Medicinal Chemist — Drug Discovery & SAR Innovator

Placements24; Pretoria; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,400,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Generous annual leave

Professional development

Access to advanced labs

Medical aid contributions

Job summary

Placements24 in Pretoria, Gauteng, is seeking a Medicinal Chemist to join their drug discovery team. You will design, synthesize and optimize small molecules with therapeutic potential, contributing to early-stage NCE discovery in a collaborative, high-caliber research environment.

You will work with biologists and pharmacologists, use computational tools, develop SAR/SPR relationships, and ensure scalable synthetic routes.

Qualifications

• PhD in Organic or Medicinal Chemistry with strong focus on synthesis.
• Experience in medicinal chemistry within pharma/biotech.
• Ability to design and synthesize complex organic molecules.
• Familiarity with computational chemistry and structure-based design is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Design and synthesize novel small molecule compounds for various therapeutic targets.
• Optimize lead compounds through iterative cycles of design, synthesis, and biological testing.
• Utilize computational chemistry tools and structure-based drug design principles to guide compound design.
• Collaborate with biologists and pharmacologists to establish SAR/SPR relationships.
• Develop and troubleshoot synthetic routes for target molecules, ensuring scalable processes.
• Characterize synthesized compounds using NMR, MS, and HPLC.
• Maintain accurate laboratory notebooks and contribute to research reports and publications.
• Stay current with advancements in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery.

Skills

Molecule design

Complex synthesis

SAR/SPR knowledge

Computational chemistry

Analytical techniques

Education

PhD in Organic or Medicinal Chemistry

Tools

NMR

Mass Spectrometry

HPLC

Job description

Placements24 in Pretoria, Gauteng, is seeking a Medicinal Chemist to join their drug discovery team. You will design, synthesize and optimize small molecules with therapeutic potential, contributing to early-stage NCE discovery in a collaborative, high-caliber research environment.

You will work with biologists and pharmacologists, use computational tools, develop SAR/SPR relationships, and ensure scalable synthetic routes.