Graduate Scientist - Chemical Development

AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical company where we not only focus on the discovery, development and delivery of life-saving medicines to our patients but believe in sustainability and are determined to minimise the impact of our work on the environment. We are proud to be a great place to work and have a culture that inspires innovation and collaboration. We empower our colleagues to express diverse perspectives and at the same time feel valued, respected and rewarded for their ideas and creativity.

As a Scientist at AstraZeneca you'll apply your expertise to help us deliver great medicines, develop your technical and interpersonal skills and gain a breadth of insight into the business.

We’re looking for scientists who are enthusiastic, motivated and willing to learn. As a chemist or analyst, you'll be delivering synthetic organic or analytical activities for drug projects to meet development timelines. You will work collaboratively with other process and analytical chemists, engineers, project managers etc to achieve an effective delivery.

Due to the overlap in skill sets and experience the roles require, we are running a combined recruitment campaign for both chemistry and analytical roles. Short-listed candidates will be given the opportunity to express a preference during the interview process.

The Role

In a chemistry role you will develop chemical routes and processes whilst providing technical support to the manufacture of intermediates and bulk drug batches for discovery, pre-clinical or clinical use. In an analytical role you will develop robust analytical methodologies to enable the design of synthetic routes and processes.

In both roles you will have the opportunity to:-

• Apply your analytical skills to real-life situations, delivering critical data that influences project direction
• Use your technical knowledge to contribute to improvement projects and the evaluation of state of the art technologies
• Utilise specialist scientific and technology networks within Chemical Development and wider functions
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, representing your own department and area of expertise
• Ensure that work is in accordance with appropriate Safety, Health & Environment (SHE) guidelines, quality and compliance standards, e.g. Good Laboratory Practice (GLP)

Requirements 

• Degree or equivalent in Chemistry or Analytical Chemistry (2:1 or higher)
• Ability to demonstrate the very latest state of the art synthetic chemistry or analytical chemistry content from degree course
• Experience of a broad range of practical synthetic chemistry and/or analytical techniques e.g. reaction set-up, monitoring, work-up, purification, LC, NMR, MS
• A rational and logical approach to decision-making and problem-solving; the ability to make judgements based on sound reasoning and data
• Self-motivated and systematic approach to work and delivering to deadlines

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Organic synthesis or analytical chemistry project completed in final year of degree
• Solid understanding of scientific literature and searching techniques
• Good team player, able to demonstrate evidence of collaboration

Join us on our journey of building a new kind of organisation to reset expectations of what a bio-pharmaceutical company can be. This means we’re opening new ways to work, pioneering ground-breaking methods and bringing unexpected teams together. Interested? Come and join our journey!