Senior Computational Chemist and Team Lead – Drug Discovery

Placements24; Durban; Hybrid; ZAR 1,000,000 - 1,600,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Executive bonus

Healthcare coverage

Retirement plan

Career growth

Cutting-edge resources

Relocation assistance

Paid time off

High-impact programs

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking a Lead Computational Chemist in Durban to spearhead strategic computational chemistry initiatives for drug discovery. You will mentor a team, shape research directions, and collaborate with medicinal chemistry, biology, and pharmacology to accelerate candidate optimization.

The ideal candidate holds a PhD and 7+ years in computational chemistry within pharma/biotech, with expertise in docking, virtual screening, MD, and QM/MM, plus strong Python scripting and leadership

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry, Cheminformatics, Physical Chemistry, or related field.
• Minimum 7 years of experience in computational chemistry within pharma/biotech.
• Proficiency in docking, virtual screening, molecular dynamics, QM/MM techniques.
• Strong skills with Schrödinger/MOE/Discovery Studio; Python for automation.
• Proven leadership experience and excellent communication.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of computational chemists.
• Develop and implement advanced computational chemistry strategies (docking, VS, QSAR).
• Design in silico experiments for ADMET, target interactions, and SAR insights.
• Collaborate with medicinal chemistry to guide synthesis and data interpretation.
• Integrate computational results with experimental data to refine SAR.
• Manage cheminformatics databases and analysis tools.
• Stay updated with advances in computational chemistry and drug discovery.
• Contribute to project strategy, resource planning, and publications.
• Present findings to project teams and senior management.
• Ensure timely execution of computational tasks to support discovery.

Skills

Python scripting

Team leadership

Analytical thinking

Communication & presentation

Publications/Patents

Education

PhD in Computational Chemistry or related

Tools

Schrödinger

MOE

Discovery Studio

Job description

Placements24 is seeking a Lead Computational Chemist in Durban to spearhead strategic computational chemistry initiatives for drug discovery. You will mentor a team, shape research directions, and collaborate with medicinal chemistry, biology, and pharmacology to accelerate candidate optimization.

The ideal candidate holds a PhD and 7+ years in computational chemistry within pharma/biotech, with expertise in docking, virtual screening, MD, and QM/MM, plus strong Python scripting and leadership