Senior Cheminformatics Lead - Drug Discovery

Placements24; Pretoria; Hybrid; ZAR 1,200,000 - 2,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Placements24 in Pretoria seeks a Principal Cheminformatician to lead drug discovery initiatives, overseeing cheminformatics strategy, data pipelines, and collaboration with chemists and biologists. The role focuses on molecular modeling, virtual screening, and data mining to accelerate candidate optimization.

The successful candidate will mentor junior scientists, manage large chemical datasets, and drive data quality and reproducibility across projects in a fast-paced biopharma environment.

Qualifications

• PhD in Cheminformatics, Computational Chemistry, CS, or related quantitative field.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deploy cheminformatics tools to support drug discovery.
• Manage and analyze large-scale chemical libraries and activity data.
• Implement virtual screening, QSAR modeling, and predictive methods.
• Collaborate with medicinal chemists to design novel molecules.
• Mentor junior cheminformaticians and promote data-driven culture.
• Ensure data quality and accessibility for research teams.

Skills

Python

R

Data analysis

Problem solving

Education

Ph.D. in Cheminformatics/Computational Chemistry/CS or related

Tools

RDKit

OpenBabel

SQL

NoSQL

Job description

Placements24 in Pretoria seeks a Principal Cheminformatician to lead drug discovery initiatives, overseeing cheminformatics strategy, data pipelines, and collaboration with chemists and biologists. The role focuses on molecular modeling, virtual screening, and data mining to accelerate candidate optimization.

The successful candidate will mentor junior scientists, manage large chemical datasets, and drive data quality and reproducibility across projects in a fast-paced biopharma environment.