Senior Computational Chemist — Drug Discovery Lead (Soweto)

Placements24; Soweto; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Health benefits

Paid time off

Retirement savings plan

Job summary

Placements24 seeks a Senior Computational Chemist to join its multidisciplinary R&D team in Soweto. The role focuses on leveraging computational methods to drive drug discovery and optimize chemical processes, with emphasis on molecular modeling, QSAR, and virtual screening.

Ideal candidates hold a Ph.D. with 5–7 years in computational chemistry, proficient in Schrodinger, MOE, and Python, and able to communicate complex results to both computational and experimental teams.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry, Cheminformatics, Physical Chemistry, or a related field is required.
• A minimum of 5–7 years of experience in computational chemistry, preferably in pharma/biotech.
• Strong experience with molecular modeling, virtual screening, and QSAR.
• Proficiency in Python and data analysis; ability to communicate results clearly.

Responsibilities

• Develop and apply computational chemistry techniques to support drug discovery programs.
• Design and analyze virtual screening campaigns to identify lead compounds.
• Assist in rational design of molecules with improved properties.
• Collaborate with medicinal chemists, biologists, and other computational scientists to integrate insights.
• Maintain cheminformatics databases and analysis tools.
• Evaluate new software and methodologies for computational chemistry.
• Present results to computational and experimental teams.
• Stay updated on advances via literature and conferences.

Skills

Molecular modeling

QSAR modeling

Virtual screening

Python scripting

Data analysis

Scientific communication

Education

Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry or related field

Tools

Schrodinger

MOE

Discovery Studio

Amber

Job description

Placements24 seeks a Senior Computational Chemist to join its multidisciplinary R&D team in Soweto. The role focuses on leveraging computational methods to drive drug discovery and optimize chemical processes, with emphasis on molecular modeling, QSAR, and virtual screening.

Ideal candidates hold a Ph.D. with 5–7 years in computational chemistry, proficient in Schrodinger, MOE, and Python, and able to communicate complex results to both computational and experimental teams.