Executive Director - Head of Peptide Macrocycles Medicinal Chemistry

BioSpace; Pasadena (CA); On-site; USD 168,000 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

On-site in Pasadena

Competitive compensation

Comprehensive benefits package

Annual bonus eligibility

Job summary

Lilly in Pasadena, California, is seeking an Executive Director - Head of Peptide Macrocycles Medicinal Chemistry to lead the macrocycle discovery and optimization effort. The role demands strategic vision, robust leadership of a multidisciplinary team, and a track record of advancing macrocycle programs toward candidate designation and clinical development.

The successful candidate will guide medicinal chemistry strategy, collaborate across discovery platforms, mentor junior scientists, and

Qualifications

• PhD in chemistry or related field with significant drug discovery experience.
• Proven leadership of medicinal chemistry and optimization campaigns.
• Expertise in oral macrocycles/macrocyclic peptides and related screening tech.

Responsibilities

• Formulate strategy and execute deep technical development for lead optimization and candidate declaration.
• Lead molecule engineering efforts and cross-functional collaboration.
• Mentor junior scientists and manage milestones within Protomer’s portfolio; ensure timely delivery of clinical candidates.

Skills

Leadership

Medicinal chemistry

Macrocycle chemistry

Team management

Strategic planning

Molecule optimization

Computational design/AI in drug design

Education

PhD in chemistry or related field

Job description

At Lilly, the work is demanding because patients are waiting. We unite caring with discovery to help make life better for people around the world, knowing that every decision, every detail, and every day matters. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, our over 50,000 employees around the globe take on complex challenges to discover and deliver life-changing medicines, strengthen how health is understood and managed, and support the communities we serve. This is hard, urgent, selfless work—but it’s work worth doing. If you’re driven by purpose and ready to bring your best to work that truly matters for patients, we invite you to join us.

Organization Overview

At Lilly, we serve an extraordinary purpose. For 150 years, we have worked tirelessly to discover medicines that make life better. These discoveries start in Lilly Research Laboratories, where our scientists work to create new medicines that will help solve our world’s greatest health challenges. Protomer Technologies is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lilly, a startup within Lilly Research Labs, based in Pasadena California, that focuses on chemical biology, molecular switches and oral macrocycles.

This position is for Executive Director - Head of Peptide Macrocycles Medicinal Chemistry. The successful candidate is expected to oversee the medicinal chemistry and lead optimization efforts across all macrocycle programs, and lead the group working closely with the macrocycle discovery team to advance hit compounds and early leads to candidate designation. The macrocycle optimization group will use internal platforms and synthetic peptide chemistry to optimize for ADME, stability, permeability and other desirable characteristics, and in-depth understanding of the molecular engineering and structure-guided medicinal chemistry optimization required to achieve drug candidates for portfolio facing projects.

Demonstrated success in oral macrocycle is required, and successful candidate must have a complete understanding and proven successful track record of leading teams in medicinal chemistry and optimization campaigns having advanced multiple programs to candidate stage and to the clinic.

The candidate is expected to help develop strategy, direction and manage scientific group milestones and objectives based on an ambitious long-term strategic plan which the candidate helps to develop. The ideal candidate is a significant contributor and leading a highly integrated, agile, and collaborative team effort and expected to manage the scientific portfolio, the business supporting the portfolio, and mentoring of junior scientists within the oral macrocycles group at Protomer. Ideal candidate is expected to have demonstrated success in similar roles with proven track record of leading both scientific rationale, planning and execution leading to success in making medicines.

Responsibilities

Formulate strategy and execute on the strategy organizing team efforts for deep technical development and to accelerate from target hits through lead optimization towards candidate declaration.

Lead the team on and lead (both directionally and operationally) molecule engineering efforts.

Inspire people, be an effective team leader, and collaborate in inventing great medicines by removing barriers, committing to high quality scientific hypotheses, and accelerating where possible. Keep safety as a top priority at all times, striving toward a proactive safety culture.

Basic Requirements

PhD in chemistry or synthetic chemistry or peptide chemistry or related field with significant successful drug discovery and development experience. Deep knowledge as well as mastery of the latest developments in oral macrocycles and macrocyclic peptides.

Have extensive background and provident track record of work in synthetic chemistry and mRNA display to lead teams to develop oral macrocycle compounds towards lead deceleration and beyond. Understand the challenges and has the ability to plan and lead the team on oral macrocycle lead optimization efforts, can formulate strategy and execute on the strategy organizing team efforts for deep technical development and to accelerate from hits to lead optimization and candidate declaration.

Significant knowledge in oral macrocycles, based on library-based screening technologies including at least one of OBOC, solution-phase, AS/MS, mRNA display or related peptide library screening technologies as well as deep understanding of the medicinal chemistry considerations required to advance hits through lead optimization. Proven track record of success with specific programs.

Must have demonstrated leadership in development of new medicines, ideally have worked on peptide efforts in both library-based screening technologies and design of strategies for lead optimization. Familiarity with state of the art in computational and structural efforts for lead optimization in macrocyclic peptides is a must.

Must have deep scientific expertise and demonstrated ability to lead a team of scientists from within therapeutic/functional areas with a proven track record of delivering candidate molecules into clinical testing. Must have developed molecules from conceptual stage-hit stage all the way to putting them into the clinic and demonstrated track record of success in drug development.

Experience and demonstrated success in developing novel drugs, peptides or proteins that have been successful in the clinic is required.

Additional Skills/Preferences

Great understanding of medicinal approach as well as computational and AI/machine learning techniques used for the development and engineering of oral macrocyclic peptide medicines

Candidate will understand the whole drug discovery process including lead generation and lead optimization and will partner with cross functional groups including therapeutic areas, ADME, nonclinical safety assessment and PK/PD. Demonstrated deep expertise in drug development with a proven track record of success.

Demonstrated ability to make decisions in the midst of ambiguity, seeking appropriate level of information from Protomer leadership and enabling workforce to execute for and contribute to Protomer team’s strategic priorities.

Must be an excellent team player, strong attention to detail, strong problem-solving skills, a high level of learning agility, with the ability to lead within a globally matrixed organization and across functions.

Open, transparent and able to communicate equally well with employees, team members and cross-functional and/or senior leadership. Team oriented mindset, pleasant to work with and a leader that develops next generation talent as well as delivers results.

Ability to think strategically, actively identifying gaps in competencies or capabilities within the organization and taking initiative to drive continuous improvement across Protomer.

Additional Information

Some domestic and international travel is anticipated and expected.

Work is on-site and the team is located in Pasadena, California.

Lilly is dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities to actively engage in the workforce, ensuring equal opportunities when vying for positions. If you require accommodation to submit a resume for a position at Lilly, please complete the accommodation request form (https://careers.lilly.com/us/en/workplace-accommodation) for further assistance. Please note this is for individuals to request an accommodation as part of the application process and any other correspondence will not receive a response.

Lilly is proud to be an EEO Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, gender expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, ancestry, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Our employee resource groups (ERGs) offer strong support networks for their members and are open to all employees. Our current groups include: Africa, Middle East, Central Asia (AMECA), Black Employees at Lilly (BE@Lilly), Chinese Culture Network (CCN), EnAble, Evolve, Lilly Indian Network (LIN), Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), Pride (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN) and Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL).

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location. The anticipated wage for this position is $168,000 - $290,400

Full-time equivalent employees also will be eligible for a company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance). In addition, Lilly offers a comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees, including eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k); pension; vacation benefits; eligibility for medical, dental, vision and prescription drug benefits; flexible benefits (e.g., healthcare and/or dependent day care flexible spending accounts); life insurance and death benefits; certain time off and leave of absence benefits; and well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities). Lilly reserves the right to amend, modify, or terminate its compensation and benefit programs in its sole discretion and Lilly’s compensation practices and guidelines will apply regarding the details of any promotion or transfer of Lilly employees.

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