Principal Scientist - Project Lead

About Ignota Labs

Ignota Labs is a multi-award-winning drug turnaround company tackling one of the industry’s biggest bottlenecks: drug safety. Through cutting-edge explainable AI, we identify and resolve toxicity issues in promising drug candidates, unlocking their potential to become safe, effective therapies.

At Ignota Labs, you’ll work at the intersection of computational innovation and real-world drug development. Our mission is ambitious, and we’re building a team of forward-thinking scientists who want to shape the future of drug discovery while accelerating their own career growth.

About The Role

This is not your standard drug discovery position. As Principal Scientist – Project Lead, you will play a critical role in transforming failed or stalled drug candidates into clinical successes. This means synthesising large amounts of data, understanding what went wrong with a molecule, and working closely with our AI and experimental teams to solve these challenges.

Your role will focus on acquiring in-licensed assets with safety liabilities, fixing these problems using a combination of cutting-edge computational tools and expert-driven strategies, and progressing them through candidate selection to the clinic. If you’re excited about solving hard problems in drug discovery and leading projects that directly impact patient’s lives, this is the role for you.

What Makes This Role Unique

1. You’ll deep-dive into the science behind in-licensing decisions, critically assessing the strengths and weaknesses of external drug candidates.
2. You’ll identify the key reasons for a drug’s safety issues, synthesise prior research, and design actionable strategies to fix them.
3. You’ll work on the frontier of AI-enabled drug safety solutions, collaborating with our computational and experimental teams to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
4. This role offers significant growth opportunities, particularly for scientists ready to step into a leadership role and shape the direction of a high-growth startup.

What You’ll Do

1. Lead small molecule drug discovery programmes focused on improving in-licensed drug candidates with safety challenges.
2. Synthesise and analyse large datasets from prior research and clinical findings to identify root causes of toxicity and design solutions.
3. Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including chemistry, biology, DMPK, and computational experts, to develop and execute strategies for drug rescue and optimisation.
4. Take ownership of projects from candidate selection through IND-enabling studies and into clinical development.
5. Work closely with senior leadership to align programme priorities with company goals, presenting progress, risks, and strategies.
6. Build relationships with academic institutions, CROs, and other external partners to support in-licensing and development efforts.
7. Be a leader from Day 1. Starting as an individual contributor, with the capacity to mentor and guide junior scientists, you’ll have the opportunity to line manage as the team expands.

Requirements

Who You Are

We are looking for someone who thrives in tackling big scientific challenges and wants to grow with us. A great Project Lead at Ignota Labs is:

1. Scientifically Curious: You enjoy digging into prior research to uncover what went wrong and proposing creative solutions.
2. Strategic and Analytical: You can critically evaluate complex datasets, make decisions with incomplete information, and focus on high-impact priorities.
3. Collaborative: You work effectively in multidisciplinary teams and can bring together diverse perspectives to solve challenging problems.
4. Growth-Oriented: You’re looking for an opportunity to take ownership, build your leadership skills, and make a lasting impact on a growing company.

What You’ll Bring

1. A PhD in a relevant scientific field (e.g., biology, chemistry, pharmacology) with 5+ years of industry experience, or equivalent expertise.
2. Experience with small molecule drug discovery and preclinical development, ideally around understanding and addressing safety issues.
3. The ability to synthesise and interpret prior work, integrating computational and experimental insights to design new strategies.
4. Proven success in delivering projects to key milestones within timelines and budgets.
5. Excellent communication skills to convey scientific findings, programme progress, and strategic recommendations.

Benefits

What We Offer

1. A competitive salary (circa £70k), performance-based bonus, pension and significant equity in a high-growth startup.
2. A collaborative, flexible, hybrid working environment with remote options and tools to support seamless communication.
3. Mentorship and opportunities to grow into a leadership role as the company expands.
4. Vitality health insurance, including mental health, dental, and optical care.
5. The chance to work on cutting-edge science and solve the toughest problems in drug discovery.

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