Senior Scientist I, Cheminformatics
Eikon Therapeutics · Millbrae, CA
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
We seek a Senior Scientist with a demonstrated ability of successfully applying Cheminformatics and ML technologies to drive the discovery programs. You will collaborate closely with computational chemists, medicinal chemists, software engineers and machine learning experts to turn assay and structure-activity data into interpretable information for decision making. As an integral member of our Drug Discovery team, you will make a real and direct impact on accelerating the drug discovery process and ultimately benefiting patients.
About You
You’re a cheminformatics 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
- Develop and apply cheminformatics data-mining algorithms for the analysis of molecular modeling, virtual screening, and structure-activity relationship (SAR) analysis.
- Process and analyze chemical and biological datasets to evaluate properties such as drug-likeness, ADMET properties, dosing, etc.
- Utilize molecular fingerprints, descriptors, and similarity metrics for compound clustering, classification, and regression.
- Assist in development, maintenance, and monitoring of AI/ML models used for property prediction.
- Optimize data pipelines for processing and storing chemical structures using cheminformatics toolkits (e.g., RDKit).
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate computational approaches into curation and analysis workflows.
- Maintain best practices in data integrity, reproducibility, and documentation of QSAR AI/ML models.
- Provide guidance on the application of modern cheminformatics, ML/AI methods for library design (e.g. diversity, focused, fragment, DEL) and analyzing large datasets from HTS campaigns to building predictive models from them.
- Routinely employ expert knowledge and analysis of SAR, physiochemical and ADMET properties.
- Work alongside medicinal chemists to further triage emerging hits from HTS.
- Collaborate closely with our data science team to integrate cutting edge AI/ML tools into our chemistry and drug discovery processes.
Qualifications
- Ph.D. plus 5 years of relevant experience; or Master's plus 14 years of relevant experience; or Bachelor's plus 16 years of relevant experience.
- Expertise in cheminformatics data analysis, data mining, and machine learning models to solve drug discovery problems.
- Expertise with ligand-based design approaches, QSAR, multiparameter optimization to rationalize SAR and design novel molecules.
- Expertise in scientific programming languages such as python, with experience using RDKit and other cheminformatic libraries and data analytics (Spotfire, DataWarrior, D360).
- Experience in virtual screening, HTS triaging, hit calling, and diversity analysis.
- Familiar with commercial platforms and ELN/registration systems (Schrödinger, OpenEye, MOE, Dotmatics, DataBricks, KNIME).
- A track record of publications, patents and/or conference presentations in computational chemistry and/or drug discovery.
- 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 $178,000 to $215,250 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.
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.