines & Infectious Disease1

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.

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Novartis Cambridge (USA), United States Associate Director
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60%similar
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Tarrytown, United States Associate Director
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60%similar
Amgen Inc. Thousand Oaks, United States Associate Director
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60%similar
RayzeBio, Inc San Diego, United States Associate Director
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60%similar
Merck Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America Associate Director
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%
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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.