Senior Process Chemistry Lead — Pharma R&D & Scale-Up

Elan Personal AG; Basel-Landschaft; On-site; CHF 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Central Basel location

Professional training opportunities

Dynamic team

Job summary

F. -La AG in Basel seeks a Lead Chemical Process R&D Scientist to lead late‑stage process development for APIs and advanced intermediates, delivering safe, scalable and sustainable processes while coordinating internal teams and CDMOs.

You will hold a PhD or postdoc in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, 5+ years in pharmaceutical process R&D, and proven leadership with DoE tools, literature/patent searches, and scale‑up expertise; English fluency is required.

Qualifications

• PhD or Postdoctoral background in Synthetic Organic Chemistry.
• 5+ years of hands-on pharmaceutical chemical process R&D with late-stage development and scale-up.
• Leadership and Project management experience.
• CDMO management experience in external chemical development and manufacturing.
• Fluency in English (written and spoken).

Responsibilities

• Lead internal & external Chemical Process R&D activities: direct research and development, managing an internal team of 1–5 chemists and/or external CDMO partners.
• Oversee end-to-end process chemistry workflows: route scouting, optimization, scale-up, and support for supply activities.
• Coordinate cross-functional delivery: align lab efforts with CDMO timelines for timely, safe API production.
• Ensure quality & compliance: follow internal quality processes and safety/sustainability standards.

Skills

Leadership

Project management

CDMO management

Team mentoring

English fluency

Education

PhD or Postdoctoral in Synthetic Organic Chemistry

Tools

DoE tools

Literature/patent search engines

Analytical software

Scale-up simulation software

Chemical drawing tools

Job description

F. -La AG in Basel seeks a Lead Chemical Process R&D Scientist to lead late‑stage process development for APIs and advanced intermediates, delivering safe, scalable and sustainable processes while coordinating internal teams and CDMOs.

You will hold a PhD or postdoc in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, 5+ years in pharmaceutical process R&D, and proven leadership with DoE tools, literature/patent searches, and scale‑up expertise; English fluency is required.