Director, Medicinal Chemistry

About the role:

Join our talented Drug Discovery & Development Team at Owkin and play a key role in transforming how therapies are discovered. Reporting to Lucia, a seasoned leader with extensive pharmaceutical industry experience, you will have the unique opportunity to make a tangible impact on our innovative drug discovery programs.

In this role, you will be instrumental in supporting internal drug discovery and in-licensing efforts, while also developing new computational methods to accelerate our progress. By integrating AI-driven platforms and state-of-the-art computational tools into the discovery process, you will play a pivotal role in shaping Owkin’s preclinical pipeline and advancing the next generation of transformative therapies. Your contributions will extend beyond program leadership, as you mentor new team members, refine methodologies, and drive projects through to the lead optimization stage.

If you're passionate about innovation, collaboration, and making a meaningful difference in drug discovery, we’d love to hear from you!

In particular, you will:

• Be accountable for and supervise the planned medicinal chemistry experiments performed by CRO(s) for in-house projects to ensure delivery of suitable candidate drug chemical matter, from hit prioritization, to hit-to-lead and lead optimization stages.
• Summarize and rationalize Structure Activity Relationship (SAR) from medicinal chemistry papers, competitor’s patents, and external assets for potential in-licencing
• Propose prioritization criteria for drug candidate triaging during the whole drug discovery process, from HIT id to preclinical candidate nomination
• Bring medicinal chemistry expertise during asset due diligence
• Help validate the druggability of our candidate targets during the early target evaluation steps 
• Design and revise the medicinal chemistry of small molecule plans for new chemical entities, in partnership with CRO(s) 
• Perform virtual screening experiments and integrate that in the wet lab discovery process
• Test and apply our GenAI methods in drug discovery projects; help drive the models towards useful, synthesizable molecules
• Support our internal method development
• Participate in our internal R&D, striving to keep Owkin’s methodology to the state-of-the-art 
• Bring knowledge around target families, modes of actions from the drug discovery perspective
• work in an cross functional drug discovery team
• Present results to leadership and committees in a clear and concise manner for decision making.
• Lead, in collaboration with Owkin IP director, data selection and compilation for patent filing on the new chemical matter discovered and characterized in the drug discovery programs

About you

Above all, you should be excited by the idea of working at the intersection of drug discovery and machine learning. The successful candidate will have a ‘team-first’ kind of attitude; be independent, curious and detail-attentive; thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment; and be fun to work with.

In terms of skill set, we are looking for someone with:

• PhD (or equivalent experience) in synthetic, or medicinal chemistry.  
• Proven track record in drug discovery, including leading the medical chemistry activities for small molecule projects in pharmaceutical or biotech environments.  
• Strong expertise in compound design and optimization, including SAR (Structure-Activity Relationship) analysis, from HIT identification to preclinical candidate nomination 
• Working knowledge of molecular modeling and computational tools for structure optimization.  
• Very good understanding of ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion) optimization.  
• Familiarity with preclinical drug discovery activities beyond medicinal chemistry, with specific experience in oncology therapeutic areas a plus.  
• Leadership capabilities, including guiding internal teams and experience managing tasks outsourced to CROs, including synthesis of small molecules, biochemical and cell based assays for screening  
• Ability to follow and drive multiple programs simultaneously, ensuring alignment with timelines and budgets.  
• High level of organization, autonomy, and creativity in handling complex data and solving problems.  
• Interest in and experience with AI-driven and computer-assisted drug design.  
• Has an Ai mindset, with proven ability to collaborate with technological platforms, including atomistic calculations and generative AI systems, to design innovative molecules.  
• Ability to work at the intersection of chemistry and biology, integrating insights from various disciplines (e.g., biologists, chemists, data scientists, and project managers).  
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, with the ability to present complex data, updates, and strategies clearly.
• Familiarity with considerations around small molecule manufacturing scale-up and interactions with CMC.  
• Extensive knowledge of intellectual property processes, including drafting patentable chemical matter and collaborating with patent attorneys.

Preferred qualifications/bonus:

We would be especially excited to read about your:

• Experience contributing to in-licensing efforts, including due diligence activities. 
• Patents application of chemical matter

 
Please submit your CV in English

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