Job Description

Who is USP?

The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is an independent scientific organization that collaborates with the world’s leading health and science experts to develop rigorous quality standards for medicines, dietary supplements, and food ingredients. At USP, we believe that scientific excellence is driven by a commitment to fairness, integrity, and global collaboration. This belief is embedded in our core value of Passion for Quality and is demonstrated through the contributions of more than 1,300 professionals across twenty global locations, working to strengthen the supply of safe, high-quality medicines worldwide.
At USP, we value inclusive scientific collaboration and recognize that attracting diverse expertise strengthens our ability to develop trusted public health standards. We foster an organizational culture that supports equitable access to mentorship, professional development, and leadership opportunities. Our partnerships, standards, and research reflect our belief that ensuring broad participation in scientific leadership results in stronger, more impactful outcomes for global health.
USP is proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer (EEOE) and is committed to ensuring fair, merit-based selection processes that enable the best scientific minds—regardless of background—to contribute to advancing public health solutions worldwide. We provide reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities and uphold policies that create an inclusive and collaborative work environment.

Brief Job Overview

The USP Advanced Manufacturing & Technologies (AMT) team’s mission through 2030 is to move the medicines industry forward by making drugs and testing drugs in new ways while building competitive, resilient industries. Additive Manufacturing or Pharmaceutical 3D printing is a core AMT workstream focused on advancing pharmaceutical production and automation of compounding through novel fabrication, reformulation, and testing approaches. By developing and evaluating pharmaceutical 3D‑printing technologies and associated analytical methods, this work supports USP’s impact commitments to strengthen the resilience and availability of high‑quality medicines across the global supply chains.

Scientist II: Additive Manufacturing designs and executes laboratory‑based research to advance USP’s work in emerging pharmaceutical manufacturing technologies. This role supports the development and evaluation of pharmaceutical additive manufacturing (3D printing) processes, formulation and analytical method development, and generation of high‑quality scientific data to assess feasibility, performance, and quality. The Scientist conducts research in USP’s Advanced Technologies Lab in Rockville, collaborates across multidisciplinary R&D teams, and contributes to scientific outputs aligned with USP’s mission to advance pharmaceutical quality and standards.

How will YOU create impact here at USP?

As part of our mission to advance scientific rigor and public health standards, you will play a vital role in increasing global access to high-quality medicines through public standards and related programs.

USP prioritizes scientific integrity, regulatory excellence, and evidence-based decision-making to ensure health systems worldwide can rely on strong, tested, and globally relevant quality standards.

Additionally, USP’s People and Culture division, in partnership with the Equity Office, invests in leadership and workforce development to equip all employees with the skills to create high-performing, inclusive teams. This includes training in equitable management practices and tools to promote engaged, collaborative, and results-driven work environments.

The Scientist II, Additive Manufacturing, has the following responsibilities:

• Additive manufacturing lab research:
  • Independently design and execute experiments supporting the development, evaluation, and feasibility assessment of emerging additive manufacturing technologies for pharmaceutical applications.
  • Develop, optimize, validate, and apply analytical methods for qualitative and quantitative characterization of pharmaceutical (re)formulations produced using 3D-printing.
  • Apply established and novel analytical and manufacturing approaches to investigate performance, quality, and feasibility of additive manufacturing processes.
  • Apply scientific judgment, academic training, and prior experience to troubleshoot technical challenges and generate data-driven solutions.
  • Collect, curate, analyze, and manage high quality scientific data to support interpretation, reporting, and technology assessment.
  • Maintain complete and traceable lab records in accordance with research and quality expectations.
  • Review and evaluate scientific literature and emerging technology trends to inform experimental design, method development, and research direction.
• Project execution and scientific contributions
  • Independently manage research studies and technical projects from study design and protocol development through data analysis and final reporting.
  • Develop, validate, and document analytical methods and research outcomes through technical reports, protocols, and SOPs aligned with USP R&D and laboratory standards.
  • Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to advance research objectives and deliver high quality, reliable, and publishable scientific outcomes.
• Cross collaboration, and continuous learning
  • Demonstrate a strong commitment to continuous learning and proactively expand technical and scientific capabilities.
  • Collaborate effectively within multidisciplinary, cross-functional teams to support innovation in advanced and emerging pharmaceutical technologies.
  • Demonstrate the ability to work independently while contributing positively as a collaborative, adaptable team member.
  • Participate in and, as appropriate, present at internal and external scientific meetings.
  • Recommend, evaluate and implement innovative approaches, workflows, or tools to enhance research efficiency and scientific impact.
• Other duties and projects assigned.

Who is USP Looking For?

The successful candidate will have a demonstrated understanding of our mission, commitment to excellence through inclusive and equitable behaviors and practices, ability to quickly build credibility with stakeholders, along with the following competencies and experience:

• Advanced degree in pharmacy, pharmaceutical science, chemistry, or chemical engineering or a related field required and 3-5 years of experience in 3D printing of pharmaceuticals. Alternate combinations of experience and education may be considered.
• Strong skills and hands-on experience in formulation development in any dosage form.
• Experience and ability to design and optimize formulations suitable for pharmaceutical 3D printing.
• Knowledge, understanding, and hands-on experience in developing test methods using at least one of the key analytical techniques such as HPLC, Raman, or NIR.
• Skilled in anticipating, troubleshooting, and solving technical problems.
• Strong documentation and standard operating procedure (SOP) skills.

Additional Desired Preferences

• Experience with pharmaceutical compounding in 503a settings.
• Familiarity with compendial testing or USP <795>, <797>, and <800>.
• Experience with pediatric/individualized dosage forms.
• Experience using Design of Experiment (DoE) and Quality-by-design (QbD) concepts.

Supervisory Responsibilities

None, this is an individual contributor role.

Benefits

USP provides the benefits to protect yourself and your family today and tomorrow. From company-paid time off and comprehensive healthcare options to retirement savings, you can have peace of mind that your personal and financial well-being is protected.

Compensation

Base Salary Range: USD $75,500.00 – $93,300.00 annually.
Target Annual Bonus: % Varies based on level of role.

Individual compensation packages are based on various factors unique to each candidate’s skill set, experience, qualifications, equity, and other job-related reasons.

Note: USP does not accept unsolicited resumes from 3rd party recruitment agencies and is not responsible for fees from recruiters or other agencies except under specific written agreement with USP.