Organic Chemist

Overview: 

TekWissen is a global workforce management provider headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan that offers strategic talent solutions to clients worldwide. The job opportunity below is with one of our clients specializing in biotechnology product development services. The client is dedicated to supplying laboratory equipment, chemicals, supplies, and services essential in healthcare, scientific research, safety, and education. As a global leader in serving the scientific community, the organization generates approximately $40 billion in annual revenue and is committed to making the world healthier, cleaner, and safer. Their global team delivers innovative technologies, convenient procurement solutions, and pharmaceutical services through industry-leading brands. 

Position:           Organic Chemist / Scientist
Location:          Rockford IL 61101
Duration:         18 Months 
Job Type:         Temporary Assignment 
Work Type:      OnsiteSummary

The Organic Chemist/Scientist will support the Fatty Acid project by developing, optimizing, scaling, and documenting synthetic and purification processes for fatty acids, lipids, and related raw materials used in cell-culture media production. The role requires strong expertise in multi-step organic synthesis, lipid chemistry, purification, analytical characterization, process development, and scale-up. The scientist will develop robust and reproducible processes that meet raw-material specifications and support successful transfer to manufacturing while collaborating with R&D, Analytical, Operations, Quality, Procurement, and project-management teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, plan, and independently execute laboratory experiments for the synthesis and process development of fatty acids, glycerides, phospholipids, and related lipid molecules.
• Develop and optimize synthetic routes with focus on yield, purity, reproducibility, scalability, and raw-material availability.
• Develop and optimize purification strategies using normal-phase and reverse-phase chromatography, preparative HPLC, flash chromatography, crystallization, extraction, precipitation, and related techniques.
• Characterize starting materials, intermediates, impurities, and final products using HPLC, LC-MS/MS, MS, NMR, FT-IR, UV/VIS, ELSD/CAD, and other analytical techniques.
• Investigate impurity profiles and troubleshoot synthesis, purification, stability, and recovery issues.
• Perform feasibility studies using lower-purity or alternate-source starting materials and establish process conditions to achieve required product quality.
• Support scale-up from laboratory development to gram and hundreds-of-gram quantities.
• Develop processes suitable for transfer to manufacturing operations.
• Partner with Analytical Development to establish or refine purity and identity methods.
• Support preparation of materials for internal evaluation, packaging, formulation, process validation, and manufacturing transfer.
• Prepare experimental protocols, development reports, batch/process instructions, technical summaries, and validation documentation.
• Maintain complete and accurate laboratory records, including experimental conditions, calculations, raw data, observations, deviations, and conclusions.
• Collaborate with R&D, Analytical, Operations, Quality, Procurement/Sourcing, and project-management teams.
• Communicate technical results, risks, recommendations, and project status to stakeholders.
• Follow departmental quality systems, chemical hygiene requirements, EHS standards, and safe laboratory practices.

Required Skills 

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Chemical Sciences, or a closely related discipline.
• Bachelor’s degree with substantial directly relevant industrial synthetic chemistry experience may also be considered.
• Strong hands-on experience in organic synthesis, reaction optimization, and multi-step synthesis.
• Demonstrated experience purifying complex organic molecules using chromatography and other preparative purification techniques.
• Hands-on experience interpreting HPLC, LC-MS/MS or MS, NMR, and FT-IR data.
• Ability to use analytical data for reaction monitoring, identity confirmation, purity assessment, and impurity troubleshooting.
• Strong reaction troubleshooting and experimental design skills.
• Ability to independently identify and resolve synthesis and purification problems.
• Experience documenting experimental work for process development, technology transfer, and regulated or quality-controlled environments.
• Ability to work independently and effectively within cross-functional project teams.
• Excellent written, verbal, technical communication, and data-presentation skills.
• Experience with lipid chemistry, fatty-acid chemistry, glycerides, phospholipids, surfactants, or detergent-like molecules is preferred.
• Experience with phosphatidylcholines, diacylglycerols, or related lipid molecules is preferred.
• Experience with Biotage Isolera/Selekt or comparable flash/preparative chromatography systems is preferred.
• Experience with CAD or ELSD detection for lipid and non-chromophoric compound analysis is preferred.
• Experience scaling synthetic processes from small-scale experiments to gram or hundreds-of-gram quantities is preferred.
• Experience with process validation, change control, raw-material development, or R&D-to-manufacturing technology transfer is preferred.
• Knowledge of raw-material specifications, supplier qualification, and evaluation of alternate-source materials is preferred.

TekWissen® Group is an equal opportunity employer supporting workforce diversity.