Senior / Principal Scientist, Structural Biology — Target Druggability & Structure-Based Drug Design

The role

You will define druggability hypotheses for difficult-to-drug targets by integrating structural, computational, biophysical, and pharmacological evidence. You will lead experimental structural biology efforts and translate insights into actionable hypotheses for medicinal chemistry and biology teams.

What you will do

• Define druggability hypotheses for difficult-to-drug targets
• Apply and advance computational methods for structure prediction and refinement
• Translate structural and computational insights into actionable hypotheses
• Evaluate and integrate emerging methods into practical workflows
• Present target tractability assessments to project teams and leadership
• Lead experimental structural biology efforts on active target enablement and drug discovery programs
• Manage work at external CROs
• Collaborate with the internal Structural Biology team
• Perform hands-on experiments at the internal laboratory
• Contribute to Schrödinger's broader platform strategy

Required qualifications

• PhD in Structural Biology, Biophysics, or a related discipline
• Deep, hands-on expertise in structure-based drug design
• Practical experience with cryptic/transient binding site identification and pocket druggability assessment
• Working fluency in modern computational structural biology methods
• Direct experience designing, executing, and interpreting cryo-EM and/or X-ray crystallography experiments

Nice to have

• Familiarity with Schrödinger’s platform (Glide, FEP+, BioLuminate, Prime, etc.) or comparable structure-based design software
• Experience in computational-experimental hybrid work in biotech, pharma, or an SBDD-focused software company
• Worked on modality-switch programs (e.g., biologic-to-small-molecule or PROTAC/molecular glue strategies)

Benefits

• competitive salary
• stock options
• healthcare (with dental and vision)
• 401k
• pre-tax commuter benefits
• flexible work schedule
• parental leave program
• over a month of paid vacation time

About the company

Schrödinger has pioneered a physics-based software platform that enables discovery of high-quality, novel molecules for drug development and materials applications. The software platform is used by biopharmaceutical and industrial companies, academic institutions, and government laboratories around the world.