Principal Scientist - Early Discovery Chemistry

With over 35 nationalities and a range of backgrounds represented in our Benevolent team, we aim to build an inclusive environment where our people can bring their authentic selves to work, be respected for who they are and the exceptional work they do. We welcome and actively encourage applications from all sections of society and are committed to offering equal employment opportunities regardless of sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, parental status, disability, age, citizenship, or any other basis. We see our diversity as an asset as we tackle challenging problems that bridge the gap between drug discovery and technology.

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The Role

The Early Discovery Chemistry Team at BenevolentAI collaborate with multiple disciplines and functions to enable validation of our AI-derived target predictions and facilitate their entry into our small molecule portfolio. We are looking for an experienced medicinal chemist with excellent communication skills to provide scientific leadership across our growing and diverse pipeline.

The role will involve leadership of chemistry activities on multiple tech deployments in Target ID, including chemogenomics efforts and small molecule project feasibility assessments. Additionally, the role will include leadership of exploratory chemistry projects, such as evaluating novel modalities and therapeutic strategies, and Hit ID of undrugged targets. As part of this work, the role will require close collaboration with biologists, chemoinformaticians and computational chemists, UX/UI designers, software engineers, NLP researchers and ML scientists, to help build the tools required to accelerate the drug discovery process.

The role is located at our London headquarters and is non-lab based.

Primary Responsibilities

Chemistry leadership on multiple tech deployments in Target ID, including chemogenomics efforts, deconvolution of biological assay data, and small molecule project feasibility assessments.
The leadership of exploratory chemistry projects, such as evaluating novel modalities and therapeutic strategies. This will involve defining the research strategy, co-ordinating the synthesis of key compounds and collaboration with biologists and DMPK scientists to reach key decision points.
Collaborate with data scientists, UX/UI designers, NLP researchers and software engineers for the development of new tools to support chemogenomics and target progressability assessments.
Work closely with chemoinformaticians and computational chemists to develop and apply our structural models for binding site detection and Hit ID of novel binding sites and undrugged targets.
Establish and maintain close working relationships with Senior Management for project planning, alignment and delivery.

We are looking for someone with

PhD or equivalent experience in organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry or chemical biology.
5+ years experience in an industrial setting applying medicinal chemistry expertise to the successful advancement of Drug Discovery projects to key milestones.
Experience of working at the interface between biology and chemistry, and providing critical assessment of potential drug targets and/or tool compounds.
A track record of significant, innovative personal contributions to the progression of drug discovery programmes.
A strong team player with an ability to work seamlessly with experts from many disciplines and mentor direct reports.
You will be an excellent communicator, through verbal, written and electronic media, able to freely collaborate with internal and external colleagues. You will continuously share knowledge with other members of the team.
You will be comfortable and thrive working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and on multiple projects with changing priorities and deadlines.
‍Nice to have: Experience in early discovery chemistry, chemical biology and/or computational chemistry approaches.

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We share a passion for being part of a mission that matters, and we are always looking for curious and collaborative people who share our values and want to be part of our journey. If that sounds like a fit for you, hit the apply button and join us.

About us

BenevolentAI unites AI with human expertise to discover new and more effective medicines. Our unique computational R&D platform spans every step of the drug discovery process, powering an in-house pipeline of over 25 drug programmes. We advance our mission to reinvent drug discovery by harnessing the power of a diverse team, rich with different backgrounds, experiences, opinions and personalities. In our offices in London and New York and research facility in Cambridge (UK), we work in highly collaborative, multidisciplinary teams, harnessing skills across biology, chemistry, engineering, AI, machine learning, informatics, precision medicine and drug discovery.

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