Computational Chemist

Do you feel passionate about the possibilities of science to change lives? Do you have a background in Computational Chemistry, and experience within Project Delivery? If so, this may be the role for you! Here at AstraZeneca, you'll have the opportunity to make a difference in people's lives every single day. As one of the world's best-in-class biotechnology companies, our mission is centred on delivering life-changing products that advance world health and help fight and cure disease. AstraZeneca has a dynamic environment that champions collaboration and innovation. We attract top minds, and we champion and build talent. We are seeking experienced and knowledgeable computational chemists to join the fast-growing chemistry group within the Oncology medicinal chemistry department. As a computational chemist, you will work collaboratively with medicinal chemists and multidisciplinary teams to design compounds with improved potency, selectivity, activity and/or ADMET properties. By working simultaneously across multiple projects (2-3), in all discovery phases, you will identify and drive ligand design strategies and efficiently and proactively apply a full range of drug design and computational chemistry approaches to tackle complex problems within a project, delivering results to timelines that impact the design of compounds for synthesis and testing. You will contribute to target selection and the initiation and progress of new projects and provide input to open cross-project discussions. Dependent on experience you may function as the lead chemist. Using your excellent knowledge of modern computational chemistry, methods and algorithms alongside your understanding of other disciplines, you will identify new opportunities to impact and influence more broadly across our Oncology drug discovery portfolio. You will be accountable for identifying areas of scientific improvement within computational sciences and their potential for application to projects within AstraZeneca and will contribute to the development of new computational capabilities at AstraZeneca through collaboration with external groups or colleagues at other AstraZeneca sites. You will publish original work and literature reviews in peer reviewed journals and at conferences, maintaining an up to date awareness of recent literature and current developments within the field Essential Requirements + Ph.D. degree in the area of computational chemistry, or B.Sc./M.Sc. degree with equivalent experience, together with the knowledge of application of computational techniques in a drug discovery setting + An expert understanding of medicinal chemistry concepts and a track record of applying innovative solutions with resulting impact in drug discovery project delivery. + A detailed understanding of how computational chemistry contributes to our drug discovery projects together with a sound understanding of the drug discovery process encompassing other disciplines, such as synthetic, structural and medicinal chemistry, DMPK, structural biology, biophysics, biological science etc. + Experience and expertise in structure-based and ligand-based design techniques is essential, experience of applying free energy methods in drug design are desired. + Experience with applying machine learning models for the improvement of physicochemical and ADMET characteristics + Strong written and oral communication skills and ability to work well in multidisciplinary project teams + Excellent time management skills, forward planning and delivery focus + Prior knowledge and experience of the oncology therapeutic area would be desirable