AbbVie Posted September 22, 2026

Senior Scientist II, CMC BioProcess Purification Development

South San Francisco, CA Full-time
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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

About AbbVie

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 including immunology, oncology and neuroscience - and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at  www.abbvie.com . Follow @abbvie on  LinkedIn,   Facebook ,  Instagram ,  X  and  YouTube.

Job Description

The Biologics CMC Development team at AbbVie in the Bay Area has a long and rich history of biologics development. Located in a state of the art facility in South San Francisco, the team leverages its comprehensive end-to-end CMC capabilities to work collaboratively through all phases of CMC development with a primary focus on advancing complex biologic therapies, such as multi-specifics, and novel modalities, to human clinical studies and eventual licensure. This role is within a team of highly experienced scientists and managers who have directly enabled the development/IND submissions of 20+ novel biologics and successfully filed two BLAs.

As a member of the CMC Purification Development group, you will apply strong downstream process-development expertise to design robust, phase-appropriate drug substance purification processes for GMP production, clinical studies, and eventual licensure. You will own purification deliverables for assigned programs, help define drug substance development strategy as a functional lead on cross-functional CMC teams, and communicate data-driven recommendations, risks, and tradeoffs to key stakeholders.

This position is an onsite role in a lab-based function. To be successful candidates must enjoy and thrive in a fast-paced and highly collaborative lab environment with daily face-to-face cross-functional interactions between scientists.

Responsibilities

Develop, optimize, characterize, and scale up purification processes for monoclonal antibodies, multispecifics, antibody-like molecules, and other complex biologic candidates across early- and late-stage drug substance process development

Lead technology transfer to internal or external GMP manufacturing sites; author transfer packages, support facility fit and readiness, and provide technical troubleshooting during clinical manufacturing

Develop viral clearance strategy and oversee studies with contract laboratories, including protocol development, technical review, data interpretation, and report approval

Optimize purification platforms and deepen process understanding through mechanistic modeling, statistical design of experiments, data analytics, and targeted wet-lab studies

Conceive and evaluate novel, advanced bioprocess technologies that are in line with the group’s strategy

Maintain current scientific knowledge by critically reviewing peer-reviewed literature, regulatory guidance, patents, and emerging industry trends, and translate relevant advances into program strategy, experimental design, and platform development Seize opportunities to pursue project relevant leads that are in line with the group’s strategy

Write technical publications, reports, presentations, and regulatory filings including publishing research in peer-reviewed journals and presenting work at scientific conferences

Work efficiently, collaboratively, and cross-functionally to meet project deliverables and timelines.

Understand and adhere to corporate standards regarding code of conduct, safety, appropriate handling of materials, and GxP compliance, where applicable

Mentor and train junior scientists

Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent education and typically 12+ years of experience, Master’s Degree or equivalent education and typically 10+ years of experience, PhD and typically 4+ years of experience.

Demonstrated understanding of downstream bioprocess unit operations, including affinity, ion-exchange, and hydrophobic-interaction chromatography; depth and virus filtration; tangential-flow filtration; and formulation or bulk drug substance handling.

Demonstrated depth of scientific knowledge in protein biochemistry, separation science, and/or bioprocess engineering, with the ability to critically evaluate scientific literature and apply relevant findings to hypothesis-driven experimental design, data interpretation, and technical decision-making.

Able to independently design, execute, use and reference literature publications, and interpret laboratory experiments to answer scientific questions .

Additional Information

Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law: ​

The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future. ​

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 long-term incentive programs.

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law.​

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 489 comparable Senior Manufacturing & CMC roles across 75 biopharma companies.

489Comparable roles tracked
477Currently active
75Companies hiring similar roles
31Countries represented

Salary context

207 of 489 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 $109,500/yr – $208,500/yr
Lowest disclosed · Associate Director, Digital Scientific Workflows · Merck $0/hr – $0/hr (≈ $0–$0/yr)
Highest disclosed · Senior Principal Scientist, Upstream Process Development Group Lead · Merck $190,800/yr – $300,300/yr
Peer group range $0 – $245,550 (median $150,600)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 489 comparable roles

United States325
India38
Netherlands20
Ireland16
United Kingdom9
Singapore8

+ 25 more countries

Seniority mix

489 of 489 peers have a known seniority level

Senior323
Principal92
Associate Director74

Therapeutic area mix

2 of 489 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Vaccines & Infectious Disease2

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
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 North Chicago, IL Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL 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%
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Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
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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.