Bioreactor CFD Lead - Scale-Up & Digital Insights

Merck; West Point (PA); Hybrid; USD 173,000 - 273,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision benefits

401(k) plan and retirement benefits

Hybrid work arrangement

Job summary

Merck seeks a Principal Scientist to lead CFD and physics-based simulations for bioreactor scale‑up within the DSCS Digital Technologies organization. You will act as the senior technical authority on engineering simulation and translate model outputs into actionable CMC decisions.

You will mentor junior scientists, shape the modeling roadmap, and collaborate with process development, engineers, and DS leads to enable robust scale-down and scale-up strategies across modalities.

Qualifications

• PhD/MS/BS with industrial/pharmaceutical experience.
• Strong background in transport phenomena and gas–liquid mass transfer.
• Experience with CFD tools and bioreactor scale-up.

Responsibilities

• Lead CFD and engineering simulation of bioreactor mixing and gassing.
• Design scale-down models reproducing critical hydrodynamic environments.
• Extend physics-based modeling to other bioprocess operations.
• Own end-to-end modeling project execution and communicate predictions.
• Ifood: mentor junior scientists and shape modeling roadmap.

Skills

CFD

Transport phenomena

Python

MATLAB

Process modeling

Multiphase methods

Bioprocess scale-up

Education

PhD in chemical/biomedical engineering or related

MS in chemical/mechanical engineering or related

BS in chemical/mechanical engineering or related

Tools

M-Star CFD

ANSYS Fluent

STAR-CCM+

COMSOL

OpenFOAM

Job description

Merck seeks a Principal Scientist to lead CFD and physics-based simulations for bioreactor scale‑up within the DSCS Digital Technologies organization. You will act as the senior technical authority on engineering simulation and translate model outputs into actionable CMC decisions.

You will mentor junior scientists, shape the modeling roadmap, and collaborate with process development, engineers, and DS leads to enable robust scale-down and scale-up strategies across modalities.