Pfizer Posted September 25, 2026

Senior Associate Scientist, Viral Vaccines

Pearl River, United States Full time
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research Vaccines & Infectious Disease Senior
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About this opportunity

Why Patients Need You

Pfizer’s purpose is to deliver breakthroughs that change patients’ lives. Research and Development is at the heart of fulfilling Pfizer’s purpose as we work to translate advanced science and technologies into the therapies and vaccines that matter most. Whether you are in the discovery sciences, ensuring drug safety and efficacy or supporting clinical trials, you will apply cutting edge design and process development capabilities to accelerate and bring the best-in-class medicines to patients around the world.

What You Will Achieve

As a Senior Associate Scientist, you will be at the center of our operations and you’ll find that everything we do, every day, is in line with an unwavering commitment to quality.

You will be part of a team to support the preclinical evaluation and early clinical development of mRNA and protein based viral vaccines. You will be responsible for performing and developing immunoassays supporting various viral programs to monitor the immune responses elicited by vaccine candidates.

You will be using your scientific knowledge to adapt and develop standard methods and techniques by applying prior work experience and consulting others. You should possess a strong work ethic and collaborative spirit and be adaptable to fast-paced environments.

It is your innovative scientific temperament that will help in making Pfizer ready to achieve new milestones and help patients across the globe.

How You Will Achieve It

Perform assays to analyze immune responses to vaccine candidates that include (but are not limited to) cell culture, neutralization assays, other functional antibody assays, Luminex, and ELISAs in BSL-2 environments.

Generate, characterize and tract critical reagents for preclinical bio-functional studies to support vaccine development.

Assist with preclinical bio-functional assay development and train other analysts on established technologies. Apply technical skills and functional knowledge to complete projects/ assignments independently and proactively.

Perform data analysis; summarize and interpret experimental results and present at team meetings.

Read scientific and technical literature to stay current in the field and to bring new and improved technologies to the laboratory.

Maintain laboratory notebooks in compliance with the Pfizer Laboratory Notebook Policy.

Stay current on all departmental and corporate training.

Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Must-Have

Bachelor's degree in Biological Engineering, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Physical Sciences, or a related discipline with 3 to 5 years of laboratory research experience in a relevant field of science OR Masters Degree with 0 to 3 years of experience.

Basic laboratory skills in the areas of cell-based assays.

Experience with experimental design and interpretation of results.

The capacity to work effectively in highly visible research programs with time-constrained milestones

Effective verbal and written communication skills

Proficiency in software to perform analysis and presentation of data (Excel, GraphPad Prism, PowerPoint, and relevant scientific software).

Strong motivation with a dedicated work ethic.

Nice-to-Have

Pharmaceutical and biotech vaccine research experience

Experience with handling infectious agents such as respiratory viruses

Experience with adherent and suspension cell lines

Experience with independent development and troubleshooting bioassays designed to assess antibody functionality

Advanced experience in generating protocols using Bravo Automated Liquid Handling Platform.

Expert in Microsoft Excel (advanced formulas and functions).

PHYSICAL/MENTAL REQUIREMENTS

Basic laboratory training in aseptic technique is essential.

Ability to work with infectious agents safely.

Standard laboratory conditions and computer work– sitting, standing.

This position may require the ability to stand and reach inside the hardware environment of various laboratory robotic equipment.

Math skills for basic laboratory calculations.

Work Location Assignment: On Premise

The annual base salary for this position ranges from $68,600.00 to $114,300.00. In addition, this position is eligible for participation in Pfizer’s Global Performance Plan with a bonus target of 7.5% of the base salary. We offer comprehensive and generous benefits and programs to help our colleagues lead healthy lives and to support each of life’s moments. Benefits offered include a 401(k) plan with Pfizer Matching Contributions and an additional Pfizer Retirement Savings Contribution, paid vacation, holiday and personal days, paid caregiver/parental and medical leave, and health benefits to include medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage. Learn more at Pfizer Candidate Site – U.S. Benefits | (uscandidates.mypfizerbenefits.com). Pfizer compensation structures and benefit packages are aligned based on the location of hire. The United States salary range provided does not apply to Tampa, FL or any location outside of the United States.

Relocation assistance may be available based on business needs and/or eligibility.

Candidates must be authorized to be employed in the U.S. by any employer.

U.S. work visa sponsorship (such as TN, O-1, H-1B, etc.) is not available for this role now or in the future.

Sunshine Act

Pfizer reports payments and other transfers of value to health care providers as required by federal and state transparency laws and implementing regulations.  These laws and regulations require Pfizer to provide government agencies with information such as a health care provider’s name, address and the type of payments or other value received, generally for public disclosure.  Subject to further legal review and statutory or regulatory clarification, which Pfizer intends to pursue, reimbursement of recruiting expenses for licensed physicians may constitute a reportable transfer of value under the federal transparency law commonly known as the Sunshine Act.  Therefore, if you are a licensed physician who incurs recruiting expenses as a result of interviewing with Pfizer that we pay or reimburse, your name, address and the amount of payments made currently will be reported to the government.  If you have questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact your Talent Acquisition representative.

EEO & Employment Eligibility

Pfizer is committed to equal opportunity in the terms and conditions of employment for all employees and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, disability or veteran status.  Pfizer also complies with all applicable national, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act and IRCA.  Pfizer is an E-Verify employer.  This position requires permanent work authorization in the United States.

Pfizer endeavors to make   www.pfizer.com/careers   accessible to all users. If you would like to contact us regarding the accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process and/or interviewing, please email   disabilityrecruitment@pfizer.com . This is to be used solely for accommodation requests with respect to the accessibility of our website, online application process and/or interviewing. Requests for any other reason will not be returned.

To learn more about acceptable and prohibited uses of AI during the recruitment process, please review our candidate AI-use guidelines available on  Pfizer Careers .

Research and Development

Job details

Seniority
Senior
Function
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research
Therapeutic area
Vaccines & Infectious Disease
Location
Pearl River, 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 432 comparable Senior Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 56 biopharma companies.

432Comparable roles tracked
372Currently active
56Companies hiring similar roles
19Countries represented

Salary context

217 of 432 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 $68,600/yr – $114,300/yr
Lowest disclosed · Sr Associate Scientist - Conjugation Chemistry · Pfizer $68,600/yr – $114,300/yr
Highest disclosed · Toxicology Senior Research Fellow · Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (US) $232,000/yr – $348,000/yr
Peer group range $91,450 – $290,000 (median $162,400)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 432 comparable roles

United States336
China15
India15
United Kingdom13
Germany8
Switzerland8

+ 13 more countries

Seniority mix

432 of 432 peers have a known seniority level

Senior227
Principal165
Associate Director40

Therapeutic area mix

46 of 432 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Immunology15
Oncology13
Neuroscience12
Cardiovascular / CVRM3
Vaccines & Infectious Disease1
Gastroenterology1
Dermatology & Aesthetics1

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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.

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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.