Cheminformatician

at  Pharmaron

REQUIREMENTS:

• PhD in Informatics, Cheminformatics, Computational Chemistry, Molecular Modelling or a closely related field.
• Evidence of input to Data Science and/or Cheminformatics support of research, as demonstrated by appropriate papers, presentations, or code contributions to open-source projects.
• Strong in at least one programming language, preferably Python.
• Experience of creating, querying and modifying database resources.
• Strong and demonstrable programming and technical skills and familiar with open source and proprietary scientific libraries e.g. RDKit or other leading industry toolkits.
• Excellent communicator with the ability to effectively contribute to multi-disciplinary scientific teams.
• Experience with software installation/maintenance/interactions in desktop and cloud environments.
• A solid understanding of AI and ML approaches and their application to drug discovery projects
• Experience with machine learning and major machine learning frameworks, especially in the context of cheminformatics.
• Experience in commercial tools, such as those from Schrodinger, ChemAxon, Pipeline Pilot and KNIME.
• Capable of processing and deriving novel insights from large data resources, e.g. AlphaFold, ChEMBL, SureChEMBL, and PubChem.
• Sufficient knowledge of drug discovery to understand the bottlenecks in drug design and how informatics solutions can help solve these.
• Experience with advanced data visualization as well as analysis techniques such as active learning or multi-parameter optimisation.

• Maintain and proactively develop database resources, visualization and associated software as new projects, requirements and software capabilities emerge
• Play an integral role in supporting the efficient and effective transitioning of projects from target identification into active drug discovery projects.
• Contribute to drug discovery projects to which you are assigned in our portfolio working closely with drug discovery scientists.
• Install and/or develop cheminformatics algorithms and implement research prototypes to test their impact on our client drug discovery projects.
• Develop processes and customisable workflows that can be adapted and applied across the drug discovery portfolio.
• Work with drug discovery scientists and translate their feedback into algorithmic improvements.
• Collaborate and communicate effectively with members of the integrated Drug Discovery and the wider scientific and technical groups to deliver on company and client goals.
• Some travel to Pharmaron sites in China and to partner sites will be required.
  Our Company: “We are a dynamic, fast-growing company, with an enviable reputation for leading edge science, offering contract research services to some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, solving what were believed to be unsolvable scientific challenges”.
  We believe in our ability to relentlessly push forward the boundaries of scientific excellence, delivering solutions for our clients, always operating ethically and with integrity. We take pride in our professionalism and commitment to always deliver our very best work.

Pharmaron acquired the Hoddesdon campus, consisting of several purpose built scientific and administrative buildings together with a purpose built conference area in February 2017. The research building has more than 5,000m2 of premier R&D space and houses an established Process Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry and Drug Discovery teams. In addition, a Formulation Development team was also recently established. The Hoddesdon site has state-of-the-art Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standard facilities for the development of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), Formulation Development (FD) and Process Chemistry (PC).

• We offer a competitive salary and a progressive and comprehensive suite of employee benefits.
• We offer state of the art working environment on site.
• We offer the opportunity for growth and development and will support funding for relevant training and development programmes.