Senior Medicinal Chemist - Drug Discovery & SAR

Placements24; Mossel Bay; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Performance bonus

Retirement savings plan

Professional growth opportunities

State-of-the-art facilities

Job summary

Placements24 in Mossel Bay, Western Cape, is seeking a Senior Organic Chemist with a Medicinal Chemistry focus to join our pharmaceutical R&D team. You will design, synthesize, and purify small molecules with therapeutic potential to advance drug discovery projects.

The role requires a PhD in Organic or Medicinal Chemistry and at least five years of experience. You will mentor junior chemists, optimize routes, and collaborate with biologists and pharmacologists to evaluate activity and

Qualifications

• PhD in Organic or Medicinal Chemistry.
• 5+ years post-PhD in medicinal chemistry.
• Expertise in multi-step synthesis and route design.
• Proficiency in purification and analytical methods (NMR, MS, HPLC).
• Strong SAR understanding and drug-design mindset.

Responsibilities

• Design and synthesize novel small molecules for drug candidates.
• Optimize synthetic routes for efficiency, yield, and purity.
• Purify and characterize compounds using NMR, MS, and HPLC.
• Collaborate with biologists and pharmacologists to assess activity and properties.
• Mentor junior chemists and maintain detailed lab notebooks.

Skills

Organic synthesis

Medicinal chemistry

SAR analysis

Drug design

Analytical methods

Team collaboration

Scientific writing

Computational chemistry

Education

PhD in Organic or Medicinal Chemistry

Tools

NMR

MS

HPLC

Job description

Placements24 in Mossel Bay, Western Cape, is seeking a Senior Organic Chemist with a Medicinal Chemistry focus to join our pharmaceutical R&D team. You will design, synthesize, and purify small molecules with therapeutic potential to advance drug discovery projects.

The role requires a PhD in Organic or Medicinal Chemistry and at least five years of experience. You will mentor junior chemists, optimize routes, and collaborate with biologists and pharmacologists to evaluate activity and