Associate Director/Director, Medicinal Chemistry

Rezo Therapeutics•San Francisco, CA

23h•$160,000 - $240,000•Onsite

About The Position

Rezo Therapeutics is seeking a highly enthusiastic and motivated Medicinal Chemistry program leader to join their Discovery team. This role will contribute to the discovery of precision medicines through the design of small molecules, cross-functional collaborations to advance projects and programs, and incorporation of new technologies to accelerate drug discovery targeting protein-protein interactions. Becoming a member of this team is an excellent opportunity to join Rezo at an early stage, help grow the Chemistry group, and expand Rezo’s discovery platform.

Requirements

PhD in Chemistry or related discipline and a minimum of 7+ years of industrial medicinal chemistry experience beyond the candidate’s academic training or a BS and 15+ years of experience.
Deep experience with medicinal chemistry, structure-based drug design, covalent chemistry approaches, and ADME optimization.
Track record of success in leading medicinal chemistry program(s) and managing external synthesis teams.
Exceptional curiosity and creativity in design of compounds, articulating hypotheses, and testing strategies.
Highly organized, with an ability to work on extremely complex problems where multiple hypotheses are being tested simultaneously in order to accelerate decision-making.
Excellent interpersonal skills, works well within a team, and communicates effectively.
As a subject matter expert, has in-depth knowledge of medicinal chemistry, synthetic organic chemistry, covalent chemistry, and a solid working knowledge of cross-functional disciplines such as ADMET optimization and building PK/PD relationships.
Thoughtful and respected mentor to junior scientists and team members.

Responsibilities

Design molecules using cutting-edge approaches, applying structure-based drug design (SBDD) and property-based strategies, leveraging computational predictions to optimize potency, selectivity, ADMET, and efficacy profiles.
Lead a chemistry program in various stages (ranging from target validation through development candidate selection) and provide strategic input to additional programs in the Rezo portfolio.
Collaborate with biology and other cross-functional partners to design key go/no go experiments, optimize testing strategies, align compound design with project goals, and identify compounds to test hypotheses.
Strategically select compounds for advancement to ADMET, PK, and physiochemical property assays to test hypotheses and enable decision-making.
Manage external synthetic chemistry teams, evaluating analytical data, troubleshooting syntheses, optimizing efficiency of the team.
Manage inventory of final compounds. Keep detailed up-to-date records, prepare and ship samples for testing, and ensure proper storage conditions.
Ensure that project teams generate rigorous analytical and cellular mechanism-of-action data for small molecule drug candidates.
Participate and present at project team and departmental research meetings.
Identify and test new strategies and technologies for accelerating the discovery of new medicines and new targets.