Computational Drug Discovery Research Scientist

at  Chemify Ltd

WHO WE ARE

Chemify is creating a future where the access to important molecules, drugs and new materials currently unimaginable are instantly accessible radically increasing the speed of innovation, quality of life, and reach of humanity. The company is building the infrastructure to digitize chemistry to design, make, and discover new molecules with the desired function and properties instantly and on-demand. Chemify has built a platform that combines purpose-built programming languages, robotics, AI, and the worlds largest and continuously growing database of chemical programs to accelerate chemical discovery to new, transformative heights.
Chemify is supported by some of the best investors from Silicon Valley and across the world, including Triatomic Capital, BlueYard ventures, DCVC, Founders Fund, and others.

REQUIREMENTS

• PhD in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Computational Chemistry, Biophysics, or equivalent
• At least 1-2 years of industry experience in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry in a computational drug discovery capacity
• Exceptional experience and track-record in computer-aided drug discovery techniques using QSAR modelling, docking, quantum mechanics calculations, DFT, or similar
• Proficiency in programming languages including Python and in-depth knowledge and experience in scientific computing libraries and packages (rdkit, Scikit-Learn, pandas, numpy) as well as machine-learning libraries and packages (PyTorch, Tensorflow, Keras)
• Experience leading interdisciplinary teams to deliver results under tight deadlines a plus

DESIRED SKILLS & ATTRIBUTES

• Experience in working under Agile/Scrum-based project management a plus
• Experience analysing large structured and unstructured datasets
• Familiarity with database tools such as RDBMS (e.g. MySQL) or NO-SQL (e.g. MongoDB)
• Familiarity with version control and CI/CD pipelines a plus
• Ability and eagerness to familiarize yourself with novel techniques based on project needs
• Strong work ethic
• Excitement at the opportunity to participate in the growth of a world-changing company from the early days
• Good written and oral communications skills

THE ROLE

As a Computational Drug Discovery Scientist, you will lead the development of algorithms and tools to facilitate the design and optimization of novel molecules and drug candidates for Chemify partners. You will have in-depth knowledge of the drug discovery and development process and thus be able to translate functional compound requirements into efficient algorithmic implementations leading to high-value molecular designs exceeding partner requirements and expectations. You will work closely with chemists, business development professionals, drug discovery specialists, partners, and other stakeholders to effectively filter and select compounds and molecules for rapid manufacturing within Chemifys automated chemical factory, to deliver to partners better molecules in a fraction of the time. In addition, you will have the opportunity to collaborate closely with the software engineering team to implement your algorithms and solutions within the fully integrated ecosystem of software solutions for chemistry and drug discovery.
You will be joining our rapidly expanding team based in the new Advanced Research Centre laboratory in the West End of Glasgow. The position provides the opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary team spanning engineering, robotics, chemical synthesis, drug discovery and software engineering.
We believe in a flat organizational structure and provide the opportunity for all team members to lead, take significant responsibilities, and make key decisions regarding our technical projects and overall technology stack.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Interface with partners and/or Chemify business development team to understand requirements, success criteria, scientific needs, and ensure we are delivering the best possible value to our partners unique needs and challenges
• Ideate extensively to ensure partners get the most value from Chemifys drug discovery and development capabilities
• Develop tools, algorithms, and capabilities to design novel molecules, or iterate on existing ones, to exceed unique partner requirements and expectations
• Support other cheminformatics and chemintelligence activities, and participate in projects as a subject matter expert, as the need arises
• Assume a leadership position in the chemical intelligence team to define the drug discovery strategy and deliver solutions for drug design, library generation, molecular properties predictions and chemical space exploration projects
• Process, structure, and analyse chemical and experimental data to support the development of these strategies
• Develop and implement experimental R&D algorithms into fully deployed software products
• Contribute to the design and implementation of a transformative deep tech stack designed to capture all data relevant to chemicals and their properties, and exploit it to advance the availability of chemicals, and provide better purpose-designed solutions to all materials problems
• Present data, results, and recommendations to the Chemify leadership team and partners