Postdoctoral Scientist, Autonomous NMR Characterization

Postdoctoral Scientist, Autonomous NMR Characterization (LSMD)

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We are a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our 35,000 employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism.

We give our best effort to our work, and we put people first. We're looking for people who are determined to make life better for people around the world.

Do you have a strong interest in analytical chemistry, foundational NMR experience, and a passion for building tools that other scientists use every day? Whether your strength is at the spectrometer, in scientific software development, or in Bayesian optimization and autonomous experimentation, if you are excited to help build the first autonomous, agentic NMR characterization platform, one that reasons about what to measure, optimizes each measurement, and decides when enough data has been collected, apply today!

The Molecular Characterization team within Lilly Small Molecule Discovery (LSMD) is building the next generation of automated analytical capabilities, with the goal of extracting more chemical information from every measurement and freeing expert scientists to focus on the hardest problems across our drug-discovery and development portfolio. This postdoctoral role will develop an autonomous NMR characterization platform that decides what to measure, optimizes each measurement, and learns when enough data has been collected, with CRAFT time-domain processing as the operator-free data layer beneath these decisions.

The ideal candidate has strong attention to detail, excellent problem-solving skills, a high level of learning agility, and the willingness to move fluidly between the spectrometer and the codebase while collaborating across analytical, medicinal, and process chemistry teams. We are an innovative and dynamic group committed to advancing the tools and methods that help us make life better for patients around the globe.

The Lilly Small Molecule Discovery (LSMD) group is an organization purpose-built to create molecules that make life better for people. We focus on using innovative science to unlock novel approaches that can treat people suffering from diseases with poor treatment options. We continually challenge ourselves to deliver molecules that can provide breakthrough efficacy with the highest possible safety margins. We are dedicated to optimizing our mindset, technology, and processes for faster, more nimble execution.

Our success is built on a culture that empowers innovative problem-solving through open collaboration and individual accountability.

Advanced Molecule Design (AMD) is dedicated to optimizing molecules into strong drug candidates that become breakthrough medicines for patients. AMD brings together core functional areas — medicinal chemistry, synthetic chemistry, analytical chemistry, computational chemistry, and molecular pharmacology — to accelerate the identification and advancement of high-quality small molecule candidates across a breadth of modalities and therapeutic areas.

Discovery Chemistry Technologies (DCT), a key function within AMD, provides critical scientific expertise and technology solutions that support molecule optimization and scale-up efforts. Within DCT, the Molecular Characterization Team serves as the definitive scientific authority on molecular structure, identity, and other chemistry insights across Lilly's small molecule discovery portfolio. The team primarily applies advanced NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and complementary analytical techniques to solve the most complex structural elucidation, reaction characterization, and conformational challenges — delivering the molecular-level insights that enable discovery chemistry teams to make confident, rapid compound progression decisions.

Team members are expected to embrace collaboration, adopt a forward-thinking and growth-oriented mindset, and take individual…