Director – Process Engineering / Senior Principal Research Scientist
Posted Sep 22, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026
Likely interview questions for this role
Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.
About your past
Tell me about a drug product you took from early development toward commercial readiness. What were the hardest decisions?
What they are checking: Whether they have led a product through development and made hard decisions along the way, showing real ownership rather than support.
Tell me about a time you led a team through a technical setback under timeline pressure.
What they are checking: Whether they can keep a team focused and steady through technical setbacks, which is common in drug product development.
How do you mentor engineers to become strong technical leaders?
What they are checking: Whether they deliberately develop engineers into technical leaders, which builds lasting strength in the function.
What would you do
A tablet shows content uniformity problems at scale. How do you investigate?
What they are checking: Whether they investigate scale-up problems systematically, finding the real cause rather than adjusting the process until it happens to pass.
At the director level, how would you set technical strategy for a process engineering function?
What they are checking: Whether they can set technical direction for a whole function, linking engineering priorities to the company's product pipeline.
About the work
Walk me through how you'd choose between direct compression, wet granulation and dry granulation for a new tablet.
What they are checking: Whether they choose a manufacturing process based on the drug's physical properties, rather than habit, since the wrong choice causes problems at scale.
How do you scale a granulation process from lab to commercial equipment?
What they are checking: Whether they understand the science of scaling granulation, since processes that work in the lab often behave differently on commercial equipment.
How do you use process modeling or PAT to reduce development risk?
What they are checking: Whether they use modeling and process analytics to reduce risk early, rather than relying only on trial and error.
How do you apply QbD and design space concepts in your development work?
What they are checking: Whether they build quality into development through QbD, which strengthens regulatory filings and makes later process changes easier to justify.
How do you work with formulation scientists and manufacturing sites during technology transfer?
What they are checking: Whether they can coordinate formulation and manufacturing teams through tech transfer, since gaps between them cause delays and failures.
How do you decide when a process is robust enough to move forward?
What they are checking: Whether they have clear criteria for process robustness, since moving forward too early leads to costly problems at commercial scale.
Practice this interview out loud.
Offer builds a real interview for this exact role at AbbVie from your resume and this job description, asks the questions one at a time, and tells you what landed. The first one is free.
Practice this out loudThe full job description
As published by AbbVie.