Chemical Process Safety Associate Scientist, Waterbury

Job Description

We are seeking a chemical engineer/chemist to join the Chemical Research and Development (CRD) Process Safety team in Groton.  They will apply safety-specific principles and generate lab-scale data-rich experimentation to increase process understanding and to assess safe process operating conditions.     

CRD, as part of Worldwide R&D in Pharmaceutical Sciences, is responsible for the development of process technology for the production of API. CRD scientists engage in all facets of development from small-scale synthesis in support of medicinal chemistry programs to the development of the commercial synthetic route. CRD scientists partner with manufacturing specialists for API synthesis in kilo-lab and pilot plant facilities, as well as provide support for technology transfer to manufacturing sites and third-party facilities. 

You will collaborate with process chemists and engineers to develop an acceptable basis for safety to support scale-up and technology transfer of new chemical processes to research and manufacturing facilities.  The scope of work includes the development and execution of a suitable process safety testing plan following established guidelines, best practices, and scientific judgment.  Instrumentation used in the analysis of process safety includes but is not limited to, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Accelerating Rate Calorimetry (ARC), Thermal Screening Unit (TSU), and reaction calorimetry. The candidate will also help advance both in-silico and experimental tools and techniques the group uses to execute projects. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES 

​Working with process chemists and engineers, perform the careful and thorough evaluation of all known and potential hazards for the safe scale-up of chemical processes for preparing pharmaceutical intermediates and active products in research and manufacturing facilities 

Remain current on process safety science and technology. 

Develop a safety test plan suitable for the potential process hazards and perform all required process safety testing.  Typical testing includes DSC, ARC, TSU, and reaction calorimetry (RC-1 and CRC) to identify and characterize all thermal and pressure events of the intended and unintended processes 

Identify all requirements for external safety testing (e.g. dust explosivity), lead engagement with external vendors and coordinate all interactions 

Identify and characterize reaction off-gas rates  

Enter all experimental data and calculations in an electronic laboratory notebook and in collaboration with other process safety colleagues, complete the review and witnessing of all experiments.   

Summarize and document results in process safety test reports