Senior Medicinal Chemist — Drug Discovery (Hybrid)

Placements24; Stellenbosch; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement savings plan

Hybrid work model

Performance bonuses

Job summary

Placements24 is assisting a leading pharmaceutical company in Stellenbosch, Western Cape, to recruit a Senior Pharmaceutical Chemist for their Drug Discovery team. You will drive the identification, synthesis, and optimization of novel small molecules from hit identification through lead optimization.

The ideal candidate holds a PhD in Organic/Medicinal Chemistry with 5+ years in drug discovery, strong SAR/ADMET knowledge, and hands-on experience with NMR, LC-MS, and HPLC.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Organic/Medicinal Chemistry required.
• 5+ years post-PhD in drug discovery or industry.
• Expertise in multi-step synthesis and stereoselective reactions.
• Strong SAR and ADMET understanding.
• Experience with NMR, LC-MS and HPLC.
• Ability to manage multiple research projects.

Responsibilities

• Design and synthesize novel small molecules with therapeutic activity.
• Optimize lead compounds for potency, selectivity, PK and safety.
• Collaborate with biologists, pharmacologists and DMPK scientists.
• Develop scalable synthetic routes for manufacturing.
• Characterize compounds using NMR/LC-MS/HPLC and assess purity.
• Maintain meticulous electronic lab notebook records.
• Contribute to patents and scientific publications.
• Mentor junior chemists in the team.
• Participate in target validation and hit-to-lead strategies.

Skills

Synthetic organic chemistry

SAR and ADMET

Analytical techniques (NMR LCMS HPLC)

Parallel synthesis

High-throughput screening support

Problem-solving

Communication

Team collaboration

Education

PhD in Organic/Medicinal Chemistry

Tools

NMR spectroscopy

LC-MS

HPLC

Job description

Placements24 is assisting a leading pharmaceutical company in Stellenbosch, Western Cape, to recruit a Senior Pharmaceutical Chemist for their Drug Discovery team. You will drive the identification, synthesis, and optimization of novel small molecules from hit identification through lead optimization.

The ideal candidate holds a PhD in Organic/Medicinal Chemistry with 5+ years in drug discovery, strong SAR/ADMET knowledge, and hands-on experience with NMR, LC-MS, and HPLC.