Associate Director​/Director, Medicinal Chemistry

Pharmaron is a global CRO helping pharma and biotech companies bring new therapies to life. With over 25,000 employees worldwide across 23 locations in the US, UK and China, we support drug discovery through to manufacturing with fully integrated, high-quality services.

We’re proud of the impact we make and just last year, we supported over 780 discovery projects, 1,000+ CMC programmes, and 1,000+ clinical trials across all phases. Our teams are involved in everything from small molecules to biologics and gene therapies, and we work with more than 3,0

Pharmaron is seeking an experienced medicinal chemistry leader to drive the design and delivery of cutting-edge drug discovery programmes. You will lead end-to-end medicinal chemistry strategy
, partnering with global, multidisciplinary teams to deliver high-quality candidates across diverse therapeutic areas.

This is a high impact project facing role, ideal for scientific leader with a proven track record of advancing molecules through lead optimisation and a passion for innovation in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery.

The Integrated Drug Discovery (IDD) Services group at Pharmaron is responsible for leading and delivering drug discovery projects for our client partners. The team comprises scientific expertise and strategic leadership across medicinal chemistry, CADD, biology, DMPK and translational science. Combined with Pharmaron’s global research capabilities we design and deliver integrated programmes from target identification and hit finding through to IND filing.

Working closely with our partners we define strategy, coordinate execution across teams and with an AI enabled accelerated Design–Make–Test–Analyse cycle support the progression of projects and innovative medicines towards the clinic.

• Lead and deliver medicinal chemistry strategies from hit identification to candidate selection
• Maintain a high degree of understanding of internal and external developments and approaches to medicinal chemistry design and optimisation
• Drive scientific excellence in compound design
  , ensuring clear hypotheses and robust data-led decision making
• Provide insightful medicinal chemistry critique across the IDD portfolio
• Work closely with CADD, in vitro biology, in vivo pharmacology and DMPK teams to design and advance compounds across discovery programmes, contributing scientific insight, data interpretation and chemistry leadership
• Provide leadership to global project teams
  , including close collaboration with China-based experimental teams
• Partner with clients and internal stakeholders to ensure efficient programme delivery
• Communicate programme strategy, progress and outcomes to senior leadership and external partners
• Support business development
  , proposal development and scientific positioning t
• Represent Pharmaron at International conferences, client meetings and industry events
• Contribute to IP strategy and patent drafting for client projects.

You are a scientific leader with deep expertise in medicinal chemistry and experience operating in complex, fast-paced drug discovery environments.

• PhD in Chemistry/Medicinal Chemistry (or equivalent experience)
• 10+ years in drug discovery within a leading pharma, biotech or CRO
• Proven track record of delivering candidates into clinical development
• Experience of delivering ADC molecules through hit expansion and further optimisation in a discovery and preclinical environment
• Ideally you will also have experience managing external collaborations and client-facing projects

• Outstanding knowledge of medicinal chemistry, including the use of…