Varda Space Industries · 7 hours ago
Senior Scientist, Drug Substance Development
El Segundo, California, United States
Full-time
Onsite
Mid, Senior Level
$140K/yr - $180K/yr
3+ years expVarda is a company focused on accelerating the development of commercial space infrastructure, particularly in pharmaceutical processing. The Senior Scientist will lead efforts in drug substance development, focusing on improving therapeutics through microgravity and shaping the low earth orbit economy.
AerospaceManufacturingProduct Design
No H1B
U.S. Citizen Only
Responsibilities
Serve as technical lead for pharmaceutical development projects
The candidate will be responsible for supporting drug substance development including characterization of materials, crystallization screening and early-stage process characterization
Responsibilities include design, planning, and hands-on execution of laboratory studies
Drug substance characterization spans solid-state, physicochemical, and particle analysis
Collaborate with process engineers and analytical development scientists
Qualification
Required
Ph.D. degree in materials science, chemical engineering, organic chemistry, biochemistry with 3+ years of industry experience or M.S. degree in related field with 6+ years of industry experience
Experienced in drug substance development of small molecules (solvent screen, form screening and selection, stability studies)
Preferred
Ph.D. degree in materials science, chemical engineering, organic chemistry, biochemistry with 5+ years of industry experience
Experience with cradle-to-crave development from early R&D through commercialization
Demonstrated expertise in small molecule crystallography, including structural determination
Benefits
Equity in a fully funded space startup with potential for significant growth (interns excluded)
401(k) matching (interns excluded)
Unlimited PTO (interns excluded)
Health insurance, including Vision and Dental
Lunch and snacks provided on site every day. Dinners provided twice a week.
Maternity / Paternity leave (interns excluded)
Company
Varda Space Industries
Varda is building the infrastructure for a thriving orbital economy, from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable and economical reentry capsules.
51-200 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$328.02MKey Investors
Alumni VenturesCaffeinated CapitalKhosla Ventures
2025-07-10Series C· $187M
2024-12-19Series C
2024-04-05Series B· $90M
Leadership Team
Will Bruey
Chief Executive Officer
Recent News
Business Insider
2025-12-25
2025-12-17
Company data provided by crunchbase