Scientist, Organic Chemistry

Capable Labs • San Francisco, CA

2d • Onsite

About The Position

We are a vibrant and intensely mission-driven team in San Francisco, comprising members from MIT, Harvard Medical School, Roche, ETH, and Dana-Farber. We value speed and rigor, coupled with excitement, drive, and a strong work ethic. In an early-stage environment, we value people who can bring clarity to open-ended problems, take ownership of the next steps, and follow through with energy. Capable Labs is a place for ambitious, high-integrity people who want to become dramatically better. You will be surrounded by people who care intensely about the work, get close feedback from the people making scientific and company-defining decisions, and have room to own increasingly important problems. We believe excellent work should be met with meaningful reward, ownership, and trust. Responsibility is earned through contribution, not title alone: anyone who demonstrates the judgment, rigor, and follow-through to move important work forward can earn meaningful scope.

Requirements

• Hands-on synthetic chemistry experience and strong experimental discipline; your education path matters less than your ability to learn quickly and produce high-quality results.
• Interest in owning defined synthesis work end to end, from route and reaction execution through purification, characterization, documentation, and biological handoff.
• A creative, fast, and rigorous approach to solving reaction, purification, analytical, and instrument problems.
• Interest in staying close to biological readouts and understanding how potency, efficacy, stability, exposure, or tolerability data inform chemistry priorities.
• High agency when a synthesis fails, an instrument is down, results look unusual, material is missing, or a handoff is unclear.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with some of the listed synthetic or analytical methods is valuable; expertise in every method is not required.

Responsibilities

• Synthesize, purify, and characterize compounds for Capable’s small-molecule and adjacent therapeutic programs.
• Own defined chemistry from route planning through material ready for biological testing.
• Troubleshoot reactions and instruments.
• Contribute practical chemistry insight to the next design cycle.
• Execute and optimize synthesis workflows, including route planning, reaction setup, workup, purification, characterization, and sample preparation for biological testing.
• Design, run, and troubleshoot organic reactions involving functional-group transformations, coupling chemistry, protecting-group strategies, late-stage diversification, and parallel synthesis.
• Use solution-phase and solid-phase synthesis workflows where useful, including cleavage, deprotection, crude analysis, purification, and final quality control.
• Resolve issues involving low conversion, poor selectivity, side products, decomposition, incomplete deprotection, solubility, purification, recovery, or instrument downtime.
• Purify and characterize compounds using analytical HPLC, prep HPLC, LC-MS, NMR, flash chromatography, SFC, and related methods as appropriate.
• Prepare compounds for in vitro and in vivo studies and maintain clear experimental and batch-level quality-control records.
• Contribute chemistry insight on synthetic feasibility, SAR, purity, yield, stability, solubility, and structure-property relationships.

Benefits

• Generous equity options.
• $500+ monthly wellness budget for training, supplements, coaching, recovery, or other tools that help you perform at your best.
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage options, with Capable covering 100% of the base policy.
• HSA, FSA, and 401K plans.
• Healthy dinners with the team are provided daily.
• Visa sponsorship where appropriate, including O-1, H-1B, J-1, TN, and other employment-based pathways.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed