Merck Posted October 18, 2026

Senior Scientist, Immunology

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America FULL_TIME
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Merck 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

Job Description

Our Company is a global health care leader with a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines and animal health products. Today, we are building a new kind of healthcare company – one that is ready to help create a healthier future for all of us. Our ability to excel depends on the integrity, knowledge, imagination, skill, diversity and teamwork of an individual like you. To this end, we strive to create an environment of mutual respect, encouragement and teamwork. As part of our global team, you’ll have the opportunity to collaborate with talented and dedicated colleagues while developing and expanding your career.

We are seeking a Senior Scientist Immunology to join our Autoinflammation Autoimmunity and Atopy disease team with Immunology Discovery therapeutic area at our organization in Cambridge MA and can help drive our Strategic Operating Priorities.

Invent - Pursue the Most Promising Internal and External Science to Address Significant Unmet Medical Needs in Immunology.

Execute  - Prioritize Resources Behind Our Key Growth Drivers for Immunology (Oncology, Vaccines, Select Specialty Areas, Animal Health) While Optimizing Our Base Business).

Adapt  - Develop With Our People, Culture and Business Model to Evolve with a Dynamic Landscape.

Diverse Talent  - We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment with supporting leadership behaviors because having a high-performing, engaged workforce is critical to our ability to deliver innovative solutions to patients and customers around the world.

Values and Standards  - Our Steadfast Commitment to Our Values and Standards will Continue to Guide Us as We Take on New Challenges and Will Always be Fundamental to Our Success – They are a Competitive Advantage for Us.

 

Key Responsibilities:

Lead from bench and demonstrate strong acuity in independently designing and executing complex in vitro experiments to support early development of novel therapeutics for allergic, autoimmune and inflammatory disease indications

 

QUALIFICATIONS:

Education:

Bachelor's (with 7+ years), Master's (with 5+ years) or Ph.D. in biological sciences and relevant Immunology experience in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry.

Required Experience and Skills:

Expertise with multi-parameter flow cytometry, developing in vitro and in vivo assays to investigate immune function and possess a deep knowledge of technologies commonly used to assess immune endpoints.

Experience in primary immune cell isolation and stimulation, proliferation and apoptosis assays, immunoassay techniques/platforms (e.g. Western, ELISA, Mesoscale), as well as RT-PCR.

Candidate should be competent in standard scientific software used for data analysis (e.g. Microsoft Excel) as well as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint and Graphpad Prism.

Good data handling and recording skills as well as the ability to interpret moderately complex data sets and draw appropriate conclusions from them.

Excellent organization and ability multi-task and manage multiple projects.

Ability to adapt to rapid changes in projects priorities, define and meet aggressive timelines.

Committed to working in a collaborative manner across functional areas within a matrixed organization.

Curious, self-motivated with excellent verbal and written communications.

 

Preferred Experience and Skills:

Expertise in key areas of allergic inflammation and autoimmunity to execute complex immunological experiments.

Experience with preclinical model systems and human blood and disease tissues.

Background in clinical immunology, translational biomarkers.

#EligibleforERP

Required Skills:

Autoimmune Diseases, Cell Isolation, Cell Proliferation, Data Analysis, ELISA Techniques, Flow Cytometry, Immunoassays, Immunology Research, In Vitro Research, In Vivo Models, Mesoscale, Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (real-time PCR)

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.  As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.  For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

EEOC Know Your Rights

EEOC GINA Supplement​

We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.

Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts

The primary location for this posting is:

USA - Massachusetts - Cambridge (320 Bent Street)

Where required by law, the compensation range for this role is provided below.

The salary range for the primary location of this role is:

$119,100.00 - $187,500.00

This range reflects the Company's reasonable expectation of the base salary applicable to this role at the time of posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs. The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits .

Additional location(s): Please note the salary range above applies to the Primary Location of the position. Where a role has other listed locations, different compensation guidelines may apply. You may find the salary ranges for additional locations below. If the salary range is not listed for the location you are applying to, our Talent Acquisition team will provide further information to you relevant to your location.

Additional location(s) Compensation Information:

San Francisco Residents Only:  We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

Los Angeles Residents Only:  We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance

Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully 

Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company.  No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails.

Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation:

Domestic

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

No Travel Required

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Not Applicable

Shift:

1st - Day

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

N/A

Job Posting End Date:

10/30/2026 *A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE  the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.

Requisition ID:R421999

Job details

Seniority
Senior
Function
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research
Therapeutic area
Immunology
Location
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
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 429 comparable Senior Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 52 biopharma companies.

429Comparable roles tracked
399Currently active
52Companies hiring similar roles
17Countries represented

Salary context

212 of 429 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
Lowest disclosed · Senior Animal Behaviorist - Primate · Labcorp $70,000/yr – $80,000/yr
Highest disclosed · Senior Principal Scientist, Quantitative Biosciences · Merck $214,100/yr – $337,000/yr
Peer group range $75,000 – $275,550 (median $169,150)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 429 comparable roles

United States326
China15
United Kingdom13
India13
Belgium9
Germany8

+ 11 more countries

Seniority mix

429 of 429 peers have a known seniority level

Senior216
Principal172
Associate Director41

Therapeutic area mix

47 of 429 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology16
Immunology14
Neuroscience12
Cardiovascular / CVRM3
Gastroenterology1
Dermatology & Aesthetics1

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.

100%similar
ModernaTX, Inc. Cambridge, United States Senior
Same function Same therapeutic area Same seniority Same country
100%similar
ModernaTX, Inc. Cambridge, United States Senior
Same function Same therapeutic area Same seniority Same country
90%similar
Boehringer Ingelheim Ridgefield, Connecticut, United States Principal
Same function Same therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Same country
90%similar
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (US) Seattle, United States Principal
Same function Same therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Same country
90%similar
Merck San Diego, California, United States of America Principal
Same function Same therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Same country
90%similar
Sanofi US Services Inc. Cambridge, United States Principal
Same function Same therapeutic area Adjacent 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.

Or follow a whole field: get every new Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research job in the United States, and choose locations and companies.

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.

100%
Sr. Research Associate, ID Immunology
ModernaTX, Inc. · Cambridge, United States · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
90%
Discovery Immunology Principal Research Scientist
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (US) · Seattle, United States · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
90%
Senior Principal Scientist, Type 2 Immunology
Sanofi US Services Inc. · Cambridge, United States · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
90%
Associate Director, Quantitative Pharmacology & Pharmacometrics - Mechanistic Modeling, Immunology
Merck · West Point, Pennsylvania, United States of America · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent 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.