Associate Director/Director, Computational Chemistry

The Company

Septerna is a biotechnology company with a vision to become the industry-leading G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-focused drug discovery company, and a mission to develop life-changing medicines for patients. The company’s Native Complex™ Platform recapitulates GPCRs with their native structure, function, and dynamics outside of the cellular context. This approach enables access for the first time to modern structural and screening technologies used in industrial-scale drug discovery for the entire class of GPCRs. Septerna has an emerging pipeline of GPCR-targeted small molecule programs with growth potential to reach many GPCRs that have been undruggable and unexploited to date. Septerna was launched by scientific founders who have made groundbreaking GPCR discoveries and by founding investor Third Rock Ventures. For more information see: www.septerna.com.

Join a multidisciplinary team of colleagues focused on creating revolutionary medicines to address significant needs of patients.  Bring your real self to work every day; grow and learn from a talented team of drug hunters, scientists, and business professionals, and contribute your passion, creativity, and energy to our mission.  At Septerna we embrace diversity of thought, expertise, and background. We share a fearless pursuit of ground-breaking innovations, and our employees learn from each other and succeed as a team.  

THE ROLE

We are seeking a highly motivated and creative computational chemistry expert to Head our design efforts across our small molecule drug discovery programs. Reporting to the SVP, Drug Discovery, this individual will be responsible for the computational chemistry strategy, tool selection and workflow to address hit-identification through lead optimization to candidate selection. At present, they will manage one Senior Scientist PhD level computational chemist with an opportunity to grow the group.

Applying modern expertise in in silico screening and ligand-based / structure-based design, this individual will be a key contributor to our state-of-the-art approach to apply new technologies to the field of GPCR drug discovery, working within a highly collaborative environment, interfacing particularly with Medicinal Chemistry, Structural Biology and Research Informatics. This will be an outstanding opportunity to collaborate with external computational advisors and an internal team of talented colleagues who all share a passion for developing new therapeutics that will make a difference for patients.  

qualifications

·         Ph.D. in computational chemistry, chemical informatics, physical organic chemistry, biophysics, or related field with 12 years of experience applying their computational skills to small molecule drug design.

·         Demonstrated experience mentoring direct reports with leadership qualities directed towards cross-functional collaboration and future growth of the function.

requirements

·         Significant experience in computational drug design and optimization approaches, including ligand-based and structure-based methods.

·         Proficiency with modeling suites, such as Schrödinger Suite, OpenEye, MOE; research informatics tools, such as Vortex and CDD Vault; Linux working and cloud computing environments (AWS).

·         Contemporary expertise in in silico virtual screening towards hit-identification.

·         Data analysis of chemical HTS and DEL-library screens is a plus.

·         Ability to define the appropriate software tools to support project needs with the proficiency to program and develop custom approaches a plus.

·         An organic chemistry background including knowledge of the key principles of conformational analysis of small molecules.

·         Appreciation of the importance of physicochemical properties for small molecules and the ability to implement in silico predictive property calculations.

·         An understanding of small molecule induced pharmacology. Experience with the GPCR class of receptors, as well as the concepts of orthosteric and allosteric active sites is a plus.

·         Motivation to stay current with the latest developments in AI/ML and strategize and enable the approaches with the highest potential to impact small molecule therapeutic projects into the Septerna workflow.

·         An understanding of MD simulations and free energy perturbation calculations is a plus.

·         Demonstrated ability to collaborate closely with medicinal chemists, structural biologists, and research informaticians to provide comprehensive computational chemistry support for multiple projects, including evolving new design ideas, developing structural hypotheses, low-resolution structure refinement, and contributing to data analysis and visualization.

·         Outstanding communication skills with demonstrated ability to make effective presentations in a broad range of settings, and strong collaboration, leadership, and organizational skills.

·         The successful candidate will be motivated to discover new disease-modifying therapeutics for patients and enjoy working in a fast-paced dynamic team environment. 

The anticipated salary range for candidates who will work in South San Francisco, CA is $195,000 - $235,000. Individual pay may vary based on additional factors, including, and without limitation, job-related skills, experience, work location and relevant education or training. Septerna's compensation package also includes benefits, stock options, and annual target bonus for full-time positions.

We are an Equal Opportunity employer and will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability status.

Note to Employment Agencies: Please do not forward any agency resumes. The company will not be responsible for any fees related to resumes that are unsolicited.