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Aerial Talent

Associate Director / Director, Computational Chemistry (South San Francisco)

Aerial Talent, South San Francisco, California, us, 94083

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Well-funded biotech in SSF seeks a Computational Chemistry Director or Associate Director with experience in CADD- and structure-based design for lead optimization of small molecules to advance the pipeline of innovative therapeutics toward the clinic.

Highlights

Onsite in South San Francisco Monday through Friday (5 days / week)

Reports to SVP, Discovery

Potential to have one or more direct reports

Two lead targets : CNS oncology + neurodegeneration

Financial runway forecasted through Spring 2027

~25 full-time employees

Responsibilities

Provide strategic leadership and hands-on execution of our CADD efforts

Collaborate closely with chemists and biologists on virtual screening, hit identification and structure-based design

Guide the optimization of drug candidates that induce protein degradation

Use machine-learning (ML) to build in silica models to predict DMPK properties

Perform and automate high throughput molecular dynamics simulations to predict protein function and protein-ligand binding

Utilize established tools and design new methods / tools

Scientific programming as needed

Required Qualifications

PhD in Computational Chemistry or related discipline

7+ years of relevant experience in drug discovery

Computer aided drug design (CADD) / structure- and ligand-based design for small molecules

Dotmatics, Schrodinger, MOE, OpenEye, or Gaussian software

QSAR, QSPR, and conformational analysis

Molecular mechanics and dynamics simulations

Preferred Skills & Knowledge

Understanding of in vitro and in vivo DMPK principles

Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning (AI / ML) approaches to predictive modeling

Quantum mechanics methods

Statistical design of experiments (DoE) Multiparameter optimization

Experimental assay methods and technology for protein-ligand interactions

Programming with languages such as perl, python, or C++

Cheminformatics / database algorithms

Emerging drug modalities such as covalent inhibitors, bifunctionals, molecular glues and / or PROTACs

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