Medicinal Chemist

We are the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute (IBRI). We are a leading translational research institute that advances academic and industry science through collaboration to improve patient health outcomes. Building your career at the IBRI in Indianapolis’ 16 Tech Innovation District, means being part of a team of renowned scientists, creative thinkers, and innovative leaders.

Today’s research is being driven by significant advances in our abilities to study complex disease processes and propose new ways to improve patients’ lives. To reflect the evolving nature of life sciences research and encourage synergies through collaboration, we’re enhancing our integrated capabilities, adding depth to how we approach patient-informed translational science and pursuing four foundational areas of scientific focus. These four areas will provide us the core talent and capability to pursue translational science in this new patient-centric framework:

Disease, Systems, Pathways – We’re working to better understand diabetes and identify new ways to combat the disease. We’re applying this learning to other diseases that share common systems and pathways.
Molecular Innovation – We’re developing new capabilities for molecular design and drug discovery to investigate disease processes and pursue new therapeutic approaches.
Integrated Data Sciences – We’re pursuing advanced data sciences to create novel end-user inspired solutions that address complex analysis, simulation and prediction across the translational sciences.
Enabling Technologies – We’re building a rich platform of enabling technologies that give our scientists, partners and collaborators access to the best tools to solve complex scientific problems.

The IBRI’s vision is to build a world-class organization of researchers, innovators and business professionals that catalyze activities across the Indiana (and beyond) life sciences community. To achieve that vision, we look for curious and collaborative team members who are energized by innovation, guided by integrity and inspired by diversity.

The Opportunity

Are you equally passionate about medicinal chemistry and enabling the synthetic chemistry to power drug discovery projects? We love all aspects of discovering medicines and are building the best environment in the industry to make a difference for patients. We are looking for an experienced medicinal chemist with the desire to drive synthetic enablement efforts to join our highly collaborative group and accelerate projects through lead optimization into pre-clinical activities.

We are building a new chemistry organization that collaborates with researchers from across the state and region. The work is dynamic, and you’ll have fun in our collaborative and energetic environment where you’ll face new challenges every day. If you are flexible and fearless in the face of rapidly evolving data, then we want you to join us to help us accelerate drug discovery that is patient centered.

Your Responsibilities:

Assisting 1-2 projects, you will focus on synthetic enablement and med chem analog preparation by supporting project teams through hit assessment, lead generation and lead optimization.
Contributing at the bench to enable chemistry for diverse chemotypes and will prepare analogs for assay and testing.
Collaborating with CROs overseas to enable the synthesis of compounds for your projects.
Monitoring the literature associated with various projects to be aware of new chemotypes and relevant comparators for our targets.
Contributing to project teams with data analysis and target design.

Your Background

You have a PhD in chemistry and 5+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry or equivalent, or an MS in chemistry with 15+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry or equivalent, with a focus on medicinal chemistry.
You have experience with analog synthesis on medicinal chemistry projects and are motivated by reacting to biological data, designing new compounds and synthetic problem-solving.
You have worked on projects related to cancer, neuroscience, autoimmunity, or metabolic diseases and have familiarity with the associated target biology.
Your core experience is design and synthesis of small molecule therapeutics, but you are familiar with other drugging modalities, including fragment-based drug design, PROTACs and DEL.
You work well independently and have a demonstrated record of solving critical med chem and synthetic problems for your teams.
You are comfortable applying computer-aided drug design (CADD) tools to facilitate compound design.
You have extensive background in the practical application of all the latest synthesis, purification, and analytical characterization techniques (e.g., NMR, LCMS, HPLC, TLC, chromatography, chiral separations).
You have strong communication skills, can flex to different work styles, and can collaborate effectively with contract laboratories and internal colleagues.
Experience working with CROs is desirable. You are willing to interact directly with the CROs as needed to support your projects.

Additional preferred qualifications:

Flexibility in supporting more than one project simultaneously.
Commitment to building an energetic, candid, and inclusive company culture and contributing to IBRI’s success.
A desire to work in a fast-paced, growing, entrepreneurial-style organization in the heart of an innovation district.

Compensation:

The IBRI offers an attractive compensation package that includes a competitive base salary and comprehensive benefits. Relocation assistance will be offered where appropriate. Salary range will be based on the applicant’s experience

Equal Employment Opportunity:

The IBRI provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.

Apply:

Please visit us at www.indianabiosciences.org/careers-apply to apply for this opportunity. Interested individuals are encouraged to provide their resume or CV and a brief cover letter when they apply.