Team Lead, Medicinal Drug Design, London, Lausanne

Medicinal Drug Design Lead London or Lausanne

We are here to advance human health by reimagining drug discovery with the power and pace of artificial intelligence.

The future is coming. A future enabled and enriched by the incredible power of machine learning. A future in which diseases are curtailed or cured by better and faster drug discovery.

Our values exist in service of that future. We think theyll help us bring it closer too.

Come and be part of an interdisciplinary team driving groundbreaking innovation and play a meaningful role in contributing towards us achieving our ambitious goals while being a part of an inspiring and collaborative culture.

The world we want tomorrow is the one were building today. It starts with the culture at this company. It starts with you.

About Iso

Isomorphic Labs (IsoLabs) was founded in 2021 and is led by Sir Demis Hassabis. Our aim is to usher in a new era of biomedical breakthroughs and find cures for some of humanitys devastating diseases.

Our foundations are built on the success of Google DeepMinds AlphaFold but we didnt stop there! We are continuing to develop and implement stateoftheart technologies as we move towards our goal of dramatically accelerating and improving the process of designing and bringing new medicines to patients.

We have built a worldleading drug design engine comprising foundational AI models that are capable of working across multiple therapeutic areas and drug modalities. The company is continually innovating on model architecture and developing cuttingedge capabilities to advance rational drug design.

About the Medicinal Drug Design Team

We are a growing dynamic team of medicinal chemists within the Drug Design and Medical Research function. We drive the medicinal chemistry strategy for our internal portfolio and collaboration projects. Crucially we partner closely with our AI/ML colleagues using our domain expertise to enhance the Isomorphic Platform and leverage its power to accelerate drug design. We foster a supportive learningfocused environment where every member is valued and continuous professional development is a priority.

Your impact

As part of our expansion we are seeking an experienced and strategic Medicinal Chemistry Team Lead to join our Medicinal Drug Design Team. This is a pivotal role for a motivated scientific leader eager to shape the future of drug discovery at the intersection of medicinal chemistry and artificial intelligence.

You will provide scientific leadership and strategic direction for key drug discovery projects guiding them from initiation towards clinical candidate selection. You will also be responsible for line managing and mentoring a small team of talented medicinal chemists fostering their scientific growth and career development. Working alongside worldleading AI/ML scientists you will play a critical role in driving project success enhancing our AI platform through expert feedback and building a highperforming chemistry team. If you are a skilled medicinal chemist with leadership experience and a passion for applying cuttingedge technology to complex scientific challenges this role offers an unparalleled opportunity for impact and growth.

What you will do

• Apply your knowledge and track record of modern drug design / discovery principles and synthetic organic chemistry to execute Drug Design programs either as a Chemistry Lead or an overall Project Lead.
• Provide strategic input and technical direction to our AI/ML platform teams.
• Collaborate both internally and with third party organisations interacting within multidisciplinary teams to support datadriven delivery of high quality scientific solutions to complex technical problems.
• Represent the company externally interacting with existing and prospective collaborators and Contract Research Organisations (CROs).
• Manage CRO resource and other members of the growing team mentoring and supporting their development.
• Prepare detailed scientific proposals and reports to support new and ongoing programs.
• Embrace and champion our culture of inclusion and continuous professional development.
• Provide direct line management for a team of 24 medicinal chemists. Set clear goals provide regular feedback support their professional development and foster a collaborative and highperformance team environment.

Skills and qualifications

Essential:

• PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry Medicinal Chemistry or a related technical field or equivalent experience.
• Solid foundation in medicinal chemistry with a minimum of 8 years previous industrial experience within a pharma/biotech/CRO setting.
• Proven track record of leading medicinal chemistry efforts on drug discovery projects demonstrating significant contributions to project progression (ideally from Hit Identification through to Lead Optimisation/Candidate Nomination).
• Demonstrated experience in line management mentorship and developing scientific talent.
• Excellent strategic thinking problemsolving and decisionmaking capabilities applied to complex drug discovery challenges.
• Experience and expertise working on Lead Optimisation programs with familiarity of optimisation of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK).
• Strong strategic thinking problemsolving and decisionmaking capabilities applied to complex drug discovery challenges.
• Experience of working with and closely managing CRO resource.
• A strong track record of scientific achievement evidenced by publications patents and presentations.
• A genuine passion for drug discovery and enthusiasm for the potential of AI/ML to transform the field.

Nice to have:

• Direct experience of working in a Pharma Biotech or CRO on drug discovery collaborations ideally in a chemistry or project lead role.
• Experience of contributing to StructureBased Drug Design problems.
• Experience of successful application of fragmentbased drug design approaches.

Excited about this opportunity We encourage you to apply by Friday May 23rd 2025.

Culture and values

We are guided by our shared values. Its not about finding people who think and act in the same way. These values help to guide our work and will continue to strengthen it.

Thoughtful
Thoughtful at Iso is about curiosity creativity and care. It is about good people doing good rigorous and futuremaking science every single day.

Brave
Brave at Iso is about fearlessness but its also about initiative and integrity. The scale of the challenge demands nothing less.

Determined
Determined at Iso is the way we pursue our goal. Its a confidence in our hypothesis as well as the urgency and agility needed to deliver on it. Because disease wont wait so neither should we.

Together
Together at Iso is about connection collaboration across fields and catalytic relationships. Its knowing that transformation is a group project and remembering that what were doing will have a real impact on real people everywhere.

Creating an extraordinary company

We believe that to be successful we need a team with a range of skills and talents. Were building an environment where collaboration is fundamental learning is shared and every employee feels supported and able to thrive. We value unique experiences knowledge backgrounds and perspectives and harness these qualities to create extraordinary impact.

We are committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of sex race religion or belief ethnic or national origin disability age citizenship marital domestic or civil partnership status sexual orientation gender identity pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding) or any other basis protected by applicable law. If you have a disability or additional need that requires accommodation please do not hesitate to let us know.

Hybrid working

Its hugely important for us to share knowledge and build strong relationships with each other and we find it easier to do this if we spend time together in person. This is why we follow a hybrid model and would require you to be able to come into the office 3 days a week (currently Tuesday Wednesday and one other day depending on which team youre in). If you have additional needs that would prevent you from following this hybrid approach wed be happy to talk through these if youre selected for an initial screening call.

Please note that when you submit an application your data will be processed in line with our .

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