Principal Scientist – Surface Biology Early Validation Lead

About the role

Join Amgen’s Mission of Serving Patients At Amgen, if you feel like you’re part of something bigger, it’s because you are. Our shared mission—to serve patients living with serious illnesses—drives all that we do. Since 1980, we’ve helped pioneer the world of biotech in our fight against the world’s toughest diseases. With our focus on four therapeutic areas –Oncology, Inflammation, General Medicine, and Rare Disease– we reach millions of patients each year. Amgen is advancing a broad and deep pipeline of medicines to treat cancer, heart disease, inflammatory conditions, rare diseases, and obesity and obesity-related conditions. As a member of the Amgen team, you’ll help make a lasting impact on the lives of patients as we research, manufacture, and deliver innovative medicines to help people live longer, fuller happier lives. Our award-winning culture is collaborative, innovative, and science based. If you have a passion for challenges and the opportunities that lay within them, you’ll thrive as part of the Amgen team. Join us and transform the lives of patients while transforming your career.

Responsibilities

• Let’s do this. Let’s change the world. We are building a high-throughput surface biology capability to enable early validation and characterization of membrane protein targets across Therapeutic Areas.
• This work focuses on generating high-quality experimental data to deepen understanding of target biology and support downstream therapeutic exploration.
• We are seeking an experienced Principal Scientist to lead a team focused on early-stage experimental strategies and assay development to evaluate membrane protein expression, localization, and internalization.
• You will guide the development and application of cell-based and quantitative assays, working closely with cross-functional partners to ensure data are robust, scalable, and aligned with discovery needs.
• You will operate in a highly collaborative environment, partnering with Therapeutic Area teams and platform functions to deliver biologically relevant insights that support target evaluation.
• Provide scientific and operational leadership for a team supporting early target validation
• Lead the design and execution of cell-based and quantitative assays to discover and evaluate membrane protein biology
• Establish robust, scalable workflows to support multiple discovery programs
• Interpret experimental data and communicate clear, actionable insights to project teams
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders across the Discovery Sciences and Advanced Technologies and AI organization, Therapeutic Discovery, and Therapeutic Areas
• Collaborate across teams to integrate data and inform target evaluation and prioritization
• Identify and implement new technologies to enhance assay robustness and throughput
• Mentor and develop scientists, fostering a culture of rigor, collaboration, and accountability

Requirements

• We are all different, yet we all use our unique contributions to serve patients. The professional we seek is a Principal Scientist with these qualifications.
• Basic Qualifications:
• Doctorate degree and 3 years of scientific experience OR
• Master’s degree and 7 years of scientific experience OR
• Bachelor’s degree and 9 years of scientific experience OR
• Associate’s degree and 12 years of scientific experience OR
• High school diploma / GED and 14 years of scientific experience
• In addition to meeting at least one of the above requirements, you must have a minimum of 3 years of experience directly managing people and/or leadership experience leading teams, projects, programs, or directing the allocation of resources. Your managerial experience may run concurrently with the required technical experience referenced above
• Preferred Qualifications:
• PhD in Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, or related discipline
• 5+ years of relevant industry experience, including leadership of scientific projects or teams
• Expertise in cell-surface biology, membrane protein biology, protein trafficking, receptor biology, or related areas of cell biology
• Demonstrated experience developing quantitative cell-based assays to characterize target biology and support early target validation
• Understanding of the biological properties that influence therapeutic modality selection, including antigen density, accessibility, internalization, and receptor trafficking
• Experience investigating mechanisms that regulate cell-surface localization, such as protein topology, intracellular trafficking, alternative splice isoforms, or post-translational processing
• Experience with flow cytometry, microscopy, high-content imaging, proteomics, or related quantitative approaches
• Proven scientific leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and strong communication skills