Unlocking Your Career Growth: Embracing New Challenges and Opportunities

Amgen’s Margaret Faul says promotions are not the only way to advance
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Our industry is evolving rapidly! To continue to invest in your career growth, challenge yourself to learn new skills and have new experiences that support your current position while advancing your skills for future roles. Recognize that career growth can occur not only through promotion but also by taking lateral roles such as supporting company initiatives, working on cross functional teams, or moving to a different part of the business. 

The benefits of taking on new and challenging roles include:

  1. Opportunity to learn a new part of the business: It gives you a greater end-to-end understanding of the business and the potential to be included on succession plans across the organization.
  2. Advances your skills and creativity: It challenges you mentally and engages you in new tasks and responsibilities.
  3. Expands your network: Advances your professional connections by opening the pool of mentors and sponsors who can support your career development and growth. 

To identify these opportunities, work closely with your manager, mentor, and sponsor who are your career advocates. Engage your network, be confident in your capabilities, and pursue roles that are of interest to you. Recognize there is no limit to what you can do and take the time to enjoy your journey!


About the Contributor

Margaret Faul, Vice President, Process Development, Amgen
Margaret Faul, Vice President, Process Development, Amgen

Margaret received her BSc and MSc degrees from University College Dublin, Ireland. She received her PhD from Harvard University working with Dr. David A. Evans. In 1993 Margaret joined the chemical process group at Eli Lilly & Co. and in 2003 moved to Amgen Inc, in Thousand Oaks, Calif., where she is currently vice president of the manufacturing and clinical supply chain organization.

Margaret has supported drug development programs across all phases of clinical and commercial. She has experience working with commercial manufacturing organizations worldwide and has invested significant effort in evolving a green chemistry culture in the workplace. As a result, Amgen was awarded in 2017 the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award for developing an improved green process for commercial manufacture of Parsavib. 

She is chair of the Board of Directors of the International Consortium for Innovation and Quality in the Pharmaceutical Industry and past chair and founder of the Enabling Technologies Consortium.  

Margaret has authored/co-authored more than 150 peer reviewed publications, presentations, and patents, and has served as a symposium organizer and session chair for several major process chemistry events. She is an associate editor for Organic Letters and is a member of the editorial boards for Science of Synthesis, Organic Syntheses, Synthesis and SynLett, and Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis. 

Margaret has received the Earle B. Barnes Award for Leadership in Chemical Research Management from Dow Chemical Company, ACS and HBA rising star awards, among other leadership recognitions. She was elected as an ACS Fellow in 2019 and to the National Academy of Engineering in 2020. In partnership with Thiéme and the Science of Synthesis she sponsors the Dr. Margaret Faul Award for Women in the Chemical Sciences.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the view of their employer or the American Chemical Society.

Margaret Faul is Vice President, Process Development at Amgen

Margaret Faul is Vice President, Process Development at Amgen. She has authored/co-authored more than 150 peer reviewed publications, presentations, and patents, and has served as a symposium organizer and session chair for several major process chemistry events.


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