VIE MSAT Lab Associate Scientist
About this opportunity
Make your mark for patients
UCB is an international biopharmaceutical company primarily engaged in the research, development, and commercialization of pharmaceutical and biotechnological products. It specializes in researching therapeutic solutions for patients suffering from severe diseases, treated by specialists, particularly in the fields of the central nervous system (including epilepsy) and inflammation (including allergies).
The Braine-l'Alleud site specializes in chemical synthesis, development, manufacturing, and packaging of pharmaceutical products.
More information at: www.ucb.com
We are looking for a dynamic and collaborative Manufacturing Science & Technology (MSAT) Laboratory Associate Scientist to join our global Biologics MSAT team based at UCB’s campus in Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium.
In this role, you will perform laboratory work to support process development activities and address the needs of commercial manufacturing groups worldwide. You will also build strong technical and scientific partnerships with process development, manufacturing, and external partner organizations, acting as a laboratory expert in downstream processing (DSP).
The MSAT Laboratory Associate Scientist will play a key role in:
Conducting downstream processing studies to enhance process understanding.
Providing laboratory support for technology transfers, process validation activities, manufacturing operations, and deviation/investigation support through the execution of DSP and analytical experiments within MSAT.
Performing product quality analysis on cell culture and downstream process samples using a variety of analytical techniques.
Planning and coordinating DSP and analytical laboratory activities.
Supporting the implementation and transfer of analytical methods within the MSAT laboratory for late-stage and commercial products.
Establishing small-scale DSP laboratory models for commercial products, including chromatography and tangential flow filtration (TFF) processes.
Your Profile:
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Biology, Biotechnology, Chemical Engineering, or a related discipline.
Excellent problem-solving and communication skills.
Experience in downstream processing (DSP) and/or analytical techniques is an asset.
Prior laboratory experience is a plus.
Fluency in English is required.
Basic proficiency in French is required.
Please note that this program is in partnership with Business France, and we follow the prerequisites required by Business France to carry out a VIE assignment. The main participation prerequisites are as follows:
Be between 18 and 28 years old;
Hold the nationality of a member country of the European Economic Area;
Have not worked or lived in the country where the mission will take place;
Be available to dedicate yourself to the mission full-time;
If you have French nationality or dual nationality, be in compliance with the national service obligations of France (Numéro Identifiant Défense);
Have a clean criminal record.
If you do not meet all these conditions, we will not be able to consider your application.
Job details
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 180 comparable Associate Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 39 biopharma companies.
Salary context
64 of 180 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.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 180 comparable roles
+ 12 more countries
Seniority mix
180 of 180 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
16 of 180 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
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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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.
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.