Principal Scientist / Associate Scientific Director – Computational Chemistry

Location: Hybrid – home based with regular on site presence in Chapel-en-le‑Frith

Salary: Competitive (depending on experience and scope of leadership)

Job type: Permanent, full time (37.5 hrs per week)

In this pivotal role, you will apply your computational chemistry expertise to solve complex drug discovery challenges and guide medicinal chemistry programmes for our clients. Working as part of a Private Equity‑backed, fast‑growing CRO, you will be central to advancing client projects while helping shape and grow our computational chemistry capability.

What you will be doing:

• Deliver high‑quality computational chemistry support across drug discovery programmes, from target identification through to clinical candidate nomination.
• Apply structure‑based and ligand‑based small molecule drug design methods including docking, QSAR, pharmacophore modelling, virtual screening, MD and QM calculations, to guide medicinal chemistry and solve complex design challenges.
• Provide expert guidance to medicinal chemists and multidisciplinary project teams, integrating computational insight with experimental data.
• Deliver and interpret high‑quality computational outputs, providing clear, pragmatic recommendations to project teams and clients.
• Work seamlessly with medicinal chemistry, biology, DMPK and safety colleagues as a senior scientific partner.
• Mentor and develop computational chemists, setting high standards for scientific thinking, quality and integrity.
• Contribute to proposals, reports and client interactions, articulating the value of computational chemistry clearly and credibly.
• Maintain the highest standards of scientific integrity and continuously develop your technical knowledge.

At Associate Scientific Director level, you will also:

• Shape the strategic direction and growth of the computational chemistry service offering.
• Act as a recognised subject‑matter expert across the organisation and externally.
• Influence capability development, methodology adoption, and long‑term service evolution.
• Play a key role in client engagement, proposal strategy, and scientific positioning.

About you:

• You will hold a PhD in computational chemistry or a closely related discipline.
• You will have significant industrial drug discovery experience within pharma, biotech, or CRO settings.
• You will bring strong expertise in structure‑based and ligand‑based small molecule drug design and the practical application of computational tools.
• You will be comfortable working in multidisciplinary project teams and communicating complex science clearly.
• You will be organised, adaptable, and able to deliver across multiple projects in a fast‑paced environment.
• At Associate Scientific Director level, you will also demonstrate clear scientific leadership, strategic thinking, and service‑level influence.
• Knowledge of peptide and/or contemporary modality structure‑based drug design would be an advantage.

What you will get:

In addition to a competitive salary, we provide generous holiday entitlement, a pension scheme with enhanced employer contributions, a health cash plan covering a range of therapy treatments, a cycle to work scheme, a retail discount scheme, death in service benefit, a discretionary bonus scheme, and free on‑site parking. You’ll also have access to our BHN Extras platform, offering cashback, discounts, and tech/home purchases via salary sacrifice. Colleague wellbeing is important to us, we offer 24/7 virtual GP access, emotional support services, and a comprehensive wellbeing hub. We’re proud of our inclusive, supportive culture and provide a range of learning and development opportunities to help you grow both personally and professionally.