Senior API Chemistry Lead - Hybrid Pharma Process Development

Placements24; Vereeniging; Hybrid; ZAR 1,000,000 - 1,400,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement plans

Performance bonus

Relocation assistance

Hybrid work model

Job summary

Placements24 in Vereeniging, Gauteng, seeks a Senior Synthetic Organic Chemist to lead API development. You will design, optimize, and scale up complex synthetic routes for drug candidates, working hybridly between lab research in Vereeniging and remote analytical planning.

The ideal candidate holds a PhD in Organic/Synthetic Chemistry with 5+ years in pharmaceutical process development, including asymmetric synthesis and catalysis, and will mentor junior staff while ensuring cGMP compliance and

Qualifications

• PhD in Organic or Synthetic Chemistry or related field.
• Minimum 5 years post-PhD experience in pharmaceutical process development.
• Experience designing and executing complex multi-step syntheses.
• Strong knowledge of modern synthetic methodologies including asymmetric synthesis.
• Hands-on with analytical techniques NMR, HPLC, GC-MS, LC-MS.
• Familiarity with process safety evaluation and scale-up considerations.
• Experience in cGMP environments is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Design and execute multi-step routes for novel pharmaceutical compounds.
• Optimize reaction conditions for yield, purity, and scalability.
• Develop and validate analytical methods for characterization.
• Troubleshoot synthetic challenges and explore alternative pathways.
• Collaborate with process engineers for tech transfer to pilot scale.
• Maintain detailed lab notebooks and prepare technical reports.
• Mentor junior chemists and provide technical guidance.

Skills

Multi-step synthesis

Catalysis

Asymmetric synthesis

Organometallic chemistry

Analytical methods

Process safety

Scale-up

cGMP

Education

Ph.D. in Organic/Synthetic Chemistry

Tools

NMR

HPLC

GC-MS

LC-MS

Job description

Placements24 in Vereeniging, Gauteng, seeks a Senior Synthetic Organic Chemist to lead API development. You will design, optimize, and scale up complex synthetic routes for drug candidates, working hybridly between lab research in Vereeniging and remote analytical planning.

The ideal candidate holds a PhD in Organic/Synthetic Chemistry with 5+ years in pharmaceutical process development, including asymmetric synthesis and catalysis, and will mentor junior staff while ensuring cGMP compliance and