Associate Director, Team lead CADD

The purpose of Idorsia is to discover, develop, and commercialize innovative medicines to help more patients.

Headquartered in Switzerland – a biotech-hub of Europe – Idorsia is a high-potential biopharmaceutical company, specialized in the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative small molecules, with the aim of transforming the horizon of therapeutic options.

We are looking for an Associate Director, Team Lead CADD to join our team !

 
Job Responsibilities

• Actively follow and contribute to research projects at all stages of development with established and emerging technologies
• Support medicinal chemists in small molecule design by applying the most appropriate computational approaches, such as structure-based or ligand-based design, QSAR modeling, AI/ML predictions and interpretability thereof, or FEP calculations
• Ensure state of the art technical equipment (Hardware as well as Software)
• Closely collaborate with external providers of 3D structures
• Proactively follow new scientific developments and emerging CADD technologies
• Elaborate and implement the CADD strategies including AI/ML, in collaboration with all stakeholders
• Drive implementation of novel computational drug design techniques in trustworthy relationships and effective collaboration with internal and external partners

Candidate Requirements

• PhD in Chemistry or Computational Chemistry and >8 years of industry experience in Computer-Aided Drug Design for small molecule Drug Discovery, at least 3 years of industrial experience as Senior Scientist CADD
• Demonstrated expertise in structure based rational design
• Strong (medicinal) chemistry background, ability to follow project SAR/SPR trends and to propose suited computational approaches to address key challenges
• Deep understanding of all aspects of CADD such as structure- and ligand-based design, scaffold hopping, conformational analysis, library design, multi-property optimization scoring functions, SAR analysis, ML models, virtual screening
• Expertise in FEP+ and/or open-source alternatives
• Experience of peculiarities of respective protein families (GPCR, proteases etc.)
• Proficient with the Schrödinger Small Molecule Drug Discovery Suite
• Proficient in programming (Python preferred), and familiar with commonly used scientific libraries (e.g. NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, RDKit)
• Advanced computer skills in a Linux environment
• Working with internal and public databases using SQL (e.g. ChEMBL, PDB, internal compound databases)
• Experience with other molecular dynamics engines (OpenMM, GROMACS, AMBER, NAMD), enhanced-sampling plugins (e.g. PLUMED) and alchemical free-energy tools (YANK, BioSimSpace) is preferred.
• Strong data analysis skills
• Well-organized, flexible in work assignment and work schedule
• Hands-on attitude
• Excellent communication and team-working skills
• Ability to work in multidisciplinary team
• Supervision of at least 12 months of trainee student(s), supervision of scientist(s) is a plus
• Resilient, resistant to time pressure

Work  Location: Allschwil

Country: Switzerland

Business Area: Research - Chemical Sciences

Schedule: Fulltime

Job Type: Permanent

Job ID: 4614

At Idorsia, we harness the power of difference, authenticity and inclusion to achieve business success. We are committed to fostering respect, fairness and equal opportunities for all job applicants and all our employees.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against based on disability.

Please be informed that if you are selected for this position, your employment will be subject to a pre-employment background screening process, of which you will be informed in greater detail in due course.

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