Senior Principal Research Scientist, Computational Chemistry

Job Summary

IDEAYA Biosciences is a precision medicine oncology company committed to the discovery, development, and commercialization of transformative therapies for cancer. Our approach integrates expertise in small‑molecule drug discovery, structural biology, and bioinformatics with robust capabilities in identifying and validating translational biomarkers to develop tailored, potentially first‑in‑class targeted therapies aligned to the genetic drivers of disease. We have built a deep pipeline of product candidates focused on synthetic lethality and antibody‑drug conjugates (ADCs) for molecularly defined solid tumor indications.

Our mission is to bring forth the next wave of precision oncology therapies that are more selective, more effective, and deeply personalized with the goal of altering the course of disease and improving clinical outcomes for patients with cancer.

Location:

South San Francisco, CA.

We are seeking an accomplished Senior Principal Research Scientist in Computational Chemistry with significant pharmaceutical industry experience to join our multidisciplinary small‑molecule drug discovery organization. This is a senior individual‑contributor role for a highly experienced computational chemist with a strong track record of advancing pharmaceutical discovery programs through hands‑on scientific impact. The successful candidate will support discovery project teams across target identification, hit discovery, lead optimization, and drug candidate selection.

The role requires a high degree of independence, technical depth, and scientific judgment.

Reporting to:
Director & Head of Computational Chemistry

• Lead structure‑based drug design meetings with medicinal chemists and provide senior‑level, hands‑on drug design and computational chemistry support to small‑molecule drug discovery project teams
• Contribute to programs from target identification through lead optimization and drug candidate selection
• Apply structure‑, ligand‑, and fragment‑based modeling to guide medicinal chemistry design
• Use molecular dynamics, free energy methods, quantum chemistry, and cheminformatics to address complex design and prioritization questions
• Translate computational analyses into clear, actionable compound design recommendations
• Serve as a highly experienced computational contributor and scientific advisor within project teams
• Mentor and coach other scientists in structure‑based drug design through technical guidance and scientific discussion
• Evaluate new computational methods, tools, and workflows and apply them when they add clear value
• Maintain scientific rigor, reproducibility, and best practices in an industry drug discovery environment

• PhD in Computational Chemistry or a related discipline with 9+ years of pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry experience
• Strong understanding of small‑molecule drug discovery and medicinal chemistry principles
• Demonstrated expertise in structure‑, ligand‑, and fragment‑based drug discovery
• Expertise in free energy perturbation, molecular dynamics, quantum mechanics, cheminformatics, and ligand affinity estimation methods
• Proven ability to independently deliver computational work that influences medicinal chemistry decisions and project outcomes
• Ability to manage priorities across multiple discovery programs
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Experience applying machine learning or AI methods to molecular design, property prediction, or compound prioritization
• Experience with Schrödinger modeling software and others (e.g., MOE, Open Eye)
• Programming, scripting, statistics, and data analysis experience applied to drug discovery
• Experience working on challenging target classes, including protein–protein interactions and allosteric pockets
• Track record of contributing to discovery programs that advance high‑quality small‑molecule drug candidates

In addition to our inspiring mission and highly collaborative and inclusive environment, IDEAYA offers a competitive total rewards package that reflects our pay‑for‑performance philosophy. Employees are eligible to be considered for merit‑based salary increases, company…