Scientist/Sr. Scientist, Computational Chemistry

The role

This person will support small-molecule drug discovery programs through computational chemistry, cheminformatics, and molecular design. They will partner with medicinal chemists and other scientists to guide compound design from hit identification through candidate selection.

What you will do

• Provide hands-on computational chemistry support to small-molecule discovery programs.
• Apply structure-based and ligand-based design approaches to guide compound design.
• Use structural biology data to generate actionable design hypotheses.
• Partner with the medicinal chemistry team to interpret SAR and optimize properties.
• Contribute to computational design discussions with project teams.
• Support portfolio prioritization by evaluating target tractability and risks.
• Use and help improve chem and bioinformatics tools.
• Apply user-friendly AI/ML-enabled molecular design tools.
• Support AI literacy across chemistry and project teams.
• Represent computational chemistry in project team meetings and program discussions.

Required qualifications

• PhD in Computational Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Chemical Physics, Biophysics, Cheminformatics, Physical Organic Chemistry, or a related discipline.
• A minimum of 3 years of relevant experience in pharma, biotech, or a drug discovery-focused research environment.
• Track record of using computational chemistry to impact small-molecule drug discovery programs.
• Hands-on expertise in structure-based drug design, ligand-based design, docking, molecular dynamics, virtual screening, QSAR, FEP/free-energy methods, pharmacophore modeling, and multi-parameter optim
• Strong working knowledge of medicinal chemistry principles, SAR interpretation, physicochemical property optimization, ADME/PK concepts, and developability considerations.
• Practical experience with cheminformatics platforms, chemical databases, chemical data curation, compound registration systems, and project-facing visualization tools.
• Experience with AI/ML applications in molecular design, including predictive modeling, generative chemistry, active learning, or AI-enabled compound prioritization.
• Strong programming or scripting ability, preferably Python.
• Experience using cheminformatics toolkits such as RDKit.
• Ability to communicate complex computational concepts clearly to non-specialist stakeholders.
• Ability to collaborate within cross-functional teams and influence project decisions.

Nice to have

• Experience working in a biotech or fast-moving discovery organization
• Experience implementing user-friendly modeling tools for medicinal chemists
• Familiarity with cloud-based or high-performance computing environments
• Experience with automated DMTA workflows, electronic lab notebooks, compound management systems, assay-data systems, and integrated discovery platforms
• Experience supporting discovery across multiple modalities, such as covalent inhibitors, bifunctional molecules, and molecular glues
• Familiarity with synthetic accessibility prediction, retrosynthesis tools, reaction enumeration, and library design
• Scientific contributions through publications, presentations, patents, open-source contributions, or demonstrated project impact

Benefits

• Strong equity incentives
• Top tier medical, dental, and vision coverage
• One Medical membership
• 401(k) retirement plans
• Education and health/fitness incentive programs
• Meditation retreats
• Reading budget

About the company

General Proximity is a seed-stage startup developing the next generation of induced proximity medicines (IPMs). Their OmniTAC drug discovery engine furnishes molecules that co-opt existing cellular machinery to overcome therapeutic challenges.