Night-Shift Organic Chemist — Synthesis & Handoffs + Equity

Capable Labs; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity options

Wellness budget

Health insurance coverage

401K with company match

Daily team dinners

Visa sponsorship

Job summary

Capable Labs is seeking a hands-on organic chemist to run overnight synthesis workflows in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment in San Francisco. You will perform solution- and solid-phase chemistry, ensure complete documentation, and hand off clear results to the day team.

The role emphasizes independent troubleshooting, meticulous record-keeping, and delivering high-quality compounds ready for characterization and testing. Strong safety discipline and ownership are essential for success.

Qualifications

• Able to work designated night-shift schedule reliably and independently.
• Hands-on synthetic chemistry experience and strong experimental discipline.
• Interest in owning overnight chemistry from reaction execution to purification, documentation, and handoff.
• A creative, fast, rigorous, and safety-conscious approach to lab problem-solving.
• Sound judgment when a reaction fails or data looks unusual.

Responsibilities

• Execute overnight synthesis workflows, including route planning, reaction setup, workup, purification, characterization, and sample preparation.
• Run and troubleshoot organic reactions involving functional-group transformations, coupling chemistry, protecting-group strategies, late-stage diversification, and parallel synthesis.
• Use solution-phase and solid-phase methods including cleavage, deprotection, crude analysis, purification, and final quality control.
• Resolve overnight issues involving low conversion, poor selectivity, side products, decomposition, solubility, purification, recovery, and instrument downtime.
• Purify and characterize compounds using HPLC, LC-MS, NMR, and related methods; maintain records.
• Prepare compounds for in vitro and in vivo testing and maintain accurate batch-level quality-control records.
• Provide clear morning handoffs covering completed work, results, failures, sample locations, risks, and follow-up actions.

Skills

Night shift

Synthetic chemistry

Experimental discipline

Record keeping

Hand-off coordination

Tools

HPLC

LC-MS

NMR

Flash chromatography

SFC

Job description

Capable Labs is seeking a hands-on organic chemist to run overnight synthesis workflows in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment in San Francisco. You will perform solution- and solid-phase chemistry, ensure complete documentation, and hand off clear results to the day team.

The role emphasizes independent troubleshooting, meticulous record-keeping, and delivering high-quality compounds ready for characterization and testing. Strong safety discipline and ownership are essential for success.