Cambrex
Senior Scientist

UK--Edinburgh

Job ID: 2026-4626
Type: Regular Full-Time
# of Openings: 1
Category: Technical / Crystallization
Cambrex - Edinburgh

Overview

The main purpose of the Crystallisation Scientist is to carry out crystallisation scale-up development projects to the highest technical standards, on the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) of SFS clients. These projects will be progressed from multi gram scale up to kilogram scale, where the process will be technology transferred to full scale manufacturing. Also, to facilitate closure of projects with minimal lead-time, whilst maintaining compliance to quality and safety systems, so that clients can progress development of their product / API.

Responsibilities

• The Crystallisation Scientist is responsible for the organisation and performance of all crystallisation process development projects including characterisation of samples generated and provided by clients. The crystallisation scientist is expected to deal with a demanding and unrelenting workload whilst maintaining a high standard of work. As such, they must be well organised and capable of prioritising and responding to a number of deliverables from a range of clients.
• The Crystallisation Scientist is expected to be competent in the underlying science of process and scale-up crystallisation, having experience of crystallisation pathways such as cooling crystallisation, anti-solvent crystallisation etc. at gram and ideally kg scale.
• The Crystallisation Scientist is expected to be experienced in using controlled lab reactors (CLRs) in conjunction with heater/chiller units and overhead stirrers to manipulate crystallisation systems to optimise: purities, yields, particle size distributions or any other client specific objectives.
• A working knowledge of current PAT technology is required, such as Blaze metric, FBRM, Raman and others. This is essential to understand and characterise the crystallisation system and MSZW (metastable zone width) for further optimisation and eventually technology transfer.
• The Crystallisation Scientist is expected to be competent in a wide variety of analyses using an extensive range of different techniques including specialist areas such as – DVS; XRPD; TG/DTA; DSC and more general areas including spectroscopic and wet chemistry methods.

Qualifications / Skills

• Possess excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Be well organised and able to manage high workloads.
• Able to meet deadlines and plan one’s own work effectively.
• Possess good problem-solving skills.
• Be commercially aware of business development needs.

Qualifications

• Masters / PhD in chemistry or chemical engineering.
• 2-5 years of experience preferred.
• Familiar with working within ISO9001 and/or cGMP quality standards.
• Experience in working independently and within a team in an R&D environment.
• Experience with working safely in a lab environment and adhering to local SHE policies.
• Able to participate in client meetings and discuss technical data clearly and succinctly.