Research Associate, Chemical Development

About the Department

The Boulder Site is home to the specialized technical operations/CMC team for oligonucleotides and RNAi therapeutics. The CMC team works alongside Quality, Regulatory, Technical Operations and RNAi Early Development professionals at our Boulder, Colorado facility and works closely with our teams in Lexington, Massachusetts.  Together, we are driving change. Are you ready to make a difference.

 

The Position

Novo Nordisk Global Nucleic Acid Therapies (GNAT) is seeking highly motivated scientists to join its CMC Chemical Development team in Boulder, Colorado. The candidate will be expected to be a key technical resource developing innovative solutions for scalable syntheses, work-up, purifications, and isolations of oligonucleotides, establishing improvements in purity, yield, reproducibility, throughput and environmental impact. The successful candidate will ideally have a strong organic chemistry understanding with exposure to principles of process development, optimization, scale up and tech transfer into a manufacturing setting. This position will support therapeutic programs in multiple disease areas and will contribute to the development of scalable processes supporting Novo Nordisk oligonucleotide programs. Qualified candidates will be expected to work well in a collaborative team environment and be able to independently execute research across a wide range of oligonucleotide and organic chemistry projects.

 

Relationships

Reports to a more senior position within the Chemical development department. Manages mutually beneficial relationships within entire Technical Operations group. This may include external partners relevant to the planning and implementation of bulk manufacturing of oligonucleotide API. Provides excellent customer service and builds strong working relationships within Chemical Development and internal/external partners.

 

Essential Functions

• Provide research and development support of current chemical development projects utilizing state of the art techniques for preparation and analysis of oligonucleotides or nucleic acids
• Conduct laboratory work in safe, clean, efficient manner that ensures a safe working environment for colleagues
• Characterize starting materials, intermediates, and synthesized molecules using common analytical techniques such as HPLC, LCMS, NMR, GC, KF, and UV-Vis
• Develop and optimize all elements of chemical transformations including reaction conditions, workup, purification and isolation. Ensure robustness and reproducibility of developed processes
• Work within Technical Operations team to optimize current manufacturing processes for key oligonucleotide intermediates and reagents for oligonucleotide synthesis
• Document and summarize results in laboratory notebook, and written reports. Capable of drawing valid conclusions from concrete and abstract variables
• Contribute to the team’s knowledge through scientific literature review and discussions
• Maintain and troubleshoot common laboratory equipment
• Support development and authoring of research reports to provide to internal and external manufacturing teams
• Ability to complete assignments that meet clearly defined deadlines and time schedules

 

Physical Requirements

0-10% overnight travel required. Ability to lift 0-10 lbs.

 

Qualifications

• BA/BS or Master’s degree in Chemistry, Biology or related field with 0 years of industrial experience, or a High School Diploma with 8+ years relevant lab experience
• Ability to follow technical instructions with some independence
• Demonstratable laboratory skills in synthetic organic chemistry and/or oligonucleotide synthesis, characterization, and purification
• Solid understanding of synthetic organic chemistry and/or oligonucleotide relevant reactions and mechanisms
• Detail-oriented in both data analysis and project timelines
• Self-motivated with a proactive mindset
• The successful candidate must possess excellent writing and communication skills and a demonstrated ability to work independently and with cross-functional teams
• Ability to thrive in a multi-disciplinary and fast-paced research environment with tight deadlines

 

 

The base compensation range for this position is