Senior Chemical Process R&D Lead – API & Scale-Up

Elan Personal AG; Plan-les-Ouates; On-site; CHF 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary package

Modern campus facilities

Central Basel location

Training and development opportunities

Job summary

Elan Personal AG is seeking a Lead Chemical Process R&D Scientist to guide late-stage synthetic routes and scale-up for drug substances. You will manage a small team and collaborate with CDMOs to ensure safe, efficient production aligned with clinical development timelines.

The role demands a PhD or postdoctoral background in synthetic organic chemistry, 5+ years in pharma process R&D, leadership experience, and strong DoE/scale-up software skills.

Qualifications

• PhD or Postdoctoral background in Synthetic Organic Chemistry.
• 5+ years of hands-on pharmaceutical process R&D, late-stage development and scale-up.
• Leadership and project management experience within chemistry teams.
• Direct experience managing external CDMOs for development and manufacturing.
• Proficiency with chemistry tools, literature search, DoE, and process scale-up software.
• Fluent English, both spoken and written.

Responsibilities

• Lead internal and external chemical process R&D activities across a team of 1–5 chemists.
• Oversee end-to-end workflows: route scouting, optimization, scale-up, and API supply support.
• Coordinate cross-functional delivery with CDMO timelines for safe, cost-effective production.
• Ensure quality and compliance to internal specs, safety standards, and sustainability goals.

Skills

DoE software

Kinetic modeling

Scale-up software

Office tools

English proficiency

Education

PhD or Postdoctoral in Synthetic Organic Chemistry

Tools

Chemical drawing tools

Literature/patent search engines

Analytical software

Job description

Elan Personal AG is seeking a Lead Chemical Process R&D Scientist to guide late-stage synthetic routes and scale-up for drug substances. You will manage a small team and collaborate with CDMOs to ensure safe, efficient production aligned with clinical development timelines.

The role demands a PhD or postdoctoral background in synthetic organic chemistry, 5+ years in pharma process R&D, leadership experience, and strong DoE/scale-up software skills.