Principal Scientist, Medicinal Chemistry

What if... you could join an organization that creates, resources, and builds life sciences companies that invent breakthrough technologies in order to transform health care and sustainability?
Montai Health is a privately held, early-stage biotechnology company developing a platform for understanding and leveraging complex molecular interactions within organisms to solve global challenges in human health and sustainability. The company leverages a multidisciplinary approach that integrates tools ranging from machine learning and big data to multi-omics and high-throughput screening.
At Montai, we nurture a bold, spirited, and leading-edge culture dedicated to strengthening human health:

• We are one team with omnidirectional trust, empowered and accountable
• We are strong as individuals but stronger as a team and we are committed to excellence
• We have a sense of urgency and persistence, and we are crazily confident that we can make a difference
• We need to be comfortable with the uncomfortable and be rigorous and we recognize that failure is data
• We care for diversity in people, thought, personality, opinions, background and distinctiveness
• We have a sense of humor to help us manage through our strategic noise

Montai is seeking a highly motivated and experienced Principal Scientist/Associate Director to join our Medicinal Chemistry team and play an important role in the company's efforts to validate novel discovery approaches based on our AI/ML platform.
This individual will report directly to the Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry. The successful candidate will have deep experience in small molecule drug discovery and will help drive Medicinal Chemistry programs from hit identification through development candidate nomination.
Key Responsibilities:

• Design and execute Medicinal Chemistry campaigns to rapidly progress compounds from hit identification to development candidate nomination
• Rationally design novel target molecules based on interpretation of in vitro and/or in vivo experimental data
• Develop structure-activity relationships (SAR) and conduct multiparameter optimization to achieve key bioactivity and drug-like properties criteria
• Plan complex chemical syntheses as needed to deliver compounds for biological screening
• Plan and direct work of external chemistry CROs on multiple projects
• Provide expert Medicinal Chemistry input to AI/ML Platform Team to enable continued optimization of our platform capabilities
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including AI/ML, biology and DMPK, to advance drug discovery projects and achieve key project milestones
• Summarize Medicinal Chemistry activities for communication with senior leadership
• Actively participate in intellectual property activities, including patent writing and review

Required Qualifications:

• PhD in Medicinal or Organic Chemistry with 8 years of small molecule drug discovery experience
• Extensive knowledge of Medicinal Chemistry lead optimization and drug discovery approaches (parallel optimization of activity/physicochemical/ADME properties, structure-based design, computational chemistry)
• High level of creativity and productivity with strong synthetic problem-solving skill
• Demonstrated ability to drive programs through hit-to-lead and lead optimization and candidate nomination phases
• Expert knowledge of modern synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry with the ability to successfully impact multiple projects
• Experience of effectively managing CRO chemistry teams
• Strong track-record of patents and publications in peer-reviewed journals
• Demonstrated problem-solving skills, critical/strategic thinking ability, and capability of integrating data across multiple sources

Excellent written and oral communication skills
More About Flagship Pioneering
Flagship Pioneering is a biotechnology company that invents and builds platform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $90 billion in aggregate value. Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity's most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture. Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE's "Change the World" list, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies, and has been twice named to Fast Company's annual list of the World's Most Innovative Companies. Learn more about Flagship at www.flagshippioneering.com .
At Flagship, we recognize there is no perfect candidate. If you have some of the experience listed above but not all, please apply anyway. Experience comes in many forms, skills are transferable, and passion goes a long way. We are dedicated to building diverse and inclusive teams and look forward to learning more about your unique background.
Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, "FSP") do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering's internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.