Senior / Principal Scientist, Structural Biology - Target Druggability & Structure-Based Drug Design

Schrdinger; United States; On-site; USD 135,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Healthcare

401k

Flexible schedule

Parental leave

Catered meals

Paid vacation

Job summary

Schrödinger seeks a Senior or Principal Scientist in Structural Biology to shape target tractability strategies and drive structure-based drug design. You’ll identify cryptic binding sites and supervise experimental campaigns across biophysics, biology and chemistry.

Join our Therapeutics Group to work at the interface of computation and experiment, applying Glide, FEP+, and Prime to advance challenging targets and collaborate with cross-functional teams.

Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent with deep experience in structure-based drug design.
• Proven ability to assess and expand oral drug tractability for challenging targets.
• Experience with cryo-EM and/or X-ray crystallography and data interpretation.

Responsibilities

• Define druggability hypotheses by integrating structural, computational, biophysical data.
• Advance computational methods for structure prediction and pocket identification.
• Propose experiments to test and de-risk emerging hypotheses.
• Lead experimental structural biology efforts and manage external CROs as needed.
• Communicate complex rationale to project teams and leadership.

Skills

Structure-based design

Computational biology

Cryptic pocket detection

Target tractability

Education

PhD in Structural Biology or related

Tools

Glide

FEP+

BioLuminate

Prime

Job description

Schrödinger seeks a Senior or Principal Scientist in Structural Biology (Target Druggability and Structure-Based Drug Design) to join us in our mission to transform the discovery of therapeutics and materials! Schrödinger has pioneered a physics-based software platform that enables discovery of high-quality, novel molecules for drug development and materials applications more rapidly and at lower cost compared to traditional methods. The software platform is used by biopharmaceutical and industrial companies, academic institutions, and government laboratories around the world. Our multidisciplinary drug discovery team also leverages the software platform to advance collaborative programs and its own pipeline of novel therapeutics to address unmet medical needs. As a member of our Structural Biology and Target Enablement team in our Therapeutics Group, you’ll partner with Molecular Pharmacologists, Biologists, Medicinal Chemists, and Computational Chemists to define target tractability strategies, identify and validate novel and cryptic binding sites, and design and supervise experimental campaigns to solve unprecedented structures that unlock previously intractable targets. Sitting at the interface of computation and experiment, you’ll be as comfortable proposing in silico-predicted binding site hypotheses as you are designing and executing the experimental structural biology strategies to test them.

Who will love this job?

• A scientist with a track record of success in assessing and expanding oral drug tractability for challenging and undrugged targets
• A structural and computational biology expert who’s familiar with Schrödinger’s platform (Glide, FEP+, BioLuminate, Prime, etc.) or comparable structure-based design software
• A veteran of computational-experimental hybrid work in biotech, pharma, or an SBDD-focused software company
• A researcher who has worked on modality-switch programs (e.g., biologic-to-small-molecule or PROTAC/molecular glue strategies)
• An excellent scientific communicator who has presented target tractability assessments to senior stakeholders and defended hypotheses under scientific scrutiny

What you’ll do:

• Define druggability hypotheses for difficult-to-drug targets by integrating structural, computational, biophysical, and pharmacological evidence
• Apply and advance computational methods, including AI/ML approaches, for structure prediction and refinement, small-molecule binding site identification (including cryptic and transient pockets), pocket druggability scoring, and conformational sampling of target ensembles
• Translate structural and computational insights into actionable hypotheses for medicinal chemistry and biology teams, proposing specific experiments (biophysical, structural, or computational) to test and de-risk emerging druggability hypotheses
• Evaluate and integrate emerging methods (e.g., generative structure prediction, cryptic pocket detection, MD-based ensemble docking, AI-based binding site/ligandability prediction) into practical workflows
• Present target tractability assessments to project teams, portfolio review committees, and leadership, communicating complex structural/computational rationale clearly to non-specialist audiences
• Lead experimental structural biology efforts on active target enablement and drug discovery programs, managing work at external CROs, collaborating with our internal Structural Biology team, and/or directly performing hands‑on experiments at our internal laboratory
• Contribute to Schrödinger’s broader platform strategy, feeding practical, target‑tractability‑driven requirements back into internal software and methods development

What you should have:

• PhD (or equivalent industrial experience) in Structural Biology, Biophysics, Computational Chemistry, or a related discipline
• Deep, hands‑on expertise in structure-based drug design, including practical experience with cryptic/transient binding site identification and pocket druggability assessment
• Working fluency in modern computational structural biology methods, such as AI‑based structure prediction, MD‑based conformational sampling, binding site/pocket detection algorithms, and structure refinement
• Direct experience designing, executing, and interpreting cryo‑EM and/or X‑ray crystallography experiments, including strategies for capturing difficult, dynamic, or novel structural states

Pay and perks

Estimated base salary range: $135,000 - $190,000.

• competitive salary
• stock options
• healthcare (with dental and vision)
• a 401k
• pre-tax commuter benefits
• a flexible work schedule
• a parental leave program
• catered meals in the office
• a company culture that is relaxed but engaged
• over a month of paid vacation time