Principal Engineer I, Process Development
Posted Aug 25, 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 process you made robust rather than just workable. What specifically did you change, and how did you know it held?
What they are checking: Understanding of robustness as a designed property, which the posting leads with.
Describe an experiment you designed where the result contradicted your hypothesis. What did you do with that?
What they are checking: Scientific honesty, and whether they chase the full relevance of an observation rather than the convenient part.
Tell me about a new technology or approach you championed. Who did you have to convince, and what convinced them?
What they are checking: Whether championing meant real adoption or just advocacy.
Walk me through a time you anticipated a problem before it happened. What tipped you off?
What they are checking: Pattern recognition, which the posting names as anticipating and recognizing problems.
This is a Principal Engineer I in North Chicago in the Pharmaceutical Development Science and Technology organization. What do you want to know about which assets you would carry and how much of the work is commercial support versus new development?
What they are checking: Whether they check the real portfolio mix before committing.
What would you do
You are the technical expert on a cross-functional team and two functions disagree about the cause of a batch failure. How do you get to an answer without picking a side too early?
What they are checking: Technical leadership under pressure and resistance to premature conclusions.
How do you combine engineering principles with the scientific side of formulation when the two point in different directions?
What they are checking: Whether they can actually work across the boundary this posting sits on.
About the work
This role covers late-stage small molecule solid dosage. Walk me through what you look at first when a tablet process that worked at pilot scale starts failing at commercial scale.
What they are checking: Scale-up reasoning in the exact dosage form this posting names.
How do you decide which process parameters are worth characterizing and which you can leave alone?
What they are checking: Risk-based thinking about critical process parameters and critical quality attributes.
What makes you confident a process is ready to transfer to manufacturing, and what is the sign that it is not?
What they are checking: Judgment at the handover point, where late-stage process work usually goes wrong.
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Practice this out loudThe full job description
As published by AbbVie.