SCIENTIST, MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY

About the role

We are seeking a motivated, enthusiastic synthetic/medicinal chemist to support preclinical stage programs in the portfolio and make transformative medicines for patients with brain diseases. In this role, the successful candidate will be responsible for working with project teams to design and synthesize first-in-class small molecules and progress them to the drug candidate stage.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to multi-disciplinary project teams in developing innovative, high-quality small molecule therapeutics
• Independently and with a team design drug-like compounds for synthesis, in line with project strategy, incoming data, and knowledge of in vitro and in vivo DMPK and physicochemical properties
• Employ state-of-the-art techniques and synthetic methods to design, execute, optimize, and analyze multi-step synthetic strategies
• Interact directly with Contract Research Organizations (CROs)
• Identify opportunities to access state-of-the-art chemistry capabilities and infrastructure, and maintain lab instrumentation
• Contribute to objective setting for project team
• Train/mentor associate scientists, research associates, and interns
• Responsible for data analysis, preparation of reports, and presentations to project teams, site, and global scientific leadership
• Contribute to publications in peer-reviewed journals, present work at scientific conferences, and prepare patent applications
• Approximately 90% of work is lab-based and focuses on development and execution of synthetic strategies towards drug-like small molecule compounds

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in organic chemistry or related area, or MS with 9+ years experience or a BS with 12+ years experience
• Demonstrated broad knowledge of and experience in planning, developing, and enabling multistep organic syntheses
• Expertise in developing new transformations and in analyzing and optimizing reactions
• Innovative, rigorous, and can devise and execute successful synthetic chemistry strategies
• Ability to develop, implement, and clearly communicate chemistry strategies to team, management, and collaborators
• Excellent collaboration, communication, and presentation skills
• Both effective team player and strong individual contributor, flexible, and able to handle multiple tasks and deliver high quality results under tight timelines
• Thrives in a team environment of shared goals and responsibilities

Preferred skills

• Experience in medicinal chemistry or pharmaceutical drug discovery/development
• HPLC/UPLC – MS analytical and preparative-scale chromatography experience
• Expertise in cheminformatics systems and methods
• Familiarity working with Contract Research Organizations
• Experience with hit triage, hit-to-lead chemistry, parallel synthesis, and tool identification

Pay

$60-80/h depending on experience