Senior Director - Computational Drug Discovery

Freelio; Denmark; Hybrid; DKK 1,800,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Job summary

Zealand Pharma A/S in Copenhagen, Denmark, invites a Senior Director, Computational Drug Discovery to mentor a global team across Copenhagen and Cambridge. You will set the vision, drive computational strategy, and align with Chemistry, DMPK, and AI initiatives to accelerate pipeline decisions.

You will lead cross-functional collaboration, foster innovation, and contribute to FAIR data foundations, MLops, and foundation models, shaping how computational science shortens the path from concept to

Qualifications

• Ph.D. (or equivalent) in Computational Chemistry/Biology/Structural Biology or a life sciences field.
• 10+ years of biopharma R&D experience.
• At least 2 years of people leadership experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a global computational drug discovery team across two sites.
• Set vision and drive computational strategy to support multi-modal pipelines.
• Guide portfolio prioritization and target evaluation with a computational lens.
• Contribute to FAIR data foundations, MLops, and foundation models integration.
• Represent and collaborate with cross-functional teams to accelerate development.

Skills

Structure modeling

Molecular modeling

Docking

Pharmacology

Generative design

Team leadership

ML/AI in drug discovery

Education

Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry/Biology/Structural Biology

Tools

MD simulations

Cryo-EM/X-ray data analysis

FAIR data

MLops

Job description

Does it excite you to work with computational and AI methods at the forefront of multi-modality drug discovery, and do you have experience leading computational scientists and applying structure-based design, machine learning, and generative modeling to real pipeline decisions? If this sounds like you, and you are ready to take on a broad area of responsibilities, then you could be our new colleague.

Your new position

As Senior Director, Computational Drug Discovery, you will mentor and grow a global team across two sites — Cambridge, USA and Copenhagen, DK — setting the vision and driving the computational strategy to support Zealand's multi-modal pipeline including peptides, small molecules and antibodies. Partnering closely with Molecular Platform and Medicinal Chemistry teams, you will build the people, processes and advanced computational methods needed to strengthen in-silico validation of hypotheses and prioritize the molecules that get synthesized and tested. This is first and foremost a people leadership role: your success will be measured as much by the team you build and grow as by the science you help advance.

We offer exciting responsibilities:

• Build, mentor, and grow a world-class team across Copenhagen, DK and Cambridge, USA, investing in the development of computational scientists while working side by side with medicinal chemists, protein engineers, structural biologists, molecular pharmacologists, PharmDev, and DMPK to ensure that computational science meaningfully shortens the time from concept to development candidate
• Serve as Chemistry Lead or Research Project Leader (RPL) for one or more programs and contribute computational leadership across the wider research portfolio
• Contribute to target evaluation, modality selection, and portfolio prioritization, bringing a computational lens to whether a target is tractable and with what
• Guide your team's contributions to ensure robust progression of candidates, applying clear understanding of pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, ADME, immunogenicity, and developability, including computational input into DMPK risk and CMC-relevant properties
• Contribute to Zealand's Research AI strategy and execution, building and contributing to FAIR data foundations, MLops and reproducible scientific computing, LLM integration and agentic orchestration and evaluation, and evaluation, training and deployment of domain specific foundation models
• Cultivate strategic academic, biotech, and tech collaborations, represent Zealand at conferences, consortia, and external innovation forums, and contribute to business development and licensing efforts where computational and chemistry diligence is required

Your profile

You are an inclusive, collaborative leader who combines deep quantitative expertise in drug discovery with strategic portfolio and pipeline focus, and the ability to tactically integrate emerging and classical methods to develop innovative fit-for-purpose solutions. Beyond technical proficiency, you bring at least 2 years of people leadership experience, and you are adaptable, agile, and an excellent collaborator who thrives in a fast-moving, multi-site environment. You can lead a diverse team of computational scientists and influence and engage with broad functional teams across geographies. You have a Ph.D. (or equivalent advanced degree) in Computational Chemistry/Biology/Structural Biology or a relevant life sciences discipline, with 10+ years of biopharma R&D experience. As a technical leader, you bring credibility to guide and coach your team through hands-on expertise in at least two of the following areas:

• Structure prediction & modeling: co-folding and structure prediction, homology and complex modeling, and integration with experimental cryo-EM and X-ray data, with rigorous evaluation of confidence metrics and their limitations, applied to antibody (CDR-loop prediction, paratope/epitope analysis) and peptide/macrocyclic design, as well as target assessment and druggability
• Structure and ligand based drug design: docking and physics-based modeling (MD, FEP/TI, QM/MM) for relative and absolute binding, with rigorous understanding of the applicability domains of different methods and how to combine approaches where any single method falls short, plus sequence-activity modeling, permeability and half-life analysis for peptides, and embeddings for peptide sequence space
• Pharmacology, ADMET/DMPK and developability prediction: including half-life, solubility, stability, aggregation propensity, immunogenicity risk, developability, and affinity/selectivity analysis
• Generative design: diffusion- and language-model-based protein/binder generation, generating foundation-model embeddings for natural and non-natural peptides, and awareness of adjacent modalities (siRNA, oligonucleotides)

You are an inclusive leader who builds bridges across diverse teams and disciplines, and is passionate about mentoring and developing talent. You understand the key role of computational sciences in driving portfolio strategy and can bring ideas to impact with discipline and urgency. You are technology-forward, with demonstrated adoption of FAIR data principles, and advocate for integrating LLMs and biological foundation models spanning biologics and chemistry space in drug discovery. You understand how to apply machine learning methods to accelerate the DMTA cycle, and how to evaluate published models for calibration, pitfalls/limitations, and performance against qualified benchmarks.

Your new team

This role leads a computational drug discovery team across two sites and reports to the Head of Research AI and Computational Sciences. You will be responsible for leading a team that is willing to push the scientific boundaries, and you will be entrusted with leading innovation while delivering critical pipeline deliverables.

Let's bond and be bold

We have a unique culture, characterized by excellent teamwork and strong engagement across the organization. And we want you to help us strengthen this culture. Making bonds is at the core of everything we do. From discovering and developing the best new peptide drugs for patients, to engaging with our partners or connecting with each other. We bond through curiosity and playfulness as a team, allowing ourselves to challenge common thinking and drive future innovation. Join us and let's bond and be bold.

For further information about the position, please contact Vice President, Research AI and Computational Sciences, Dipen Sangurdekar, [email].

We are committed to an inclusive recruitment process and welcome applications from all job applicants.

About Zealand Pharma A/S

Zealand Pharma A/S (Nasdaq: ZEAL) is a biotechnology company focused on advancing medicines for obesity and metabolic health. Combining more than 25 years of peptide R&D expertise with a proprietary data platform that leverages advanced data-driven and AI/ML approaches, Zealand Pharma aims to lead a new era in obesity and metabolic health. To date, more than ten Zealand Pharma-invented drug candidates have entered clinical development, of which two products have reached the market and three candidates are in late-stage development. The Company has collaborations with global pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners for research, development, and commercialization. Founded in 1998, Zealand Pharma is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a U.S. presence in Boston, Massachusetts. Learn more at www.zealandpharma.com.