Director/Sr. Director of Chemistry

1910 Genetics is the only company that has built a synergistic, dual-purpose small and large molecule platform that integrates artificial intelligence (AI), computation, and biological automation to design drug-like molecules better, faster, and cheaper than traditional approaches. Based in the Seaport District of Boston, 1910 Genetics is a Series A stage biotechnology startup that was founded in 2018 and is backed by prestigious investors, including M12-Microsoft’s Venture Fund, Sam Altman – the CEO of OpenAI (makers of ChatGPT), Playground Global, Y Combinator, New Ventures Funds (Scientia Ventures), and many others.

At 1910 Genetics, we first established an understanding of the molecular basis of disease to the granularity at which the world understands sickle cell anemia. This understanding centers biology as our North Star and drives our integration of artificial intelligence (AI), computation, and biological automation to accelerate the design of small molecule and protein therapeutics.

Recent advances in computational technologies have placed historically “undruggable” targets within therapeutic reach. But at 1910 Genetics, we often say “Biology is King,” meaning that computational technologies are only impactful in drug discovery when driven by experimental biology. Our platforms’ scale and breadth empower us to be therapeutic area-agnostic with programs ranging from neuroscience and immunology to infectious disease and oncology, to name a few.

You are someone we can count on to…

• Drive our discovery programs across all stages of drug discovery from hit ID through to candidate nomination for IND enabling studies.
• Define and execute well thought out strategies to perform multiparameter lead optimization to solve challenging issues and achieve a drug-likeness profile meeting the target product profile.
• Build a track record of delivering high-quality IND drug candidates across multiple therapeutic areas.
• Help us transition IND drug candidates into clinical development by serving on the clinical development team in a CMC, analytical and/or drug metabolism role.
• Build novel chemistry platforms and integrate them into the overall company strategy to sustain pipeline growth and innovate new opportunities.
• Thrive in a fast-paced environment to develop and execute scientific strategy through working in tandem with departmental leadership and effective cross-functional collaboration.

Your key responsibilities will include…

• Providing medicinal chemistry leadership to drive discovery and early preclinical development of high-quality IND drug candidates.
• Designing, performing and/or managing high-quality experiments in support of all stages of drug discovery from hit ID to candidate nomination for IND enabling studies.
• Actively participating in and driving strategic decisions in target selection and building platform chemistry capabilities to support target execution.
• Serving as a key contact to outsourced partners, managing CRO resources and effectively directing external Synthetic Chemistry resources.
• Partnering with AI leadership and team members to support AI/ML drug discovery programs by serving as a subject matter expert in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery to help develop molecule designs.
• Assisting in creating and supporting a compelling vision for medicinal, synthetic, computational, and analytical chemistry departments that clearly speaks to and inspires scientific interest in technology innovation for discovering small and large molecules.
• Collaborating with 1910 Genetics’ lead discovery and platform biology teams to ensure high-quality hit-finding strategies and execution for all new drug discovery projects.
• Mentoring and influencing across all drug discovery functions.
• Identifying, developing, and overseeing external technical and scientific resources; working with academic and industry partners and KOLs to ensure scientific and technical excellence.
• Supporting the evaluation of in/out-licensing opportunities as needed.

Ideally, you have…

• PhD in Organic/Medicinal Chemistry with deep knowledge of synthetic/organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry, and drug discovery.
• 10+ years’ experience in the biotech environment with some experience in large pharma preferred.
• Exceptional technical skills and proven ability to work cross-functionally in advancing assets to the next stage of development through multi-parameter optimization; strong ability to progress research programs with a clear focus on deliverables.
• Direct experience in building novel chemistry platforms that drive breakthroughs in performance and innovation and that impact and sustain pipeline growth.
• Success in all aspects of chemistry from hit identification to candidate nomination through to early clinical development; ability to identify chemistry issues and design solutions; firm grasp on drug-like qualities to reach drug candidate nomination.
• Experience in structure-based drug design.
• Experience in selecting and managing external resources to minimize delivery times and maximize productivity.
• Proven history of collaborating with multidisciplinary project teams and drug discovery teams, leading to the delivery of multiple INDs in biotechnology/pharma industry.

You will learn…

• About Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning applied to drug discovery.
• Strategies to develop small and large molecule drug candidates driven by our AI/ML discovery platform.