Principal Scientist, Computational Chemistry

---

Job description

Company Summary:

Founded in 2017 within Flagship Labs, Cellarity's new approach to drug discovery is based on the computational modeling of cell behavior, leading to a more complete understanding of system and network biology to uncover cell-behavior-targeted medicines for a wide variety of diseases. Cellarity recently raised $123 million in Series B financing. The round included contributions from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, The Baupost Group, Banque Pictet on behalf of their clients and eight other investors alongside Flagship Pioneering.

Cellarity is generating unprecedented biological insights by combining its unique expertise in network biology, high-resolution data, and machine learning. The result is a new understanding of the cell's trajectory from health to disease, and how cells relate to one another in tissues. Because the cell and its network of transcripts and proteins offer a more complete view of the complexity of human biology than any individual molecular target, Cellarity's approach allows for more efficient drug discovery and is designed to drive higher rates of clinical success. Already, the company has seven drug discovery programs underway in diverse therapeutic areas that range from metabolic disease to immuno-oncology.

The successful Series B financing round validates the strength of Cellarity's science and its potential to redefine drug discovery through its cell-centric approach.

Position Summary:

Cellarity is seeking a highly motivated and innovative Principal Scientist with expertise in the field of computational 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 close collaboration with Machine Learning (ML) and Biology teams, to therapeutically manipulate healthy and diseased cell states and rapidly advance discovery programs within our discovery portfolio. 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.

Key Responsibilities:

• Work with a high degree of independence, to carry out structure and ligand-based design and data analysis
• Devise strategies to identify lead-like molecules and optimize compounds that will target multiple cellular pathways/mechanism.
• Implementation of computational chemistry toolkits (e.g. MOE, MolSoft, OpenEye, Schrodinger)
• Develop and implement computational chemistry approaches to design and triage compound ideas
• Work with a high degree of independence, to carry out structure and ligand-based design and data analysis
• Support all aspects of the company's computational chemistry efforts across, target multiple cellular pathways/mechanism and indications.
• Analyze all available data including cellular SAR, ADME, and PK to drive analog designs to address key program challenges
• Collaborate with scientists from other disciplines such as Machine Learning (ML), medicinal chemistry team and Biology teams as part of the wider drug discovery project team.
• Discover and advance novel small molecule drugs into clinical development

Basic Qualifications:

• Ph.D. degree in computational chemistry, with industry experience as a computational chemist; MS with extensive industrial experience will be considered.
• Experience in structure-based drug design, homology model building and pharmacophore mapping
• Demonstrated computational chemistry skills through high quality publications/patents
• Excellent communication skills.
• 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 within team and across the department

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ph.D. degree in computational chemistry with greater than 5 years' experience, or B.Sc./M.Sc with greater than 10 years' experience working as a computational chemist on predominantly small molecule drug discovery projects in a Pharmaceutical or Biotech setting
• Demonstrated mastery of modern computational chemistry including structure-based design (receptor and ligand-based), scaffold hopping, docking and conformational analysis
• A passion for drug discovery and an excellent understanding of medicinal chemistry concepts
• Innovative problem-solver, with a track record of impacting drug project delivery
• Strong oral and written communication skills, team-working and time-management skills

Flagship Pioneering and our ecosystem companies are 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: Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, "FSP") do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering's internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.