Director, Medicinal Chemistry

What if you could join a rapidly growing company and play a critical role in bringing new medicines to patients through looking at and treating disease in a revolutionary way.

What this position is all about:

Cellarity is seeking a highly motivated and innovative Director with expertise in the field of Medicinal Chemistry to play a vital role in the company’s efforts to validate novel discovery approaches based on cell behavior.

The candidate will be working under the supervision of the Head of Chemistry and will be responsible for establishing robust molecule design methods and design novel molecules in collaboration with Machine Learning (ML) and Biology teams, to therapeutically manipulate healthy and diseased cell states. The successful candidate may lead/co-lead 1-2 discovery programs, and will work closely with members of Cellarity’s AI, biology, technology, and pharmacology groups, to rapidly advance discovery programs from early hit discovery through lead optimization, drug candidate identification and IND enabling assessment.   

The successful candidate will have deep experience in small molecule drug discovery and will drive the application of cutting-edge molecular, computational and AI-augmented design approaches to discover quality drug candidates that can become transformative medicines for serious diseases.  They will be comfortable working in and contributing to a very dynamic and cross-functional team environment. The ideal candidate must be independent, results-oriented, with excellent communication skills and be willing to work in a highly dynamic and fast-paced entrepreneurial environment.

What you would be responsible for:           

• Devise strategies to identify lead-like molecules and optimize compounds that will target multiple cellular pathways/mechanism.
• Develop medicinal chemistry strategies to improve drug-likeness, ADME/DMPK, and safety properties of molecules
• Co-lead/lead a project team to deliver clinical candidates
• Create and execute strategies to protect and expand intellectual property
• Closely interact with external chemistry CROs, stakeholders within and outside Cellarity
• Ensure effective interaction & communication between medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry, machine learning, computational biology and drug discovery teams  
• Lead and/or contribute to cross-functional goals within Cellarity
• Work closely with Head of Chemistry and CROs to ensure that the medicinal chemistry group employs the highest standards and most advanced methodologies in drug discovery.

What Experiences Will You Need:

• PhD in Organic/Medicinal Chemistry with 10+ years, or BS/MS with 15+ years of industry experience in medicinal chemistry leadership roles such that a clear track record of success in Drug Discovery can be readily demonstrated
• Demonstrated synthetic and medicinal chemistry skills through high quality publications/patents
• Experience with utilizing computational chemistry tools and structure-based drug design principles for lead identification and optimization
• Experience in leading projects and driving programs from initiation through lead optimization phase to clinical lead selection.
• Track record of delivery of hit to lead and lead to drug candidate.
• A high degree of self-motivation, organization, communication, and presentation skills; high competence in solving complex problems, as well as the ability to navigate a fast-paced cross-functional and collaborative work environment
• Strengths in the following areas: creativity, problem-solving, and managing relationships within a matrix project team environment (internal/external partners)
• Demonstrated ability to successfully work in cross-functional teams with an emphasis on teamwork, collaboration, and communication
• Self-driven and demonstrated ability in working with a diverse team in a fast-entrepreneurial setting
• Ability to collaborate with and manage internal experts and external consultants.

Company Summary: Cellarity’s mission is to fundamentally redesign the way drugs are created for the sake of bringing new hope to patients.  By shifting the focus from a single target to the underlying cellular dysfunction, we unravel the complexity of disease biology and create medicines that were never before possible. The company has developed unique capabilities that link biology and chemistry with high dimensional -omic data from which we design medicines against the cellular signature of disease. The Cellarity platform allows us to uncover new biology in diseases even in the absence of known causal targets. Cellarity is a privately held, clinical-phase drug discovery startup using AI and single-cell omics to develop life-changing medicines that are unreachable by traditional methods of drug discovery. Cellarity is a product of Flagship Pioneering's venture creation engine, which has conceived and created companies such as Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Generate: Biomedicines, and Lila Sciences.

Cellarity is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.

Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Cellarity does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to Cellarity or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Cellarity’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of Cellarity, and Cellarity will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.