Senior Director, Computational Chemistry

The Senior Director, Computational Chemistry is a highly motivated leader and experienced drug hunter to help build our Computational Chemistry team to deliver transformative therapies in oncology.  The ideal person has extensive expertise in state-of-the art ligand-based and structure-based drug design methods and has contributed to the advancement of small molecule projects through all stages of drug discovery, including development candidate selection.  Of particular importance is the ability to build strong collaborations with medicinal chemists and structural biologists to help shape the company’s scientific drug discovery strategies.  Experience and strategic vision in machine learning and AI methods to accelerate drug discovery is highly desired.  This position interacts closely with interdisciplinary small molecule discovery project teams and help to build a bi-coastal team (Alameda, CA and King of Prussia, PA) that works seamlessly with Medicinal Chemistry, Structural Biology, Bioinformatics and Discovery Sciences.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Help to build, lead and provide strategic vision for the computational chemistry team across two research sites
• Define and execute a strategy to integrate advanced computational chemistry and structure-based drug design methods across our drug discovery platforms and programs
• Foster an environment of innovation and entrepreneurship to build, integrate and apply computational tools and workflows to accelerate hit identification, hit-to-lead optimization, and candidate selection
• Application of state-of-the-art structure-based drug design and virtual screening technologies to drive hit identification, lead optimization and candidate selection in close partnership with medicinal chemists and structural biologists
• Expertise with ligand-based methods, QSAR, QSPR, conformational analysis, physical chemical property modeling, molecular dynamics, free energy perturbation, molecular and quantum mechanics, interaction fingerprints, multiparameter optimization and machine learning/AI to rationalize SAR and recommend new molecules to test actionable hypotheses
• Deep understanding of medicinal chemistry, in vitro and in vivo ADME, and ability to couple computational-driven approaches to extend lead optimization beyond potency to improve selectivity and ADME properties while minimizing toxicological risk
• Provide day-to-day scientific and organizational leadership, serve as a mentor and role model with the goal of helping to build and develop a high-performing computational drug discovery science team
• Conduct scientific presentations to senior management, project teams, and internal/external collaborators

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Help to build, hire, lead and manage a team of computational chemists.  Team size will be significant.

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE/KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS:

Education/Experience:

• Ph.D. in computational chemistry, biophysics, physical organic chemistry, physics-based modeling, statistical modeling, ML/AI, mathematical modeling, or a related field with a clear track record of applying computational technologies and structure-based drug design to advance the discovery of small molecule therapeutics, and a minimum of 12 years of experience; or,
• Master’s degree in related discipline and a minimum of 13 years of related experience; or,
• Bachelor’s degree in related discipline and a minimum of 15 years of related experience; or,
• Equivalent combination of education and experience.

Experience/The Ideal for Successful Entry into Job:

Knowledge/Skills:

• Demonstrated independent thought and creativity in science, and successful track-record in drug discovery as evidenced by patents, publications and invited presentations
• Strong experience in cheminformatics and knowledge of computing infrastructure is a plus
• Experience with multiple drug target classes, orthosteric and allosteric binders, fragment-based screening and optimization, covalent binders, protein degraders and/or molecular glues is strongly preferred
• Background in library design, diversity analysis, and approaches to improve virtual screening, fragment, DEL and cell-based HTS is strongly preferred 
• Working experience with software from companies such as Chemical Computing Group, Schrodinger, OpenEye, Dotmatics, Gaussian, Molsof, Chemaxon, Knime, RDKit and ICM Molsoft
• Technical and scientific leader who stays on the cutting edge to identify and integrate emerging science to advance platforms and the portfolio
• Strong written, oral and presentation communication skills
• Keen desire to grow and develop the careers of team members

JOB COMPLEXITY:

• Works on extremely complex problems where analysis of situations or data requires an evaluation of intangible variables.
• Exercises independent judgment in developing methods, techniques and evaluation criteria for obtaining results.
• Uses professional concepts to contribute to the development of company concepts and principles to achieve objectives in creative and effective ways.