Medicinal Chemist I - Early-Stage Drug Discovery

Cytokinetics; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 135,000 - 158,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Health insurance

Dental

Vision

Life and disability insurance

Job summary

Cytokinetics, a specialty cardiovascular biopharmaceutical company, is seeking a Scientist I in Medicinal Chemistry to contribute hands-on synthesis and compound design within multidisciplinary project teams in South San Francisco.

Reporting to the Medicinal Chemistry group, you will rapidly synthesize drug candidates, apply multi-parameter optimization, and collaborate closely with biology and DMPK to advance optimization programs toward clinical development, while documenting results in the

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Organic or Medicinal Chemistry or M.S. with relevant industry experience.
• Expertise in organic synthesis, chromatographic purification, and compound characterization (NMR, MS, HPLC).
• Growing proficiency in multi-parameter optimization and hypothesis-driven problem-solving.
• Ability to incorporate computational chemistry tools to support compound design.

Responsibilities

• Design and synthesize novel compounds to advance optimization programs toward clinical development.
• Apply multi-parameter optimization and structure-based design principles to guide compound selection.
• Collaborate with biology, DMPK, and computational chemistry teams; communicate progress in project meetings.
• Document experimental records thoroughly in the electronic lab notebook.

Skills

Organic synthesis

Purification methods

Compound characterization

Multi-parameter optimization

Computational chemistry

MOE

Structure-based design

Communication skills

Education

Ph.D. in Organic or Medicinal Chemistry

M.S. with relevant industry experience

Tools

NMR

MS

HPLC

MOE

Job description

Cytokinetics, a specialty cardiovascular biopharmaceutical company, is seeking a Scientist I in Medicinal Chemistry to contribute hands-on synthesis and compound design within multidisciplinary project teams in South San Francisco.

Reporting to the Medicinal Chemistry group, you will rapidly synthesize drug candidates, apply multi-parameter optimization, and collaborate closely with biology and DMPK to advance optimization programs toward clinical development, while documenting results in the