Vertex Fall Co-op 2026, Data and Computational Sciences

Vertex Pharmaceuticals•San Diego, CA

3d•$30 - $50•Onsite

About The Position

Kickstart Your Career at Vertex! Are you ready to make a real impact? At Vertex, our mission is to tackle serious diseases and to change lives, for the better, for the future. Our aim is to give you the skills, insights, and career guidance to be an important part of that future; to turn your potential into progression. As a Vertex intern or co-op, you’ll work on meaningful projects, collaborate with talented teams, and learn from industry leaders. We’re passionate about innovation, inclusion, and supporting your growth—inside and outside the lab. Why Vertex? Real Projects: You’ll work on assignments that make a real impact, not just busy work. Mentorship & Networking: Connect with leaders and peers who want to see you succeed through professional networks, connections, and collaborations that will shape your longer-term career. Flexible & Supportive: We offer flexible work options with Flex @ Vertex and prioritize your wellbeing. Inclusive Culture: Collaboration and inclusion are embedded in everything we do. Career Launchpad: Build skills, explore career paths, and get guidance for your future career. Ready to apply? Submit your application and let’s turn possibilities into reality! Your Impact The Vertex Data and Computational Sciences co-op program is a 6-month experiential training program for students currently working towards a Doctoral degree. If you are passionate, collaborative, and growth-minded, a co-op at Vertex will help you gain meaningful experience in our Data and Computational Sciences functional areas and serve as a launchpad for your career. Please note that Vertex reviews applications on a rolling basis and reserves the right to close this job posting prior to the listed deadline. Applicants can expect to receive an update about their application before or shortly after the application deadline. Important Notice Regarding Internship and Co-op Inquiries At Vertex Pharmaceuticals, we are committed to providing a fair and structured recruitment process for all students interested in internship and co-op opportunities. To ensure consistency and equity, all student applications must go through our Early Talent Acquisition Team. Due to the high volume of interest, we are unable to respond to individual solicitation. Direct solicitation to Vertex employees- including senior leaders via email will result in removal from the recruiting process. We appreciate your enthusiasm and interest in Vertex. To be considered for internship or co-op roles, please apply directly through our official application channels. (https://www.vrtx.com/careers/career-growth-and-opportunities/co-ops/) Thank you for respecting our process and helping us maintain a fair experience for all candidates. What you will be doing: We are looking for exceptional candidates to assist with early stage research on active drug discovery programs at Vertex in San Diego. The project will entail integration of physics-based simulation techniques with AI methods for application in small molecule lead optimization programs. No prior experience working in industry is required. The successful candidate will be working alongside experienced computational chemists and medicinal chemistry partners. Projects are designed to deliver tangible scientific outcomes and to build skills directly relevant to careers in pharmaceutical R&D.

Requirements

Ph.D. students in computational chemistry or a related STEM field (chemistry, physics, computer science, structural biology) highly preferred
Experience with scripting (Python is preferred but Perl, R, Bash, or another language is acceptable)
Strong work ethic with excellent scientific skills
Strong oral and written communication skills
Capacity to work onsite full-time in San Diego, CA
Legal authorization to work in the United States, now and in the future. Please note that Vertex does not provide sponsorship for internships or entry level roles within this part of the organization.
You must be available to work full-time, 40 hours per week from July – December 2026

Nice To Haves

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations (AMBER, OpenMM, or other programs) [preferred]
Scientific toolkits for chemistry or simulations (CPPTRAJ, RDKit, OpenEye, or others) [preferred]
Free energy calculations (FEP+, double decoupling, pathway-based methods, or other tools) [preferred]
Statistics [preferred]

Responsibilities

The candidate will be expected to perform computational experiments to test hypotheses and develop methods
The candidate must have the ability to work independently and as part of a team
The candidate should be able to develop and implement data analyses
The candidate will be required to regularly present their progress in formal and informal settings to colleagues
The candidate will interface with colleagues in other departments, such as DMPK, Medicinal Chemistry, Scientific Computing, or Structural Biology, as dictated by the project