Director - VP AI Drug Discovery

Job Description

Drug Discovery AI Lead, cutting edge pharma company, London / remote based, leadership role with hands-on work Your new companyThis company aims to develop a proprietary end-to-end AI driven drug-discovery platform that has been nominated as one of the top breakthroughs in the biopharma industry, focusing on developing innovative drug pipelines (difficult-to-drug molecular targets).Off the back of 2 fundraising rounds last year, raising tens of millions of dollars, we are establishing a global R&D center in the UK and are looking for experienced, highly motivated scientists to join us as at a key moment in our history. The company iscurrently undertaking another fundraising round now to enhance its capabilities and grow the team. The company is led by academics of the British Royal Society, a former CTO from listed AI healthcare company, R&D experts from top pharma companies and global AI competition winners, bringing deep expertise from successful drug development programs and generatingtop publications including in top-tier journals such as Nature, Science, and Cell. Our proprietary drug pipelines focus on oncology therapeutics, where our first 2 AI-designed drugs have started the IND-Enabling process. We are expected to enter clinical trials in 2022/2023, and the company has a number of co-development and strategic partnershipsin place with other biotech and pharma companies.Your new roleAs a senior member of the Deep Learning and Drug Discovery team you will be helping to develop and optimise our approaches and methods, with a particular focus on developing innovative AI algorithms for drug discovery. In partnership with our CEO, our medchemand CADD teams and our AI algorithm team, your experience will help to complete project implementation, providing scientific excellence to influence and impact upon our drug discovery programs. You will be a leader within the research team and have an active influence on research strategy as well as shaping the department as the company goes into its next phase of growth - there are multiple options to take on a strategic or people management focusedrole, in addition to R&D work.Other responsibilities will include:

• Achieve the most effective development of the AI/Data Science skills & staff, including recruitment and personal development planning
• Providing proactive and positive scientific leadership into data science and machine learning algorithms
• Drive the AI & Data Science strategy, providing the leadership team with specific expertise and advice regarding the latest and most innovative approaches to data science and related technologies
• Building on, and enhancing, a high performing R&D culture within the research teams and act as a scientific expert helping to drive innovation
• Continuously advance the companys technology platform with your insights from projects through collaborations with researchers and engineers
• Researching a variety of ML/DL approaches that can be applied to the companys generative AI platform
• Development of AI/ML algorithms, models, methods, etc
• Looking into cutting/bleeding-edge research areas to see what/how they can be applied to in-house research questions
• Leading the implementation of novel AI-enabled drug discovery approaches and/or strategic initiatives to deliver clinical candidates, as well as providing insight into projects.

What youll need to succeed

• The vision to design, develop and apply novel AI tools and approaches (eg generative/GAN/GTN) that can be applied to areas such as the drug discovery process, from concept generation through to overall delivery.
• The ability to develop new innovative AI/computational enabled tools.
• A track record of leading projects, and ideally feeding into wider research strategy
• The ability to influence and impact beyond your immediate area of responsibility
• Practical data science experience to analyse large data sets and prioritise them using approaches such as multi-parameter optimisation techniques
• A PhD (or equivalent experience) in computational chemistry, bioinformatics, computer science, mathematics, chemistry, structural biology, or a related field
• Experience in applying principles of medicinal chemistry and/or structural biology toward drug discovery, either individually or as part of a wider team would be advantageous, though individuals with strong skills in other areas that can be applied to thisare encouraged to apply
• A strong publication/patent track record would be a distinct advantage for these positions any exposure to protein-protein and/or allosteric interactions or protein degradation would also be useful (but is not necessary).

Any exposure to protein-protein and/or allosteric interactions / protein degradation, or other areas of drug discovery would also be useful (but is not necessary)What youll get in return

• An open working environment that does not lock scientists into structure and hierarchy.
• Freedom to take space to pursue your own ideas and make a difference.
• Opportunity to gain internal and external visibility through interactions with other teams and with world-renowned academic investigators.
• Opportunity to grow both as a scientist and leader through participation in project teams and our career/personal development programs.

We strive to attract passionate and outstanding talents who thrive on change and are ready to bring real value to drug industry. Working with us youll discover a place where you can grow and express your full potential. We place an emphasis on innovation,collaboration and impact. Through meaningful recognition and a motivating work atmosphere, we aim to provide an optimal experience by caring about and valuing our employees.What you need to do nowIf youre interested in this role, click apply now to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or call us now.If this job isnt quite right for you but you are looking for a new position, please contact us for a confidential discussion on your career.Keywords: AI, ML, DL, artificial, intelligence, deep, machine, learning, generative, neural, network, GAN, GTN, CADD, computational, chemistry, biology, bioinformatics, pharmaceutical, biotech, drug, discovery, development, therapy, disease, manager, Director,strategy, research, R&D, computer, science, algorithm, model, method, programming, Jax, pytorch, tensorflow

Keyskills :
chemistryDirectormanagerlearningbiologypharmaceuticaldevelopmentmachinenetworktherapyintelligencebioinformaticsdrugbiotechdiseasediscoveryCADDartificialdeepneuralcomputationalGANGTNgenerative