Principal Scientist, Synthetic & Discovery Chemistry

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Ready to explore, break barriers, and discover more? We know you’ve got big plans - so do we! Our colleagues across the globe love innovating with science and technology to enrich people’s lives with our solutions in Healthcare, Life Science, and Electronics. Together, we dream big and are passionate about caring for our rich mix of people, customers, patients, and planet.

That's why we are always looking for curious minds that see themselves imagining the unimaginable with us.

United As One for Patients, our purpose in Healthcare is to help create, improve and prolong lives. We develop medicines, intelligent devices and innovative technologies in therapeutic areas such as Oncology, Neurology and Fertility. Our teams work together across 6 continents with passion and relentless curiosity in order to help patients at every stage of life. Joining our Healthcare team is becoming part of a diverse, inclusive and flexible working culture, presenting great opportunities for personal development and career advancement across the globe.

AI & Automation in Drug Discovery (AIDD) at EMD is building and scaling AI-driven and automated discovery capabilities. We connect machine learning, computational science, and lab automation to enable closed-loop chemistry and biology experimentation and faster, higher-quality scientific decisions. In our Boston-area autonomous make-and-test lab, automated synthesis, analytical characterization, and biological readout come together to accelerate discovery.

We are hiring a Principal Scientist in Synthetic & Discovery Chemistry to own our small molecule chemistry design and execution capabilities within the closed-loop discovery engine. What we need is deep synthetic expertise : strong chemical synthetic knowledge plan and execute single- and multi-step routes optimized for automation, and drive chemistry strategy in a high-throughput, data-rich environment.

Reporting to the Head of Science Operations, you will collaborate closely with our Automation, Biology, and Data Science teams to ensure chemistry output is fast, high quality, and machine-learning ready. You will also serve as the chemistry subject matter expert for selected external customer programs, translating scientific requirements into executable synthesis plans.

• Synthesis planning and execution Plan and execute single- and multi-step synthetic chemistry workflows within the AIDD automated lab; collaborate with Automation Engineers to make routes robot-executable and throughput-compatible.
• Troubleshoot chemistry, optimize reaction conditions, and maintain high data quality across synthesis campaigns.
• Own NMR and analytical data workflows; ensure accurate compound characterization and data integrity in ELN and data systems.
• Develop multi-step synthesis concepts (2-3 steps) and translate them into enumerable, automatable routes.
• External customer chemistry support Act as chemistry subject matter expert for selected external customer programs; collaborate with BD and project leads to define chemistry scope, design compound sets, and meet customer milestones.
• Represent AIDD chemistry capabilities credibly in partner and customer interactions.
• Team contribution and junior chemist mentorship Supervise and mentor junior chemists and contractors; ensure high execution standards and lab safety compliance.
• Contribute to SOPs, chemistry best practices, and continuous improvement of lab workflows.

• PhD in Organic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Chemical Biology, or a closely related field;
  At least 5 years of industry experience in pharmaceutical, biotech, or related synthetic chemistry.
• Strong track record in synthetic organic…