Principal, Medicinal Chemistry

Akebia Therapeutics•Cambridge, MA

About The Position

Nearly 37 million Americans are currently affected by Chronic Kidney Disease. 37 million. At Akebia we take that number very seriously and every day we come to work, with the purpose of bettering the lives of each person impacted by kidney disease and the renal community that serves them. Our tenacious, passionate employees’ challenge the status quo and work to develop unique therapeutics that have the potential to set new standards of care for people living with kidney disease. This is life-changing work, and we are all in, are you? Job Summary We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced medicinal chemist in our research facility in Cambridge. You will be responsible for applying state-of-the-art medicinal and synthetic chemistry expertise to advance small-molecule drug discovery programs toward the clinic and provide support for existing programs in pre-clinical development. The successful candidate will be a key part of a dynamic interdisciplinary team that includes DMPK, biology, pharmacology, structure-based drug design, and toxicology. She/he will be responsible for conducting internal chemistry research while potentially also directing external, contract research organization (CRO)-driven activities.

Requirements

PhD. or MS in chemistry
Knowledge of ADME/PK, enzymology, biochemistry, biology, and pharmacology sufficient to enable interpretation of data and application to the design of new analogs

Nice To Haves

Ph D. or MS in Chemistry
8 years of industrial experience
Experience working on a diverse range of drug targets and structure-based drug design is desirable.
Experience with fragment based lead discovery and covalent inhibitors
Demonstrated ability to solve challenging problems and produce innovative science, as evidenced by peer-reviewed publications, patents, and presentations at scientific conferences.
Ability to manage CROs carrying out ADME/PK, enzymology, biochemistry and pharmacology experiments
Proven ability to think independently while simultaneously operating in a collaborative, matrixed environment.
Excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to rapidly generate clear and concise reports, papers, and presentations.

Responsibilities

Possess strong synthetic organic chemistry expertise and apply the latest scientific methodologies to solve challenging medicinal chemistry problems.
Design and synthesize molecules with druglike properties, using knowledge of SAR, ADME, PK, and in-silico and in-vitro predictors for multiparameter optimization.
Use modelling software to facilitate structure-based drug design (SBDD) efforts.
Intellectually and technically lead internal research efforts in medicinal chemistry
Support the advancement of lead compounds through in-vitro and in-vivo evaluation to identify clinical development candidates.
Plan, coordinate, and manage research activities conducted at CROs.
Engage collaboratively with Akebia research staff, scientific advisors, consultants, and the larger scientific community.
Establish clear project goals and define scientific strategies to achieve these goals and generate testable hypotheses to facilitate decision making.
Draft research papers for scientific journals and conferences and assist in preparing patent applications.
Serve as the chemistry representative on cross functional project teams of high priority