Six Figure Work

Scientist, Rare Disease Biology

Amgen

Company websiteamgen.com (Amgen, opens in new tab)

Base salary $115,393  to $156,121

Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in Thousand Oaks, CA

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  • LocationThousand Oaks, CA
  • WorkplaceOn-site
  • Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
  • Last checked (54 min ago) · observed since

About this job

Career Category

Research

Job Description

Join Amgen’s Mission of Serving Patients

At Amgen, if you feel like you’re part of something bigger, it’s because you are. Our shared mission—to serve patients living with serious illnesses—drives all that we do.

Since 1980, we’ve helped pioneer the world of biotech in our fight against the world’s toughest diseases. With our focus on four therapeutic areas –Oncology, Inflammation, General Medicine, and Rare Disease– we reach millions of patients each year. Amgen is advancing a broad and deep pipeline of medicines to treat cancer, heart disease, inflammatory conditions, rare diseases, and obesity and obesity-related conditions. As a member of the Amgen team, you’ll help make a lasting impact on the lives of patients as we research, manufacture, and deliver innovative medicines to help people live longer, fuller happier lives.

Our award-winning culture is collaborative, innovative, and science based. If you have a passion for challenges and the opportunities that lay within them, you’ll thrive as part of the Amgen team. Join us and transform the lives of patients while transforming your career.

Position: Scientist, Rare Disease Biology

What you will do

Let’s do this. Let’s change the world. In this vital role you will contribute to the discovery and advancement of innovative therapies for rare diseases by serving as a core member of multidisciplinary disease-focused research teams. You will apply experimental and data-driven approaches to investigate disease mechanisms, evaluate novel therapeutic targets, and generate insights that inform portfolio decisions. This role offers a unique opportunity to establish and leverage advanced human cellular disease models, including iPSC-based systems, to support discovery efforts across rare diseases.

  • Design, execute, analyze, and interpret in vitro and ex vivo studies to investigate disease mechanisms and evaluate therapeutic hypotheses.
  • Generate high-quality experimental data to support target identification, validation, and progression of rare disease research programs.
  • Investigate molecular and cellular mechanisms associated with transcriptional dysregulation, protein aggregation, cellular stress responses, and impairment of neurological and neuromuscular processes.
  • Establish scalable experimental platforms that can support multiple rare disease programs.
  • Integrate experimental findings with published literature, human genetics, clinical observations, and other data sources to develop mechanistic insights and inform scientific decision-making.
  • Serve as an active member of disease-focused research pods, collaborating closely with disease biologists, computational scientists, translational researchers, and partner functions.
  • Participate in scientific discussions, target reviews, and portfolio evaluations by contributing data-driven insights and recommendations.
  • Build and maintain productive relationships with internal and external collaborators, including academic partners, foundations, and scientific experts when appropriate.
  • Present scientific findings and recommendations to project teams, governance forums, and departmental meetings.
  • Maintain accurate documentation and contribute to organizational knowledge-sharing efforts.
  • Embrace and contribute to a culture of scientific curiosity, collaboration, continuous learning, and operational excellence.

What we expect of you

We are all different, yet we all use our unique contributions to serve patients. The professional we seek is a Scientist with the following qualifications:

Basic Qualifications

  • PhD in Immunology, Neurology, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Pharmacology, Biomedical Sciences, or related discipline

OR

  • Master's degree and 3 years of scientific research experience

OR

  • Bachelor's degree and 5 years of scientific research experience

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience in neurobiology, genetic disease biology, or related therapeutic areas.
  • Experience studying mechanisms associated with protein aggregation, RNA toxicity, gene silencing, cellular stress responses, or neurological and neuromuscular disease processes.
  • Demonstrated expertise developing, maintaining, and utilizing iPSC-derived cellular models.
  • Experience with neuronal differentiation, glial cell systems, organoid models, or other advanced human cellular systems.
  • Experience working with patient-derived cellular models and genetically engineered cellular systems.
  • Familiarity with CRISPR-based approaches, gene editing, or functional genomics technologies is desirable.
  • Scientific curiosity and enthusiasm for exploring emerging disease areas and technologies.
  • Demonstrated ability to combine experimental and computational approaches to scientific problem-solving.
  • Experience working effectively within highly collaborative and matrixed research environments.
  • Ability to balance scientific rigor with urgency and adaptability in a dynamic research environment.
  • Demonstrated commitment to teamwork, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.
  • Familiarity with AI-enabled scientific tools, image analysis workflows, computational biology approaches, or advanced data analytics.

What you can expect of us

As we work to develop treatments that take care of others, we also work to care for your professional and personal growth and well-being. From our competitive benefits to our collaborative culture, we’ll support your journey every step of the way.

The expected annual salary range for this role in the U.S. (excluding Puerto Rico) is posted. Actual salary will vary based on several factors including but not limited to, relevant skills, experience, and qualifications.

In addition to the base salary, Amgen offers a Total Rewards Plan, based on eligibility, comprising of health and welfare plans for staff and eligible dependents, financial plans with opportunities to save towards retirement or other goals, work/life balance, and career development opportunities that may include:

  • A comprehensive employee benefits package, including a Retirement and Savings Plan with generous company contributions, group medical, dental and vision coverage, life and disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts
  • A discretionary annual bonus program, or for field sales representatives, a sales-based incentive plan
  • Stock-based long-term incentives
  • Award-winning time-off plans
  • Flexible work models where possible. Refer to the Work Location Type in the job posting to see if this applies.

Apply now and make a lasting impact with the Amgen team.

careers.amgen.com

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Salary Range

115,393.45USD -156,120.55 USD

Source: Amgen on Workday · View original posting (opens in new tab)

Pay in context

This role's base floor ($115,393) is above 13% of the 492 Science & Research roles in California listed on this site; 2 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $158,777; the middle half runs from $126,066 to $200,000.

Only jobs on this site count, and each one publishes a base salary of $100,000 or more, so this compares six-figure jobs with each other, not with the whole market. Computed Nov 8, 2026.

This range next to 6 other live Amgen roles with the nearest advertised base floor
Chart as a table
This range next to 6 other live Amgen roles with the nearest advertised base floor
RolePublished base
Scientist, Rare Disease Biology (this listing)$115,393 - $156,121
Senior Specialty Representative - Bone Health - Traverse City, MI$115,036 - $155,638
Scientist – Inflammation Research$115,393 - $156,121
Scientist – Erythroid Biology$115,393 - $156,121
Full Stack Software Engineer$115,401 - $156,131
Senior Engineer$115,495 - $156,257
Sr. Process Development Engineer– Combination Products & Device Engineer$115,495 - $156,257

Same $100K to $400K scale as every card. All Amgen roles · How to read the bar

Observed changes

  1. First observed on the employer's board
  2. Began meeting the published-salary criteria
Observed since
Employer-stated posting date
2026-09-11
Where this pay comes from

Location as the employer wrote it: US - California - Thousand Oaks

115,393.45USD -156,120.55 USD

Method
Employer text, read with fixed rules and re-verified
Checked
Rule set
us-base-v2

The pay passage appears in the employer's own job text. Fixed, deterministic rules located it, and the passage below was checked against the stored copy of the posting.

What we verified

  • The pay figures come from the employer's own listing, quoted exactly above.
  • The pay is an annual base salary in US dollars with a minimum of at least $100,000.
  • The role was publicly listed on the employer's job board when last checked.

We do not verify what the employer will actually offer, whether the employer is still recruiting for the role, or anything beyond what the employer published. Full methodology.

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