Senior Scientist 1, Computational Chemistry - Eikon Therapeutics

Eikon Therapeutics is a new biopharmaceutical company employing revolutionary technology at the intersection of chemistry, engineering, computation, and biology to discover novel treatments for life-threatening diseases. Eikon’s discovery platform is built on groundbreaking innovations from its founders (Nobel Prize, 2014), culminating in the creation of microscopes which enable real time, molecular-resolution measurements of protein movement in living cells, thereby unlocking otherwise intractable classes of proteins as drug targets.

Position

The Senior Scientist 1 position in Computational Chemistry will play a key role in discovering and optimizing small-molecule targets. Collaborating closely with biologists, medicinal chemists, software engineers and machine learning experts, they will leverage modern computational chemistry methods to drive our drug discovery pipeline forward. As an integral member of our growing Drug Discovery team, they make a real and direct impact on accelerating the drug discovery process and ultimately benefiting patients.

About You

You’re a computational chemistry expert who loves to solve difficult problems and are not discouraged by challenges. You have a passion for drug discovery and thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. You are curious, love challenges, and enjoy pushing the edge of technology to solve important problems with creative solutions. You’re collaborative by nature, resourceful, open-minded, data-driven, and can operate with a sense of urgency.

What You’ll Do

• Provide computational chemistry program support across our drug discovery pipeline spanning screening library selection, hit identification/calling, hit to lead, and lead optimization
• Design and optimize drug candidates using advanced computational techniques including generation of testable hypotheses from structure-based and ligand-based modeling approaches
• Influence drug discovery project direction by independently conducting modern computational experiments
• Routinely employ expert knowledge and analysis of SAR, physiochemical and ADMET properties
• Apply machine learning and data analytics techniques to enhance computational chemistry workflows and accelerate the drug discovery process
• Collaborate closely with our data science team to integrate cutting edge AI/ML tools into our chemistry and drug discovery processes

Qualifications

• Postdoc fellowship plus 2 years or a Ph.D. plus 5 years of relevant experience or a Master’s degree plus 14 years of relevant experience or a Bachelor’s degree plus 16 years of relevant experience
• Expertise with physics-based methods, molecular dynamics, conformational analysis, free energy perturbation, and quantum mechanics
• Proficiency in computational chemistry software, such as Schrödinger Suite, Rosetta, AlphaFold, Gromacs, or similar tools
• Experience with ligand-based design approaches, QSAR, QSPR, multiparameter optimization to rationalize SAR and design novel molecules
• Experience with cheminformatics data analysis, data mining and machine learning models to solve drug discovery problems
• Experience in screening library design, hit calling, and diversity analysis is preferred
• A track record of publications, patents and/or conference presentations in computational chemistry and/or drug discovery
• Familiarity in scientific programming (e.g. python, KNIME) and data analytics (Spotfire, DataWarrior, Pandas)
• Excellent problem-solving abilities and the ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic research environment
• Strong communication skills with the ability to convey complex scientific concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

At Eikon, employee compensation also includes bonus and equity compensation, in addition to several generous benefit programs, including:​

• 401k plan with company matching​
• Medical (premiums covered by Eikon at 95%), dental and vision insurance (premiums covered by Eikon at 100%)​
• Mental health and wellness benefits​
• Weeklong summer and winter holiday shutdowns​
• Generous paid time off and holiday policies​
• Life/AD&D Insurance (premiums covered by Eikon at 100%) and optional supplemental employee-paid life/AD&D policies ​
• Enhanced parental leave benefit​
• Daily subsidized lunch program when on-site​

The expected salary range for this role is $139,000 to $152,000 depending on skills, competency, and the market demand for your expertise.

Eikon is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and will consider all qualified applicants for employment.

In accordance with the Company’s duty to provide and maintain a safe workplace, the Company requires all employees to be Fully Vaccinated with one of the FDA approved COVID-19 vaccines, which includes those vaccines that have received the FDA’s emergency use authorization. You will be expected to be Fully Vaccinated as of your Start Date. If you believe that you are exempt from this requirement under an applicable law or regulations, including Americans with Disabilities Act and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, you will need to contact the Company’s Human Resources group. For purposes of this section, Fully Vaccinated means (i) the completion of the vaccination regimen as approved by the FDA (by way of example, 2 doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine and 1 dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine), and (ii) timely receiving booster vaccination, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

We are currently not accepting any new third-party agencies or firms at this time. Please do not forward unsolicited agency resumes to our website, employees or Human Resources. Eikon Therapeutics will not pay fees to any third-party agency or firm associated with unsolicited resumes.