Senior Lead, Small‑Molecule Discovery & Strategy

1KOMMA5° Commercial Solutions GmbH; Heverlee; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Full social security

Pension scheme

Health-care programme

International, collaborative setting

Personal and professional development

Job summary

VIB in Leuven, Belgium seeks a Senior Drug Discovery Scientist to lead the scientific and strategic direction of early small-molecule programmes, from hit finding through early lead optimisation, with strong project leadership and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

You will work with internal teams and external partners, shaping programmes towards value inflection points for licensing and industry partnerships, using SAR analysis, modelling, and experimental pharmacology, and you will communicate

Qualifications

• PhD in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences or related field required.
• 5–10 years in small-molecule discovery in industry.
• Apply organic/medicinal chemistry to discovery work.
• Use molecular modelling and predictive methods including ML.
• Collaborate with chemists and biologists.
• Led early hit-finding and hit-to-lead with cross-functional teams.
• Fluent English (written and spoken); translational exposure preferred.

Responsibilities

• Establish early-stage small-molecule discovery project teams for assigned programmes.
• Coordinate contributors working on discovery project teams.
• Set the strategy that guides each programme from hit finding into early lead optimisation.
• Determine programme priorities as the discovery work develops.
• Take principal go/no-go decisions shaping movement towards valorisation.
• Incorporate computational approaches into SAR analysis and programme choices.
• Act as discovery-chemistry adviser to VIB's scientific community.
• Provide advice on assay design, hit-matter evaluation, hit expansion, hit-to-lead planning and basic pharmacology.
• Work with VIB research groups and core units, computational and experimental scientists, external advisers and CROs.
• Help steer programmes towards value inflection points relevant to licensing, industry partnerships and new biotechnology ventures.

Skills

Hands-on approach

Proactive problem solving

Networking / collaboration

Independent working

Self-motivated

Willingness to learn

English fluency

Humour

Education

PhD in Chemistry Biochemistry Pharmaceutical Sciences or related

Tools

Molecular modelling

Predictive modelling methods

Machine-learning methods

Biochemical / Cell-based assays

High-throughput screening

Biophysical techniques

Structural biology approaches

Job description

VIB in Leuven, Belgium seeks a Senior Drug Discovery Scientist to lead the scientific and strategic direction of early small-molecule programmes, from hit finding through early lead optimisation, with strong project leadership and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

You will work with internal teams and external partners, shaping programmes towards value inflection points for licensing and industry partnerships, using SAR analysis, modelling, and experimental pharmacology, and you will communicate