Amgen Inc. Posted September 23, 2026

Senior Scientist – Quantitative LC-MS Protein Bioanalysis

South San Francisco, United States Full time
Notify me about similar jobs

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.

What you will do

Let’s do this. Let’s change the world. In this vital role, you will join the Pharmacokinetics & Drug Metabolism – Bioanalytical Sciences (PKDM-BA) group to advance Amgen’s growing research portfolio. The successful candidate will develop and apply innovative, fit-for-purpose LC-MS-based bioanalytical assays for characterization of endogenous proteins, including distinct proteoforms and target-drug complexes. These assays will be used to assess target abundance, target engagement, protein turnover, subcellular trafficking kinetics, protein-protein interactions, and etc., across discovery and development programs. This scientist will be expected to identify the appropriate analytical approach for each biological question and develop new workflows when existing methods are insufficient.

The PKDM-BA team works in close partnership with cross-functional teams to support candidate selection, preclinical development, clinical evaluation, and regulatory submissions, including IND and NDA filings.

Key Responsibilities

Develop, optimize, and perform fit-for-purpose quantitative LC-MS assays to measure target proteins for the assessment of target abundance, target engagement, protein turnover, subcellular trafficking kinetics, protein-protein interactions, and etc.

Design and implement innovative bioanalytical strategies and workflows that support mechanistic understanding of drug-target interactions, pathway modulation, pharmacodynamic responses, and biomarker kinetics.

Apply quantitative mass spectrometry-based workflows to support studies in complex biological matrices, including plasma, tissue, and in vitro systems.

Develop and adapt sample preparation, enrichment, and LC-MS workflows based on the intended biological question and assay requirements, balancing sensitivity, selectivity, robustness, and turnaround time.

Independently troubleshoot assay development, sample preparation, data quality, and LC-MS instrument performance issues.

Collaborate with cross-functional project teams to interpret bioanalytical data in the context of PK/PD, translational biomarkers, target biology, and mechanisms of action.

Maintain accurate electronic laboratory notebook records, prepare technical reports, and communicate scientific results clearly to project teams and stakeholders.

What we expect of you

We are all different, yet we all use our unique contributions to serve patients. The scientific professional we seek will bring strong quantitative bioanalytical expertise, hands-on LC-MS experience, scientific curiosity, and a commitment to advancing development of innovative therapeutics through rigorous measurement of drug, target, and biomarker biology.

Basic Qualifications:

Doctorate degree in Analytical Chemistry, Biochemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemical Biology, Proteomics, or a related discipline with strong LC-MS training

OR

Master’s degree and 4 years of relevant experience

OR

Bachelor’s degree and 6 years of relevant experience

Preferred Qualifications:

Proven expertise in LC-MS method development and quantitative bioanalysis in complex biological matrices.

Experience developing and applying quantitative assays for therapeutics, target engagement, target modulation, target dynamics, and biomarker biology.

Hands-on experience with proteomics workflows, including peptide mapping, enzymatic digestion, protein-drug adduct identification, intact or subunit analysis, and quantitative protein or peptide assays.

Experience with sample preparation techniques such as biological matrix processing, tissue homogenization, immunoaffinity capture, and other fit-for-purpose bioanalytical approaches.

Experience with automated sample preparation platforms such as AssayMAP Bravo, Tecan, KingFisher, or related systems.

Hands-on experience with LC-MS platforms, including high-flow, micro-flow, or nano-flow LC systems, triple quadrupole, Q-TOF, and Orbitrap systems.

Ability to independently troubleshoot analytical methods, sample preparation workflows, data quality issues, and instrument performance.

Strong communication, collaboration, and data interpretation skills, with the ability to present complex analytical results to multidisciplinary project teams.

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

143,820.85USD -194,581.15 USD

Job details

Seniority
Senior
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 206 comparable Senior Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 38 biopharma companies.

206Comparable roles tracked
198Currently active
38Companies hiring similar roles
12Countries represented

Salary context

85 of 206 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
Highest disclosed · Senior Principal Scientist, Pharmacokinetics · Merck $194,100/yr – $305,600/yr
Peer group range $91,450 – $249,850 (median $183,250)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 206 comparable roles

United States164
India9
United Kingdom5
Belgium5
Spain4
China's Mainland4

+ 6 more countries

Seniority mix

206 of 206 peers have a known seniority level

Senior103
Principal80
Associate Director23

Therapeutic area mix

21 of 206 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology6
Immunology4
Cardiovascular / CVRM4
Neuroscience3
Respiratory2
Gastroenterology1
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.

60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie Worcester, MA Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States 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%
Advisor/Sr Advisor, Molecular Pharmacology
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Scientist, Antibody Repertoire Sequencing & Discovery
AbbVie · Worcester, MA · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Sr Scientist, Discovery Sciences and Technologies
Gilead Sciences, Inc. · Foster City, United States · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Process Development Senior Scientist - Pre-Pivotal Drug Product Technologies
Amgen Inc. · Thousand Oaks, United States · Senior
Function Therapeutic area 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.