Senior Cheminformatics Lead — Drug Discovery & Design

Placements24; Durban; Hybrid; ZAR 1,200,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Health, retirement, and life insurance

Generous paid time off

Training and conference participation

Access to computational resources

Collaborative research environment

Job summary

Placements24 in Durban, South Africa, seeks a Principal Cheminformatician to lead early-stage drug discovery. You will develop and deploy advanced cheminformatics tools, analyze large chemical datasets, and guide synthetic chemistry efforts within a multidisciplinary team.

The role requires a PhD and 8+ years in pharma/biotech, with expertise in SMILES, Molfile, RDKit, KNIME, Schrödinger, Python and Java, plus machine learning for chemical data.

Qualifications

• PhD in Cheminformatics, Computational Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Computer Science, or related field.
• Minimum 8 years of relevant experience in the pharmaceutical or biotech industry.
• Expertise in chemical data representation (SMILES, Molfile) and analysis.
• Strong proficiency with cheminformatics toolkits and programming (Python, Java).
• Demonstrated experience with machine learning applied to chemical data.
• Solid understanding of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery processes.
• Experience with molecular modeling, docking, and QSAR is advantageous.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving and communication skills; able to lead in Durban.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and application of cheminformatics strategies for drug discovery projects.
• Design, implement, and validate predictive models for activity, selectivity, and ADMET properties.
• Develop and maintain large-scale chemical databases and knowledge management systems.
• Apply machine learning and statistical methods to analyze SAR and guide lead optimization.
• Collaborate with medicinal chemists to design novel molecules with desired pharmacological profiles.
• Evaluate and implement new cheminformatics software and technologies.
• Visualize and interpret complex chemical and biological data to derive actionable insights.
• Mentor junior cheminformaticians and contribute to scientific publications and presentations.
• Stay current with emerging trends and methodologies in cheminformatics and drug discovery.

Skills

Python

Java

Machine learning

QSAR

Molecular modeling

Chemical data analysis

Leadership

Education

PhD in Cheminformatics / related field

Tools

RDKit

KNIME

Schrödinger Suite

Job description

Placements24 in Durban, South Africa, seeks a Principal Cheminformatician to lead early-stage drug discovery. You will develop and deploy advanced cheminformatics tools, analyze large chemical datasets, and guide synthetic chemistry efforts within a multidisciplinary team.

The role requires a PhD and 8+ years in pharma/biotech, with expertise in SMILES, Molfile, RDKit, KNIME, Schrödinger, Python and Java, plus machine learning for chemical data.