Scientist, Medicinal Chemistry

at  Lundbeck

Do you want to join a team where the mission is meaningful, the challenges are complex, and you can directly see the results of your hard work? Lundbeck is a global biopharmaceutical company focusing exclusively on brain health. With more than 70 years of experience in neuroscience, we are committed to improving the lives of people with neurological and psychiatric diseases. Lundbeck employees are inspired and driven by our purpose to advance brain health and transform lives. As Lundbeck’s North American hub for early-stage drug discovery, the Lundbeck La Jolla Research Center positions our company to deliver transformative treatments for brain disease. Join us on our journey of discovery!

SUMMARY:

Lundbeck La Jolla Research Center, Inc. (LLJRC), a discovery research arm of H. Lundbeck A/S, is seeking a motivated, enthusiastic synthetic chemist to support preclinical stage programs in the portfolio and make transformative medicines for patients with brain diseases. In this role, the successful candidate will be responsible for working with project teams to design and synthesize first-in-class small molecules and progress them to the drug candidate stage.

REQUIRED EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE, AND SKILLS:

• Ph.D. in organic chemistry or related area or enrolled in a PhD organic chemistry or related area program that must be completed within the next 9 months, OR an accredited master’s science degree with 6+ years’ experience OR an accredited bachelor’s science degree with 8+ years’ experience
• Demonstrated broad knowledge of and experience in planning, developing, and enabling multistep organic syntheses
• Expertise in developing new transformations and in analyzing and optimizing reactions
• Innovative, rigorous, and can devise and execute successful synthetic chemistry strategies
• Ability to develop, implement, and clearly communicate chemistry strategies to team, management, and collaborators
• Excellent collaboration, communication, and presentation skills.
• Both effective team player and strong individual contributor, flexible, and able to handle multiple tasks and deliver high quality results under tight timelines
• Thrives in a team environment of shared goals and responsibilities

PREFERRED EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE, AND SKILLS:

• Experience in medicinal chemistry or pharmaceutical drug discovery/development
• HPLC/UPLC - MS analytical and preparative-scale chromatography experience
• Expertise in cheminformatics systems and methods
• Familiarity working with Contract Research Organizations

• Contributes to multi-disciplinary project teams in developing innovative, high-quality small molecule therapeutics
• Independently and with a team designs drug-like compounds for synthesis, in line with project strategy, incoming data, and knowledge of in vitro and in vivo DMPK and physicochemical properties
• Employs state-of-the-art techniques and synthetic methods to design, execute, optimize, and analyze multi-step synthetic strategies
• Oversees chemistry activities at Contract Research Organizations (CROs)
• Identifies opportunities to access state-of-the-art chemistry capabilities and infrastructure, and maintains lab instrumentation
• Contributes to objective setting for team and site
• Trains associate scientists, research associates, and interns
• Responsible for data analysis, preparation of reports and presentations to project teams, site, and global scientific leadership
• Contributes to publications in peer-reviewed journals, presents work at scientific conferences, and prepares patent applications
• Approximately 75% of work is lab-based and focuses on development and execution of synthetic strategies towards drug-like small molecule compounds