Remote Senior Computational Chemist - Drug Discovery Leader

Placements24; Cape Town; Hybrid; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Stock options

Medical insurance

Professional development

Remote-friendly

Job summary

Placements24 seeks a Senior Computational Chemist for a fully remote role within South Africa. You will lead computational drug discovery efforts, perform molecular modeling, docking, and SAR analyses, and work closely with cross-functional teams to accelerate lead optimisation.

The ideal candidate holds a PhD in Computational Chemistry or related field with 5–7 years of hands-on industry experience and strong programming skills in Python or R.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry, Cheminformatics or a closely related field.
• 5–7 years hands-on experience in computational chemistry applied to drug discovery.
• Proficiency with standard computational chemistry software packages (Schrödinger, MOE, GROMACS, AMBER) and data visualization.
• Experience with Python or R for data analysis and workflow automation.

Responsibilities

• Apply computational chemistry techniques (molecular modeling, docking, simulations) to drug discovery projects.
• Design and execute virtual screening strategies for large libraries.
• Develop SAR models to guide lead optimisation.
• Collaborate with medicinal chemists, biologists and pharmacologists to translate insights into experiments.
• Analyze large datasets from high-throughput screening and other sources.
• Develop novel computational methods and workflows for drug discovery challenges.
• Contribute to design of target molecules with desired pharmacology.
• Document findings and contribute to publications.

Skills

Python

R

Independent work

Analytical thinking

Communication

Education

Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry or Cheminformatics

Tools

Schrödinger

MOE

GROMACS

AMBER

Job description

Placements24 seeks a Senior Computational Chemist for a fully remote role within South Africa. You will lead computational drug discovery efforts, perform molecular modeling, docking, and SAR analyses, and work closely with cross-functional teams to accelerate lead optimisation.

The ideal candidate holds a PhD in Computational Chemistry or related field with 5–7 years of hands-on industry experience and strong programming skills in Python or R.