Senior Discovery Medicinal Chemist – Oncology

IDEAYA Biosciences; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 177,000 - 218,000; Full time

Job summary

IDEAYA Biosciences, a precision medicine oncology company in South San Francisco, is seeking a Principal Research Scientist in Medicinal Chemistry to lead discovery efforts and deliver clinical candidates. You will drive design, synthesis, and optimization of drug-like molecules within cross-functional teams, contributing to innovative oncology programs and maintaining high safety standards.

The role requires a Ph.D.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry with 3-8 years of pharmaceutical industry medicinal chemistry experience.
• Excellent scientific expertise in synthetic organic chemistry, including asymmetric reactions and modern cross-coupling techniques, strong knowledge of modern chemistry literature and in-depth knowledge of purification and spectroscopic characterization techniques.
• Demonstrated ability to maintain high productivity in the lab and synthesize complex structures at pace to impact medicinal chemistry programs.
• Ability to develop new chemistry that is both practical and scalable.
• Ability to multi-task and communicate effectively within cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Apply modern synthetic techniques to prepare complex chemical targets to advance oncology programs and deliver high-quality molecules.
• Design high-confidence reaction sequences that avoid liabilities and reduce difficult purifications.
• Troubleshoot problematic transformations and gather reaction information quickly.
• Plan and multitask in and out of the lab to maintain high productivity.
• Deliver molecules on scales from 10 mg to >25 g.
• Help manage external synthetic chemistry resources for high productivity.
• Follow SAR data and use medicinal chemistry knowledge to propose targets addressing issues in a chemical series.

Skills

Medicinal chemistry

Asymmetric synthesis

Cross-coupling

Purification & spectroscopy

Structure-based design

Education

Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry

Tools

Computational tools

Job description

IDEAYA Biosciences, a precision medicine oncology company in South San Francisco, is seeking a Principal Research Scientist in Medicinal Chemistry to lead discovery efforts and deliver clinical candidates. You will drive design, synthesis, and optimization of drug-like molecules within cross-functional teams, contributing to innovative oncology programs and maintaining high safety standards.

The role requires a Ph.D.