Senior/Principal Scientist, Medicinal Chemistry

As a Senior/Principal Scientist (Medicinal Chemistry) at NextRNA Therapeutics, you will join an interdisciplinary team of highly creative and talented individuals whose vision is to improve patients’ lives by expanding the space of RNA-targeted therapies. You are an experienced medicinal chemist who will lead chemistry efforts on drug discovery projects from the hit identification stage to the discovery of development candidates. You must be self-driven, organized, and thrive in an exciting, fast-paced environment in a rapidly growing company. You should have experience in managing scientists and contract research organizations (CRO).  You will have an opportunity to work with a diverse team of biologists, biochemists, chemists, and bioinformaticians to support drug discovery programs for the next wave of RNA targeted therapeutics.

About you:

• You have demonstrated expertise in Medicinal Chemistry with outstanding contributions to delivering pre-clinical and/or clinical assets
• You have ability to champion the chemistry efforts in new directions to achieve project milestones in a timely manner
• You have experience with structure-based drug design, computational methods, organic synthesis, and DMPK optimization
• You have experience as a chemistry (or project) lead involving the management of internal and external multi-disciplinary resources and collaborations
• You have a solid track record of innovation and invention in the drug discovery space demonstrated by publications, patents, and presentations
• You have excellent communication skills (both written and verbal) and the ability to present the rationale, key data, issues & challenges, and milestone accomplishments of a drug discovery program to other members of the department and company
• You are passionate about working on novel targets and finding new drugs for unmet medical needs
• You thrive in a fast-paced start-up environment

What you’ll do:

• Serve as chemistry and/or project lead at various stages from hit identification to development candidate nomination
• Analyze screening data, perform literature review, define, implement, and execute project-related medicinal chemistry strategies with scientific excellence, efficiency, and speed
• Manage scientific collaborations and supervise CRO outsourcing activities
• Ensure cross-functional integration with other departments to ensure timely delivery of key milestones
• Design and enable screening libraries including RNA-target focused libraries
• Participate in shaping and implementing our internal chemistry strategies and capabilities
• Proactively formulate and execute patent strategies to establish, protect and expand intellectual property by collaborating with our legal team
• Mentor and/or manage Ph.D., Master’s and/or Bachelor’s chemists
• Collaborate and communicate across a diverse interdisciplinary research team
• Contribute to multiple projects simultaneously and manage diverse team interactions

Key Qualifications:

• Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry or medicinal chemistry or closely related field is required
• Postdoctoral experience in medicinal chemistry or total synthesis is preferred
• 5+ years of medicinal chemistry experience in a biotech or pharmaceutical setting is required (leveling of the position will be based upon experience)
• Expert understanding of all modern medicinal chemistry concepts and the ability to translate them into solutions to move projects forward is required
• Cross-functional competency in drug discovery disciplines of biology, PK, pharmacology, and toxicology is strongly preferred
• Experience as a chemistry leader involving management of internal and external multi-disciplinary resources is required
• Deep knowledge of various screening approaches like DEL, FBDD, HTS, virtual screening and required follow up activities to generate high quality lead compounds is strongly preferred
• Experience in developing small molecules targeting RNA is preferred
• Experience in developing targeted protein degraders is preferred
• Track record in managing external synthesis, ADME, and safety FTE’s is required
• Molecular modeling capabilities and structure-based drug discovery experience is preferred

Please contact NextRNA Head of Talent Acquisition for further information.

Mary Beth Greene: mgreene@nextrna.com