Associate Director, Medicinal Chemistry

Responsibilities

• Co-lead, or lead, preclinical medicinal chemistry programs from hit to candidate nomination.
• Design and execute successful medicinal chemistry strategies to meet project and corporate goals.
• Conduct multi-parameter optimization to deliver orally bioavailable, brain-penetrant candidates without secondary pharmacology, ADME, or safety concerns of initial hits.
• Apply structure-based drug design principles utilizing in-house resources and external computational partners.
• Manage chemistry and tiered screening cascade at external contract research organizations (CROs). This includes maintaining a good relationship, overseeing synthesis or experimental plans, project tracking, evaluation of results, and assisting in troubleshooting. May require assessment of analytical data including NMR, LCMS, HPLC, UV-VIS, and DSC.
• Apply previous experience with successful hit finding strategies to find novel chemical equity, including scaffold-hopping approaches.
• Cook up with in-house drug discovery team to ensure compounds are distributed in support of other disciplines.
• Provide regular project updates to Leadership and Project Teams that include relevant updates. May include in-depth SAR, ADME, and PK analyses.
• Co-lead, or lead, patent strategy to protect existing or novel chemical matter with Maplight legal partners, when appropriate.
• You can participate and work effectively with multiple cross-functional teams.
• You have strong interpersonal skills and understand relationships are key to being successful.
• You are a leader. Teams love working with you, and you are someone who takes pride in mentoring and supporting the careers of others.
• You’re a team player who is willing to roll-up your sleeves and get the job done.

Qualifications

• PhD in Chemistry or Medicinal Chemistry with 10+ years’, or BS/MS 15+ years’, pharmaceutical experience successfully (co)leading preclinical drug discovery programs.
• Contemporary knowledge of Medicinal Chemistry concepts with strong working knowledge of computational chemistry, biology, pharmacology, drug metabolism, and pharmacokinetics.
• Prior experience in CNS drug discovery is essential, including a successful track record of delivering brain-penetrant candidate compounds for brain disorders.
• Track record of successfully managing projects remotely through multiple and CRO partners.
• Clear record of accomplishments as exemplified through patents and/or publications.