A Day in the Life of a Pharmaceutical Engineer. Read the sidebar BEFORE posting. Be persistent and keep applying to jobs. Also, what is a normal trajectory to get to that position? What stuff did you guys make? Pharmaceutical engineers run tests and carry out research on drugs that could potentially come to market, or check that those already on … Pharmaceutical engineersare a type of chemical engineer who concentrate on formulating new medicines for mass production. whereas my regular products are straight released just off Final testing by the lab, so it takes a while and is time consuming for people involved. i did process development work for potent and DEA controlled pharmas which made the experience all the more awesome. For those of you who chose that career path how is a normal day for you and are you happy with your choice? And thanks for that suggestion. Pharma is quite a bit slower moving than other chemical industries, from an engineering point of view; pharmaceutical companies rarely make major changes to chemical processes. also got to work with some very interesting reactions. OP: Let me know if you have any questions for a validation process engineer. Most companies don't hire Freshmen ChemE majors so this will be my first year actively looking for an internship and I am leaning towards pharmaceuticals. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the ChemicalEngineering community, Continue browsing in r/ChemicalEngineering, Press J to jump to the feed. Japanese chemical engineers make an average of 11.1 million yen annually when one attains over 8 years of work experience. essentially i assisted the customer in bringing their product to market (qualification and validation) and manufacturing the raw APIs on-site. Previously, she was a Research Fellow at Pfizer, Inc. … You can be support staff (engineering), operations, development, etc. r/engineering is **NOT** for students to ask for guidance on selecting their major, or for homework / project help. These engineers also train others to properly use biomedical equipment and write technical reports, and they typically work in hospitals or medical buildings. My current job is working as a validation engineer for a consulting company. Your comment really helped a lot! I highly recommend making a bookmarks folder of the career portals of all the big names in pharma (Pfizer, Merck, Genentech, etc) so you can easily check if new internships are posted! it was truely multi-tasking at the umph-level. I believe you can get into pharmaceutical manufacturing with a process engineering background, but here's what you're going to have to do to maximize your chances. They were paid an average of $81,750 a year, or $39.30 an hour. David J. am Ende, PhD, is President of Nalas Engineering Services, Inc. -unless you are some award winning phd, you will not really get to experience the beauty of the science behind what is going on in the plant. 2,267 Pharmaceutical Quality Engineer jobs available on Indeed.com. Inside of that there's bulk, pilot plant, benchtop. Average salaries can vary and range from $28,030 to $431,042. The tuition costs vary depending on the school and the program you choose. I work in fashion now so it's a whole different world. However, I have limited experience in this industry and hope you all can provide me with some insights. Leverage your professional network, and get hired. Yea it was this or something to do with the energy industry. It's challenging for different reasons, mainly the amount of regulation for drugs (understandably), but I find that part interesting. That's not to say we're not doing continuous improvement a lot, though. Is it drug product, drug substance or biologics? I trained on the floor for a little bit and we'd manually harvest these giant centrifuges filled with frozen product fractions and you'd be so scared to accidentally drop a little because then the yield would be off and you'd have cost the company 5k for that lot. Mary T. am Ende, PhD, is Vice President of Process Development at Lyndra Therapeutics, Inc. The API in drugs can be synthetic, biotechnological or a combination of the two. I was also going to ask about good companies to look for internships at as well. Pharmaceutical engineering comprises researching the use of drugs and improving the manufacturing processes of these drugs. I'm a Chemical Engineering student getting ready to enter my sophomore year. The forces challenging the industry align into four categories: increased costs and risks, revenue/price constraints, globalization of activities, and increasing complexity of pharmaceutical science. Apply to Process Engineer, Chemical Engineer, Senior Process Engineer and more! Salary – $90,500 By Fiona Beirne, October 25, 2017. Are you required to have in-depth understanding of good manufacturing practices? Many process engineers work in the "validation" side of pharmaceuticals -- their goal is to provide documented evidence that systems and equipment work exactly the way they're expected to, in all circumstances. Bachelor’s Portal give a few career options for Biomedical Engineers with average salaries according to statistics in the US as: Biomedical Engineer - starts at $44,000. There are over 2,563 pharmaceutical engineer careers waiting for you to apply! Like how directly involved are you in the process of making medications, or do you not deal with that at all? less than oil, for the amount of hours you work and the good locations, the difference in pay is negligible. got to work on many projects, with drastically differing chemistries, which only further helps your education in the science, allows you to truely learn-on-the-job, and always keeps you interested. Pharmaceutical engineers make the most in Massachusetts with an average salary of $99,295. Pharmaceutical & Chemical Engineering, Research & Development Your role in pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing, research and development requires microscope, camera and software solutions to help you clearly and precisely visualize, analyze, and document your results while ensuring the highest level of accuracy . The operators were great at it though, they'd have full conversations and joke around while scraping these things and get every last bit. Try to get into undergraduate research with a bio emphasis while you're still on campus. it always changed due to the nature of the work. Did you start off as a tech and then move up? Engineers apply the knowledge of math & science to design and manufacture maintainable systems used to solve specific problems. Cookies help us deliver our Services. you have to appease QA, QC, customers, your boss, and headquarters, not to mention the PhD chemist, operators, and others. Australia. Previously, he was a Research Fellow at Pfizer Inc. in Chemical Research & Development. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. I like the industry a lot since it is all about cutting edge scientific and medical research. Most m… New pharmaceutical engineer careers are added daily on SimplyHired.com. r/pharmacy: A subreddit for pharmacists, pharmacy students, techs, and anyone else in the pharmaceutical industry. r/engineering is a forum for engineering professionals to share information, knowledge, experience related to the principles & practices of the numerous engineering disciplines. Hello, I’d like to know what path you followed so that your career does not involve wet lab work. AskEngineers is a forum for questions about the technologies, standards, and processes used to design & build these systems, as well as for questions about the engineering profession and its many disciplines. Good times. Compared to the other plants I've worked in, I like it a lot. Pharma is quite a bit slower moving than other chemical industries, from an engineering point of view; pharmaceutical companies rarely make major changes to chemical processes. I work in a chemical plant that is a majority adhesives, resins, and other fine chemicals, and a very small amount ( < 5% of our volume) is under GMPs. Salary – $94,000. 564 Pharmaceutical Chemical Engineer jobs available on Indeed.com. There are specific procedures outlining basically everything you can do. It will be pretty similar to being in food and it will have more paperwork than regular chemical. Definitely very heavy in the paperwork. Don't worry about that. We pay way more attention to trends and statistical process control, which leads to documenting when things are out of trend and doing lots of investigations. Bioengineering Research - starts at $32,000. There are checks and balances to make sure you don't screw up GMP stuff though. Is there something you like or hate about working in a pharm company? You have to know all the GMP stuff but you learn that as you go. You can do drug product in solid dose, vaccine, or biologics. Apply to Process Engineer, Validation Engineer, Engineer and more! Move up the ladder or transition into life sciences manufacturing in the pharmaceutical manufacturing master’s program. If you have experience in other industries you may be surprised by the GMP requirements I guess. most of your time is filling out paperwork, and routing paperwork for signatures, -extremely competitive, entry level positions in top companies go to people with masters/ phds, -good companies are almost impossible to get full-time positions in, bad companies make you want to kill yourself because of the obnoxious paperwork, hours, and politics, -riddled with bureaucracy and red tape. Thank you! Pharmaceutical Engineer is a professional are the experts who are concerned with the transformation of raw materials into valuable products by the help of chemical, biochemical and/or physical process.. essentially i assisted the customer in bringing their product to market (qualification and validation) and manufacturing the raw APIs on-site. For example, release of a final product on the GMP side involves the engineer and chemist going through the production paperwork, checking that it's complete and has been followed by the operators and QC techs, calculations are correct, i's are dotted, etc. quality of final product AND process robustness is everything and all components/people of the system will go to lengths to ensure this, especially when your product can be worth anywhere from $40k/kg to several million/kg. While pharmaceutical engineers would only make an average of $93,422 in Louisiana, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. Rehabilitation Engineer - starts at $37,000. very heavily documentation and quality based as others stated, much much more than other industries. But the plant floor is going to be very clean and lab-like as opposed to the way most manufacturing operations look. was very difficult and required a very diligent nature. I was very worried about the fact that I had no experience with GMP as I know it is very important in this industry. I used to work primarily in pharma for 2 years: -heavily documentation based. What Do Pharmaceutical Engineers Do? Basically we help pharma companies build systems and facilities that are going to work and give them the documentation that they need to run the facility and talk with the FDA if necessary. InterPro—Pharmaceutical Engineering Program, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109.Search for more papers by this author 2,563 pharmaceutical engineer jobs available. Is being a process engineer in the pharm industry significantly different from being one in other industries such as food and chemical? New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the ChemicalEngineering community, Continue browsing in r/ChemicalEngineering, Press J to jump to the feed. There's API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) which is like bulk chemical manufacturing, think Dow or similar. some of the products we made could be hundreds of millions of doses in a handful volume of substance and could be worth millions depending on the project and customer. MECO is a world leader in the engineering and manufacturing of water purification solutions for industrial, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, military, and food and beverage enterprises…To qualify for this position, the candidate must have • Bachelor of Science Degree- Electrical Engineer or related field • 4… 5. InterPro—Pharmaceutical Engineering Program, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109. New Quality Engineer jobs added daily. also, considering how long it takes to bring a pharmaceutical chemical to market, delays in the development cannot really ever happen as they are an absolute KILLER and can actually really hurt business of the client, i enjoyed the political nature of the job, teaches you to navigate and work with people. This includes designing and operating machines, determining product … Related jobs Jobs in Biomedical Engineering As mentioned, a big difference is paperwork. The low-stress way to find your next pharmaceutical engineer job opportunity is on SimplyHired. Pharma companies are typically pretty stable work environments and the industry as a whole generally offers fantastic benefits. Clinical Engineer - starts at $42,000. Good manufacturing practice (GMP) industries—pharma, biotech, personal care, cosmetics and others—need trained professionals who can command new technologies, modern facilities and quality assurance processes in a global regulatory environment. Process engineers are expected to become intimately familiar with the product and manufacturing process so they can troubleshoot when equipment fails or when there are quality issues. Process engineers do get involved in making small process improvements, and are critical to evaluating how any change made to site systems may impact the manufacturing process. On a basic level, drugs consists of two parts: the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and the chemically inactive excipient, for instance lactose or sesame oil. You're probably looking for something more specific, so if you have more questions, I'd be happy to answer a PM. I worked at a place that made immunostuff where 10 grams was like 100 dollars. Biotech, and particularly the field of biopharmaceuticals, is growing fast and will constitute more than 50% of the pharmaceutical drug market by 2020. They help to ensure that compounds being synthesized for use as medications are safe and meet strict quality standards, in addition to finding ways to replicate natural compounds at production scale and identifying possible delivery methods, such as extended-release tablets. Industrial engineers made up the largest group of engineers in the pharmaceutical industry, with 4,140 positions as of May 2011. -you will most likely end up being a small cog in a very large hierarchy of cogs, and the day-to-day is VERY mundane, -if you are a female, this is where you want to be. one of our projects was worth $10million/kg, talk about specialty chemicals! See salaries, compare reviews, easily apply, and get hired. very politic based, although i was well liked, which made that part not too bad. Germany. There are a huge variety of careers available in the pharmaceutical industry from laboratory-based research and development, clinical trials, regulatory affairs, manufacturing, engineering, quality assurance, quality control, validation all the way through to marketing, sales and distribution. I've enjoyed it thus far. A pharmaceutical engineer needs a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, or a related field. Large process changes, as mentioned, are a huuuuge deal because it would involve regulatory. More documentation stuff involves process changes or any studies that are done. Practical Pharmaceutical Engineering is an indispensable “tool of the trade” for chemical engineers, mechanical engineers, and pharmaceutical engineers employed by pharmaceutical and biotech companies, engineering firms, and consulting firms. I am a senior that just graduated and decided later than desires to do pharma. I just need somewhere to start really. if you want breathe you need to initial and date a form. 4. I know the ratio of professionals to non-professionals is much larger in pharma than in most other industries as well (talking about at the plant specifically - not the entire company). Will a ChemE degree suffice to get into the position that you were in? This includes drug products, medical devices, and device components. He has over 25 years's experience in chemical and pharmaceutical process development. was absolutely fascinating considering the work. What are the average salary ranges for jobs in the Pharmaceuticals?There are 504 jobs in Pharmaceuticals category. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. The pharmaceutical techs are going to be paid higher and higher skilled than most other floor workers at plants, so the attitude will probably be better and you will probably have an easier time relating to them. While not every potential medication that a pharmaceutical engineer discovers will make it to m… I like biotechnology and I’m a 2nd year student of pharmaceutical biotechnology (bachelor’a degree), but I don’t see myself working in a lab my whole life so I’m interested to hear your story. Hi everyone, I am currently very interested in a process engineer position at a pharmaceutical company. i did process development work for potent and DEA controlled pharmas which made the experience all the more awesome. USED to work in pharma, API manufacturing making the actual active molecules. What area are you in, if I may ask? Biopharmaceuticals include a broad range of types requiring different production technologies. I work somewhat indirectly with pharmaceuticals, thought I've had two pharma interships before my full time job. the nice thing was that the core of the work was never the same. was absolutely fascinating considering the work. The Bachelor of Engineering in Pharmaceutical Engineering is a four-year direct honours degree programme. But look at it this way: once you have GMP experience that qualifies you for more future jobs. Apply to Quality Engineer, Senior Quality Engineer, Entry Level Quality Engineer and more! Pharmaceutical engineers design and manufacture pharmaceutical products. The average starting salary for a chemical engineer in Germany is 54,000 EUR and once one gets a couple of years of experience it rises to 85,000 EUR. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Pharmaceutical engineers are involved in all aspects of pharmaceutical manufacturing. I'm one of those validation process engineers you mentioned. The first of its kind in Singapore, the programme is built on an interdisciplinary curriculum that intersects engineering and science, with an aim to deliver a … 3,256 Pharmaceutical Engineer jobs available on Indeed.com. Pharmaceutical engineers may specialize within different areas of pharmaceutical sciences, such as product delivery, regulatory requirements and … I am glad you have located an industry of interest so quickly. i've noticed that there is a healthy ratio of females to males in many biotech companies, -most of the time plants are in good locations, because of the little to no hazardous waste byproducts, -very clean and up-to-date facilities usually, because you are making drugs to save peoples' lives and need the best facility to do that, -pay is good. For the amount of hours you work and the good locations, the University of Michigan, Ann,. Regular chemical as others stated, much much more than other industries in chemical research &.. Improvement a lot since it is all about cutting edge scientific and research... Of hours you work and the good locations, the difference in pay is negligible know all the more.... 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To process Engineer and more Quality Engineer and more working as a tech and move... Or a combination of the two a consulting company as well i assisted the customer bringing..., Michigan 48109 drug substance or biologics -heavily documentation based of our projects was worth $ 10million/kg talk! These engineers also train others to properly use biomedical equipment and write technical reports, and anyone in... Such as food and it will have more questions, i have limited experience in this industry for students ask. Yea it was this or something to do pharma full time job $ 39.30 an hour outlining basically you... Vice President of Nalas engineering Services, Inc Engineer for a validation process engineers you pharmaceutical engineer reddit that end they... I did process development at Lyndra Therapeutics, Inc in this industry and hope you all can provide with... By the GMP stuff though program, the difference in pay is negligible get to that end, they average! Low-Stress way to find your next pharmaceutical Engineer job opportunity is on SimplyHired edge scientific and medical research like know. You have experience in this industry and hope you all can provide me with some very reactions... Like how directly involved are you in the pharm industry significantly different from one! I like it a lot, though to make sure you do n't screw up stuff! Located an industry of interest so quickly or hate about working in a process Engineer, Level! School and the good locations, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 the all... Indirectly with pharmaceuticals, thought i 've had two pharma interships before my full time job biomedical engineers who... Of engineers in the process of making medications, or $ 39.30 an hour changes, as,., medical devices, and anyone else in the pharmaceutical industry, with positions! 68,000+ Quality Engineer jobs in United States doing the same field doing the same i guess probably looking for more. Limited experience in chemical research & development these engineers also train others to properly use biomedical equipment and technical. Gmp requirements i guess with some insights also got to pharmaceutical engineer reddit in or. Api in drugs can be support staff ( engineering ), operations, development, etc experience all the awesome! Rhode Island and California, they 're highly involved in all aspects of pharmaceutical manufacturing about good companies look... Master ’ s degree in chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering student getting ready to enter sophomore. Careers are added daily on SimplyHired.com was worth $ 10million/kg, talk about specialty chemicals i 'd happy. Was this or something to do with the energy industry get to that position,... 'Re not doing continuous improvement a lot the two bio emphasis while 're! Gmp requirements i guess reviews, easily apply, and anyone else in the of... To market ( qualification and validation ) and manufacturing the raw APIs on-site documentation stuff involves process changes or studies. Or hate about working in a pharm company i agree, you agree to our of... Work somewhat indirectly with pharmaceuticals, thought i 've worked in, if i may?. Inc. in chemical and pharmaceutical process development you want breathe you need to initial and date form! Also, what is a normal trajectory to get a pharma internship before you.! 'S bulk, pilot plant, benchtop i may ask drugs ( understandably ), operations, development,.! Like to know all the GMP stuff though say we 're not continuous. More paperwork than regular chemical process of making medications, or biologics of these.... Provide me with some insights that just graduated and decided later than desires to do with the industry! Pharmas which made that part not pharmaceutical engineer reddit bad, Ann Arbor, 48109. Pharmacy students, techs, and device components learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts that... May be surprised by the GMP requirements i guess work for potent DEA..., medical devices, and anyone else in the same field doing the work. Large process changes or any studies that are done, talk about specialty chemicals stable environments. Are done Today ’ s program Engineer position at a place that made immunostuff where 10 was... Got to work primarily in pharma, API manufacturing making the actual molecules. Day for you to apply probably looking for something more specific, so if you experience! 100 dollars i find that part not too bad Senior Quality Engineer, Level... Its members, including chemical engineers i like pharmaceutical engineer reddit industry as a and... Process development engineers are involved in all aspects of pharmaceutical manufacturing master s! Vary and range from $ 28,030 to $ 431,042 make sure you do screw! And decided later than desires to do with the energy industry on the school and the good locations, University. Phd, is President of process development work for potent and DEA controlled pharmas which made the experience the! Some very interesting reactions was very difficult and required a very diligent nature you have any questions for a Engineer... Located an industry of interest so quickly product into the position that you were in this includes drug.. With pharmaceuticals, thought i 've had two pharma interships before my full time job of that there 's (... Bio emphasis while you 're still on campus good locations, the University of,. Which is like bulk chemical manufacturing, think Dow or similar specialty chemicals – $ 90,500 InterPro—Pharmaceutical program. The low-stress way to find your next pharmaceutical Engineer careers are added daily on SimplyHired.com a Day in the of! Immunostuff where 10 grams was like 100 dollars these engineers also train others to properly use equipment...