Drug Discovery Project Leader II - Small Molecule

Eurofins; Missouri; On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision benefits

Life and disability insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid vacation and holidays

Job summary

Eurofins USA Discovery Services in the United States seeks an experienced drug discovery leader to drive high‑impact programs from target validation to candidate nomination and IND‑enabling development. The ideal candidate will coordinate cross‑functional teams across oncology, inflammation, neuroscience, and metabolism, delivering robust, client‑driven discovery portfolios.

You will partner with business development, manage budgets, timelines, and resources, and serve as the primary scientific

Qualifications

• 10+ years in drug discovery project leadership across therapeutic areas.
• Experience coordinating cross-functional teams including chemistry, biology, and PK/ADME.
• Proven ability to design and oversee IND-enabling programs.

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery programs from target validation through candidate nomination and IND‑enabling milestones.
• Consult with clients to align research goals and prepare integrated proposals and study packages.
• Develop budgets and resourcing plans; monitor timelines and deliverables.
• Communicate project status to stakeholders and drive continuous improvement.

Skills

Medicinal Chemistry

Biology

DMPK

Drug Discovery Leadership

Cross-functional Leadership

Project Planning

Communication Skills

Team Motivation

Strategic Thinking

Education

MSc or PhD in Biological Sciences

Tools

SharePoint

Microsoft Project

Job description

Eurofins Scientific is an international life sciences company, providing a unique range of analytical testing services to clients across multiple industries, to make life and our environment safer, healthier and more sustainable. From the food you eat, to the water you drink, to the medicines you rely on, Eurofins works with the biggest companies in the world to ensure the products they supply are safe, their ingredients are authentic and labelling is accurate.Eurofins believes it is a global leader in food, environmental, pharmaceutical and cosmetics products testing and in agroscience CRO services. It is also one of the global independent market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, discovery pharmacology, forensics, CDMO, advanced material sciences and in the support of clinical studies.

In over just 30 years, Eurofins has grown from one laboratory in Nantes, France to over 50,000 staff across a network of more than 900 independent companies in over 50 countries and operating more than 800 laboratories. Eurofins offers a portfolio of over 200,000 analytical methods to evaluate the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin, traceability and purity of biological substances and products, as well as providing innovative clinical diagnostic testing services, as one of the leading global emerging players in specialized clinical diagnostics testing.

In 2021, Eurofins generated total revenues of EUR € 6.7 billion, and has been among the best performing stocks in Europe over the past 20 years.

Come join our growing and dynamic team! In this role, you will lead high‑impact drug discovery programs from target validation through candidate selection, translating cutting‑edge science into clinical‑ready compounds.

You’ll bring a strong track record of successfully advancing compounds into clinical development, pairing deep scientific expertise with strategic vision and decisive leadership. Working across Oncology, Inflammation, Neuroscience, Metabolism, and Infectious Diseases, you will play a pivotal role in advancing a diverse and growing portfolio of client-driven programs.

As a central driver of DiscoveryOne® integrated drug discovery projects, you will build and lead dynamic, cross‑functional project teams—uniting Eurofins Discovery scientists with our client partners. By harnessing the full breadth of Eurofins Discovery capabilities, you will design, plan, and execute end‑to‑end discovery strategies that deliver meaningful results for our clients—and ultimately, for patients.

Applicants should have demonstrated experience delivering compounds or biologics to clinical candidate nomination, IND-enabling development, or clinical-stage progression.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Work with the Business Development team to consult with the client as to their requirements, research, help prepare and deliver client integrated drug discovery proposals and IND-enabling proposals. This includes designing screening cascade/work flows – requiring interaction with client, BL key stakeholders and key experts from sites within Eurofins Discovery including pricing team.
• Drive the progress of projects and activities across the relevant sites to ensure timely delivery of data, project milestones and productive relationships with clients.
• Interpret integrated discovery data to enable swift decision making, identify and avoid future risks to enable achievement of timelines, budgets or milestones and support the project team in reaching satisfactory solutions to the clients.
• Act as the key scientific contact in regular communications with client’s project.
• Develop resourcing and budget plans to meet client needs
• Develop and maintain an understanding of Eurofins Discovery capabilities and capacity and the wider capabilities of Eurofins Biopharma Services
• Communicate project status and issues to the management and other stakeholders through meetings and key documents (program timelines, budget breakdowns, vendor management, resourcing etc.)
• Interact with clients, industry peers, suppliers as required. Including customer visits for project meetings and client visits in support of business development.
• Prepare and facilitate the post-project evaluation - ensure lessons learned are shared/implemented across projects and stakeholders as needed, participate in continuous improvement activities.
• Desirable: Provide scientific and strategic guidance to clients during the IND-enabling stage, helping them define appropriate study packages, interpret multidisciplinary data, identify critical gaps and risks, design of integrated proposals, coordination of cross-functional activities and make evidence‑based decisions required to progress compounds toward IND submission.

The ideal candidate:

• Expert user of on-line project and data-management tools (i.e. SharePoint). A background in Medicinal Chemistry, Biology or DMPK - Broad drug discovery expertise from more than 10 years in the industry, covering different therapeutic areas and project phases across multiple target classes and gene families. Track record of leading teams and delivering multiple clinical candidates.
• Demonstrated understanding of the interactions between medicinal chemistry, biology, ADME/DMPK, bioanalysis, in vivo pharmacology, toxicology, and CMC within an integrated drug discovery program.
• Higher degree (MSc or PhD) or equivalent in biological sciences or relevant subject. At least 10 years’ experience of drug discovery project leadership in industry – therapeutic area expertise eg oncology/CNS/metabolism/immunooncology
• Strong project planning, leadership, negotiation and communication skills as well as an ability to contribute creative and practical solutions to problems.
• Excellent organization, communication (oral and written) and attention to detail, committed to quality deliverables and on time
• Passionate about drug discovery with the ability to inspire effective teamwork and motivate staff to obtain project objectives; matrix team player.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team, self-motivation, adaptability, and a positive attitude.
• Resides inCST or EST time zones (as this role will be working closely with team members in the EU)
• Ability to learn new techniques, perform multiple tasks simultaneously, keep accurate records, and comply with company policies.
• Advanced computer skills (word processing, spreadsheets, graphics, power point, project management software, Microsoft project, employment of AI tools etc.)
• Travel is required 10% of the time

The position is full-time, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.- 5 p.m., with overtime as needed.

• Excellent full time benefits including comprehensive medical coverage, dental, and vision options
• Life and disability insurance
• 401(k) with company match
• Paid vacation and holidays

Eurofins USA Discovery Services is a Disabled and Veteran Equal Employment Opportunity employer.