Head of Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Design, London

About Isomorphic Labs

Isomorphic Labs is applying frontier AI to unlock deeper scientific insights, faster breakthroughs, and life‑changing medicines, with an ambition to solve all disease.

About The Medicinal Drug Design Team

We have an established, dynamic team of ~25 Medicinal Chemists in London, who are fundamentally redefining how drugs are designed. By partnering deeply with our AI/ML colleagues, we are actively shaping our drug design engine and driving the organization’s internal and collaborative portfolios.

Your Impact

We are seeking an experienced and strategic Head of Medicinal Chemistry to join our Drug Design team. This pivotal role will provide scientific leadership, strategic direction, and mentorship to the Medicinal Chemistry team, driving projects toward clinical candidate nomination and accelerating the path to the clinic.

What You Will Do

• Utilise your deep track record of modern drug design to oversee and deliver the London Drug Design portfolio, providing technical portfolio guidance.
• Act as a senior advisor, empowering and strategically guiding your Chemistry Leads to navigate complex scientific challenges and drive programs to clinical candidate nomination.
• Provide direct line management and strategic oversight for a growing team of ~25 Medicinal Chemists, managing a layered structure, setting clear goals, mentoring your management team, and fostering a collaborative, high‑performance culture across the entire department.
• Champion an AI‑First Approach, ensuring that every chemist in the organisation is empowered and supported in the application of AI tools.
• Foster a culture where chemists work natively alongside tech teams, providing strategic input and technical direction to our AI platform teams.
• Collaborate both internally and with third‑party organisations, to build highly effective and efficient connectivity between Chemistry, Computational Drug Design, Biology, and Pre‑Clinical Development teams to accelerate pace to the clinic.
• Represent the company externally, interacting with existing and prospective collaborators, effectively managing large‑scale CRO resources and monitoring KPIs to maintain high‑quality, rapid delivery.
• Constantly look for ways to do drug discovery differently, optimising workflows, challenging traditional medicinal chemistry dogmas, and championing our culture of inclusion and continuous professional development.

Skills And Qualifications

Essential Qualifications

• PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry or a related technical field, or equivalent industrial experience.
• Solid foundation in medicinal chemistry with a minimum of 10+ years previous industrial experience within a pharma/biotech/CRO setting.
• Proven track record of leading medicinal chemistry efforts on drug discovery projects, demonstrating significant contributions to project progression (ideally from Hit Identification through to Lead Optimisation/Candidate Nomination, with familiarity of optimisation of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK)).
• A genuine passion for drug discovery and a visible desire to move away from “business as usual,” coupled with enthusiasm for the potential of AI/ML to transform the field.
• Demonstrated experience in line management, mentorship, and developing scientific talent.
• Excellent strategic thinking, problem‑solving, and decision‑making capabilities applied to complex drug discovery challenges.
• Experience of working with and closely managing CRO resource.
• Strong track record of scientific achievement, evidenced by publications, patents, and presentations.

Nice to have

• Experience of successful application of fragment‑based drug design approaches.
• Experience of structure‑based drug design.
• Proven track record of leading large teams and managing through other managers.

Hybrid Working

Hybrid model requires you to be in the office three days a week (currently Tuesday, Wednesday, and one other day depending on which team you’re in). If you have additional needs that would prevent you from following this hybrid approach, we’d be happy to discuss accommodations if you’re selected for an initial screening call.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

We are committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding) or any other basis protected by applicable law. If you have a disability or additional need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

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