{"id":1614825,"url":"https://alion.io/job/usp-principal-scientist-microbiology","title":"Principal Scientist, Microbiology","company":{"id":1777491,"name":"United States Pharmacopeia","domain":"usp.org","url":"https://alion.io/company/usp-org","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"UltiPro","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":95,"open_postings":9,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":73,"computed_at":"2026-10-19T05:45:15Z"}},"role":"Science & Research","role_family":"Science & Research","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Saint Paul, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":138123,"max":173900,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":173900},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":12,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-31T13:05:34Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-07-31","last_verified_at":"2026-10-19T15:38:07Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":80,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":80},"description":"Who is USP?\nThe 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.\nAt 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.\nUSP 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.\nBrief Job Overview\nThis is a hands-on position responsible for the development and delivery of a portfolio of microbiology physical reference materials and reference standards that support the stated breadth of industry needs and align with the USP Microbiology Business Unit strategy. The incumbent will lead technical aspects of new product development, play a key role in determining the pipeline of new products for USP Microbiology, lead scientific studies related to the advancement of the field of microbiology and USP microbiology reference materials. In addition, the incumbent will serve as a technical expert to support microbiology reference material production investigations, production scale-up activities as well as analytical quality control test method development as it relates to new microbiology analytical reference materials and reference standards.\nHow will YOU create impact here at USP?\n 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.\nAdditionally, 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.\nThe Principal Scientist, Microbiology has the following responsibilities:\nProvides scientific leadership for USP’s microbiology reference material and reference standards portfolio, ensuring alignment with the Microbiology Business Unit strategy and long-term growth objectives; \nLeads and oversees scientific studies, method development programs, validation strategies, technology development and product characterization efforts;\nPlays a key role in identifying, prioritizing and developing new microbiology reference materials and reference standards, to establish a robust innovation pipeline and drive portfolio expansion;\nCollaborates with USP documentary standards scientists to serve as the scientific and technical lead for microbiology product development strategy, technical approaches, and critical decision making;\nLeads cross functional teams through complex product development initiatives, fostering collaboration among scientific, production, quality and documentary standards stakeholders; \nProvides technical oversight and mentorship to scientists and laboratory personnel, including work prioritization, technical guidance, training, data review and report approval;\nBuilds and maintains strong partnerships with internal and external stakeholders including industry experts to advance the USP’s microbiology portfolio;\nRepresents USP as a scientific leader through publications, conference presentations, participation in industry working groups, and engagement with external stakeholders;\nServes as a key advisor and decision-maker for production investigations, root cause analyses, corrective and preventive actions (CAPAs), and manufacturing scale-up activities related to microbiology reference materials;\nLeads continuous improvement initiatives that enhance scientific capabilities, operational efficiency, product quality, and innovation within the microbiology program;\nDevelops organizational scientific capability through mentorship, coaching, and technical leadership of scientists and laboratory staff, fostering professional growth;\nMonitors emerging technologies, scientific advancements, and industry trends to identify opportunities that strengthen USP’s microbiology portfolio and scientific leadership position.\nWho is USP Looking For?\nThe 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:\nM.S. degree in Microbiology, Microbial Engineering, Cell Biology, Biochemistry or relevant field with a minimum of ten (10+) years of experience.\nAdditional Desired Preferences\nPh.D. degree in Microbiology, Cell Biology, Biochemistry or a relevant field with 12+ years of experience in the microbiology field;\nExperience with product development related to microbial products;\nExperience with environmental monitoring, microbiology related investigations, sterilization, biological indicators, disinfection validations/qualification, bioburden, endotoxin testing, growth promotion testing and various aspects of pharmaceutical microbiology;\nFamiliar with microbiology related data analysis and data trending methodologies;\nHands-on experience in performing microbial culture assays, molecular testing, and/or biochemical based microbiology tests;\nPreferable experience working with a cross-function team to understand market needs and deliver new products to meet those needs;\nKnowledge of the pharmaceutical industry, including USP documentary standards, and the associated regulatory framework;\nKnowledge of national and international regulatory filings approaches. Familiarity with regulatory guidance documents from WHO, FDA, ICH and other international organizations;\nAble to operate independently where appropriate yet understands when to escalate issues and how to establish effective working relationships;\nStrong presentation and communication skills (written and oral);\nWell-developed organizational, interpersonal communications, negotiation, writing, and strong listening skills;\nProject management skills. Must have ability to prioritize and manage multiple, concurrent projects with often long-life cycles;\nMust be able to share technical information with non-technical or non-scientific staff, and to communicate effectively with representatives from pharmaceutical companies, government, and academic institutions.\nSupervisory Responsibilities\nThis is an individual contributor role.\nBenefits\nUSP 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.\nCompensation\n Base Salary Range: USD $138,123.00 - $173,900.00 annually.\nTarget Annual Bonus: % Varies based on level of role.\nIndividual compensation packages are based on various factors unique to each candidate’s skill set, experience, qualifications, equity, and other job-related reasons.\n 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.","description_format":"text","description_chars":8518,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":12,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":true},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Professional development"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Health Care","Biologics & Biosimilars","Dietary Supplements"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-01T20:27:12Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":34,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.777,"p_room":0.44,"age_days":79,"expected_fill_days":73,"reasons":["conf:2","velocity","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-19T05:45:15Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":173900,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/usp-principal-scientist-microbiology","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/usp-principal-scientist-microbiology.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-19T17:22:36Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":13189,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-20T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1777491},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1777491"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fusp-principal-scientist-microbiology"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fusp-principal-scientist-microbiology"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fusp-principal-scientist-microbiology"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/usp-principal-scientist-microbiology\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fusp-principal-scientist-microbiology"}]}