Meliora Therapeutics, Inc. Lead or Senior Computational Chemist Remote · Full time

Apply for Lead or Senior Computational Chemist

Biotech is on the verge of a revolution. Breakthroughs such as the advent of CRISPR and systems for fast and efficient multi-omic sequencing in combination with structural advances in machine learning are unleashing the ability to interrogate human biology in unprecedented ways.

A key initial goal of Meliora Therapeutics’ computational engine is to develop a robust, multi-modal MOA atlas for cancer drugs. This atlas will consist of 21st century phenotypic “molecular fingerprints” of different mechanisms of action, and will serve as a reference library that can be used to characterize new molecules of interest. Our platform has already surfaced a number of interesting candidate drugs with promising laboratory validation and we are looking for world class talent to expand and deepen the capabilities of this advanced computational engine using the latest ML approaches, making an impact on cancer in the process. The founding team includes CEO David Li (1st business hire at Benchling, GS, KKR, Penn Life Sciences and Management), Dr. Jason Sheltzer (Faculty at Yale School of Medicine, Presidential Early Career Award, Forbes 30u30), Joan Smith (Sr. Staff engineer at Google, MIT Physics), and Zach Owen (Data Scientist Tech Lead at Verily, previous ML startup technical co-founder, MIT PhD). We are backed by leading funds including BrightEdge, VillageGlobal, HOF Capital, Obvious and others.

We are looking for a talented and ambitious computational chemist who is passionate about making a difference in cancer care and loves working in the startup environment. Apply your expertise in Chemistry, Computational Chemistry, Cheminformatics or a related discipline in establishing the company’s capabilities in molecular design and drug development. Work from home and travel for in-person retreats every two or three months.  You will play a significant role in developing the algorithmic engine of the company. The computational chemist will work collaboratively with a multi-disciplinary, international team, seeking excellence at every turn.  You will understand company goals and drive towards those goals, providing feedback about new opportunities and illuminating roadblocks when they occur. We value your unyielding scientific rigor and desire to continuously learn.

What you’ll do:

• Roll up your sleeves and bring your skills and experience in computational chemistry and drug development to bear on a critical problem in cancer drug discovery –  improving the success rate of cancer drugs brought to clinical trials.
• Apply the latest cheminformatics, computational chemistry, and/or molecular modeling strategies in order to build bridges linking cheminformatics, quantitative SAR modeling, and molecular modeling. This role features close interaction with interdisciplinary drug discovery project teams, including medicinal chemistry, discovery pharmacology and bioinformatics
• Spearhead small molecule library design while applying powerful analytic and visualization methods to explore structure-activity relationships
• Bring your curiosity and collegiality to our growing team. 
• Be a culture setter by embodying the company’s principles of scientific and computational curiosity and rigor, mutual respect, personal integrity, drive, and collaboration.

Skills and experience you bring to the table: 

• Ph.D, in Chemistry, Computational Chemistry, Cheminformatics or a related discipline
• Significant expertise modeling chemical and biology data in a drug discovery setting;
• Experience as a lead or manager of drug development program including expertise with principles of medicinal chemistry, ADME, PK and other key milestones required for clinical drug development
• Expertise in using molecular modeling and machine learning techniques to analyze and gain insight from biological or other data including cheminformatics libraries, such as TensorFlow, Keras, PyTorch, Pandas, Scikit-Learn, DeepChem, RDKit, or OEchem 
• Ability to be highly successful working in a diverse, remote interdisciplinary team.
• Knowledge and experience using Git (pull requests, code review and merging)
• Knowledge and experience using Python, pandas, RDkit and a variety of data libraries.  
• Knowledge and experience with cloud computing including Google Cloud Platform (GCP), AWS and Azure
• Comfortable working in a remote-first environment using a variety of digital tools for collaboration.
• Able to travel for retreats in the US for 3 or 4 days every two or three months.