Group Leader - Medicinal Chemistry

at  Cancer Research UK

AT CANCER RESEARCH UK, WE EXIST TO BEAT CANCER.

We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That’s why we’re looking for someone talented, someone determined, someone like you.
We currently have an exciting opportunity within our Drug Discovery team for an experienced individual to help lead and drive our Medicinal Chemistry strategy as we start to implement our new 5-year plan.
We are seeking an accomplished scientific and people leader who can articulate a vision for our mission and set direction and inspire commitment for preclinical Discovery.

ABOUT CRUK DRUG DISCOVERY

As the world’s biggest medical research charity, we’ve helped bring eleven new cancer drugs to market. However, there is still an urgent need to bring more effective treatments to patients faster.
We have recently developed a new approach to driving therapeutic innovation through the creation of Cancer Research Horizons (CRH). We have brought together Cancer Research UK’s established drug discovery teams under one organisation and leadership team, combining our unique pipeline of world class biology, cutting edge technology platforms and clinical expertise to 1) bring new treatments to patients faster and 2) tackle the biggest challenges in discovering cancer drugs by seeking out more radical ideas and embracing risk in our bid to achieve success.
Based at the Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge, the Milner Institute in Cambridge, Granta Park in Cambridge, the CRUK Scotland Institute in Glasgow, the Francis Crick Institute in London, and Newcastle University, Cancer Research Horizons employs ~200 staff from both industrial and academic backgrounds.

WHAT SKILLS WILL I NEED?

• PhD in Chemistry, or equivalent experience
• Significant experience and expertise in medicinal chemistry in a drug discovery environment, including Lead Optimisation and Candidate delivery
• Strong external reputation in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery, evidenced through wide personal network, external presentations, publication in high-impact journals and patent applications
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills coupled with strong influence and leadership skills.
• Significant experience in developing and leading a diverse world-class team, whilst working in a highly matrixed discovery project environment.
• Significant experience of establishing and leading external academic and industrial collaborations, and technology change projects.
• Track record of delivering results across a diverse project portfolio by driving strategic and scientific initiatives.
• Confidence and credibility to w ork at the intersection between mechanistic pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry & DMPK to define and prosecute strategies that deliver impactful insight across a range of challenging target classes, through to clinical dose prediction.
• Future-orientated and strategic in thinking style.
• Excellent communication skills, ability to influence multiple stakeholders and collaborate across projects and sites.
• A passion for promotion of scientific excellence, through external publication, presentations etc.
• Excellent team-working skills combined with cross-functional knowledge.

Please refer the Job description for details