Scientist I, Medicinal Chemistry

Unnatural Products Inc.; Santa Cruz (CA); On-site; USD 135,000 - 155,000; Full time

Job summary

Unnatural Products Inc. in Santa Cruz, CA, is seeking a Scientist I, Medicinal Chemistry to join our growing Chemistry team.

You will apply macrocyclic peptide synthesis strategies to support discovery and proprietary platform efforts, reporting to the Director of Medicinal Chemistry. The role involves collaboration with data science, biology, pharmacology, and platform chemistry teams to design and advance novel chemical matter, with a focus on bRo5 therapeutics and slide-to-lead progression.

Qualifications

• PhD or MS with extensive hands-on lab experience in synthesis and peptide chemistry.
• Strong foundations in synthetic organic chemistry and/or peptide chemistry with hands-on lab expertise.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, synthesize, purify macrocyclic peptides from sub-milligram through gram scale for drug discovery.
• Utilize automated peptide synthesizers and parallel platforms to generate high-quality chemical matter.
• Optimize peptide synthesis, cyclization, purification, and analytic workflows for efficiency and scalability.
• Develop and implement novel synthetic strategies to access new peptide scaffolds.
• Collaborate with medicinal chemists to interpret SAR and design hypotheses.
• Support CRO chemistry workflows and communicate synthetic priorities.
• Mentor colleagues and contribute to a collaborative laboratory environment.
• Coordinate with biology, pharmacology, computational science, software to align projects.
• Present results to internal teams via reports and meetings.
• Contribute to ongoing development of UNP’s parallel synthetic platform.

Skills

Synthesis & peptide chemistry

Analytical methods (HPLC/LC-MS/NMR)

Scientific communication

Problem solving

Education

PhD in Chemistry

MS in Chemistry

Tools

HPLC

Flash chromatography

SPE

LC-MS

NMR

Job description

Reports To: Director of Medicinal Chemistry

Employment Type: Full-Time, Exempt

About the Company

Unnatural Products (UNP) is an integrated biotech company at the forefront of macrocyclic peptide drug discovery. Our mission is delivering first-in-class macrocycle therapeutics for high impact disease areas. UNP's approach couples machine learning-based in silico tools with massively parallel peptide chemistry to enable the discovery and rapid optimization of highly non-natural macrocyclic peptides aimed at extracellular targets, undruggable intracellular targets, and beyond.

Based in Santa Cruz, CA, we are a passionate team of scientists and operators doing high-quality science in a beautiful setting—where innovation and work-life balance go hand in hand. Come shape the future of UNP with us!

The Role

UNP is seeking a Scientist I, Medicinal Chemistry to join our growing Chemistry team and help define and create the next generation of beyond Rule of Five (bRo5) therapeutics< b >. This highly hands-on role will apply contemporary macrocyclic peptide synthesis strategies and emerging synthetic methodologies to support both our discovery pipeline and proprietary platform. Reporting to the Director, Medicinal Chemistry, the successful candidate will leverage their expertise in synthesis and medicinal chemistry to contribute across hit finding, hit-to-lead, and lead optimization<,> designing and advancing novel chemical matter while developing their skills as a drug discovery scientist.

This role is highly collaborative and will interact daily with our data science and computational teams to support interpretation and molecular design, biology and pharmacology teams to develop assay workflows that enable in vivo translation, and platform chemistry team to push the boundaries of parallel chemistry and library synthesis<.> This is an opportunity to work at the intersection of chemistry, biology, and computation while contributing directly to innovative macrocyclic peptide programs and helping expand what is possible within the bRo5 drug space.

What the Role Involves

• Design, synthesize, purify, and characterize macrocyclic peptides from sub-milligram through gram scale, supporting active drug discovery programs.
• Utilize automated peptide synthesizers and UNP’s proprietary parallel synthetic platform to efficiently generate high-quality chemical matter.
• Optimize peptide synthesis, cyclization, purification, and analytical workflows to improve efficiency, reproducibility, and scalability.
• Develop and implement novel synthetic strategies to overcome challenging chemistry and enable access to new peptide scaffolds and chemical space.
• Collaborate with other medicinal chemists to interpret SAR, develop design hypotheses, and generate high-quality chemical matter.
• Contribute to CRO chemistry workflows and coordination, including communicating synthetic priorities and reviewing external results.
• Support and mentor colleagues as appropriate while contributing to a highly collaborative laboratory environment.
• Work closely with the biology, pharmacology, computational science, software, and de-novo teams to coordinate research activities and execute against project goals .
• Communicate results to internal teams and managers in the form of presentations, reports, and ad-hoc meetings or calls.
• Contribute to the continued development and optimization of UNP’s proprietary parallel synthetic platform.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Qualifications:

• Ph.D. in Chemistry or related field with 0+ years of relevant industry experience; or a M.S. in Chemistry with 7+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Strong foundations in synthetic organic chemistry and/or peptide chemistry, with demonstrated hands-on laboratory expertise.
• Proficient in purification techniques, including HPLC/flash chromatography/SPE
• Experience with analytical methods, including HPLC/LC-MS and NMR
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to clearly communicate scientific results and interpretations.
• Highly self-motivated and proactive when it comes to identifying and solving problems and helping team members
• Accountable, meticulous with attention to detail, and able to multitask
• Must be willing to work onsite, Monday-Friday, 5 days per week

Optional preferred experience:

• Experience synthesizing peptide macrocycles on solid phase resin.
• Experience with peptide design, including SAR studies and scaffold optimization.
• Experience with peptide library design and synthesis, including split and pool library synthesis, and library synthesis with non-canonical amino acids.
• Experience managing, training or mentoring junior colleagues.
• Experience with complex organic synthesis, including transition metal catalysis and synthesis of non-canonical amino acids.
• Experience working with CROs or other external scientific partners.
• Experience with structure-based drug design and medicinal chemistry principles.

Why Join Us?

You will have to have an opportunity to help shape the future of a company on the rise. As a Scientist I, Medicinal Chemistry you will have the ability to help define and shape the next generation of peptide drugs. We value integrity, transparency, curiosity, and a collaborative spirit. If you are passionate about peptides, medicinal chemistry and are highly self-motivated, we’d love to talk.

The salary range for the Scientist I position is $135,000 to $155,000. Title and compensation will be competitive and commensurate with the candidate's career experience, qualifications, and the responsibilities of the position.

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants and welcome individuals of all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. All employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability status, or any other status protected by law.