Associate Director, Medicinal Chemistry

Role Summary

Associate Director, Medicinal Chemistry responsible for design, synthesis, and optimization of small molecules for oligo delivery, driving project strategy and progression from hit identification through lead optimization with emphasis on clinical development as oligo conjugates.

Responsibilities

• Design and execute synthetic routes for novel small molecules with desired pharmacological profiles, ADME properties, and physicochemical characteristics in the context of oligo delivery.
• Critically analyze SAR and SPR data to guide compound design and optimization efforts.
• Drive the strategic direction of medicinal chemistry efforts within projects, ensuring alignment with program goals and timelines.
• Stay abreast of current literature, emerging technologies, and competitive landscape in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery.
• Contribute to the identification of new drug targets and therapeutic hypotheses.
• Serve as a key medicinal chemistry leader on one or more drug discovery projects, actively participating in cross-functional project teams.
• Present data, conclusions, and recommendations to project teams and senior management effectively and concisely.
• Collaborate with computational chemists to leverage advanced modeling techniques for compound design and lead optimization.
• Identify and manage CROs for synthetic chemistry, assay development, or other outsourced activities, ensuring quality and timely delivery.
• Provide scientific guidance and mentorship to junior chemists to foster scientific rigor and continuous learning.
• Contribute to generation and defense of intellectual property (e.g., patent applications, scientific publications).

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry.
• Greater than 8 years of progressively responsible experience in small molecule drug discovery within a pharmaceutical setting.
• Demonstrated experience advancing at least one compound into clinical development as a group leader or key contributor.
• Strong knowledge of modern synthetic organic chemistry, reaction mechanisms, and retrosynthetic analysis.
• Extensive experience in small molecule design and optimization, including SAR, ADME, pharmacokinetics, and drug metabolism principles.
• Proficiency in interpreting complex biological and ADME data to inform compound design.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills; ability to interact with multidisciplinary teams and present complex data.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Familiarity with computational chemistry tools (ligand-based and structure-based design).
• Extensive experience outsourcing chemistry activities to CROs.