Career Opportunities

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Reports To:

Associate Director, Medicinal Chemistry

Position Summary

Loxo Oncology at Lilly conducts discovery research, clinical development and regulatory affairs for oncology, with the goal of creating a pipeline of therapies that have the potential to make a meaningful difference for patients. Loxo Oncology at Lilly was created in December 2019, combining the Lilly Research Laboratories oncology organization and Loxo Oncology, which was acquired by Lilly in early 2019. The unit has team members in Boulder, CO, Indianapolis, IN, New York City, South San Francisco, Stamford, CT, and Madrid, Spain.

Loxo Oncology at Lilly’s Drug Discovery team in Boulder, Colorado has an immediate opening for an experienced medicinal chemist. The Loxo Oncology at Lilly team’s mission is to invent life-changing targeted therapies for cancer patient populations that are poorly treated by existing therapies. To that end, we have built a multi-disciplinary team of dedicated drug discovery scientists who are passionate about driving the science forward to create highly selective drugs for known oncogenic drivers. We are currently looking for accomplished medicinal chemists with a proven track records of success in small molecule drug discovery. The ideal candidate will be passionate about leading from the bench to solve medicinal chemistry challenges and will excel at working closely with scientists across disciplines. The position requires excellent people skills, a positive can-do attitude, and the ability to thrive in a highly interactive, fast-paced, team environment.

Roles and Responsibilities of the Position*

• Drive the team forward with new medicinal chemistry analogs that consistently move the project toward the next breakthrough drug candidate.
• Optimize lead series for potency, selectivity, physiochemical properties, in vitro ADME, and PK by coupling multivariant SAR analysis with hypothesis-driven medicinal chemistry design principles. Use sound scientific methods to propose hypotheses and determine next steps even with complex or ambiguous data.
• Work closely with structural biology and computational chemistry colleagues to design novel compounds and hypotheses that address key drug optimization goals.
• Reduce ideas to practice in the lab quickly by effectively employing a broad range of modern organic chemistry transformations, synthetic methods, purification and characterization techniques.
• Synergize with the broader team by communicating results, sharing insights, making plans, and setting goals in an open, honest way.
• Provide medicinal chemistry insight for new target and lead identification and evaluation initiatives in the oncology space.
• Proactively investigate new or different technologies to improve the effectiveness of the drug discovery process.

Required Qualifications and Background

• B.S., M.S. or Ph.D. in Chemistry with a focus on synthetic organic chemistry.
• 5+ years of experience in small molecule drug discovery in a biotechnology or pharmaceutical setting.
• Proven track record of success in advancing programs from leads to advanced candidates.
• Extensive experience in lead compound optimization for potency, selectivity, ADME and PK.  
• Experienced in the use of synthetic chemistry instrumentation: HPLC, LC-MS, NMR, and purification systems.
• Expert in using common medicinal chemistry software: electronic notebook, ChemDraw, Excel; data visualization; structure viewing; literature, chemical and database searching.
• Committed to staying current with the latest scientific breakthroughs in the medicinal chemistry field through continued reading of the literature and attendance of scientific conferences. 
• An excellent team player with ability to communicate synergistically with a multidisciplinary team and be accountable for the medicinal chemistry progress of the project. Highly organized with excellent analytical, documentation, time management, and multi-tasking skills.

Physical Demands / Travel

The physical demands of this position are consistent with working in a laboratory/ bench environment. Some light lifting and maneuvering may be required.

The physical demands here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

Work Environment

This position’s work environment is based in a laboratory/ bench environment.

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those encountered by an employee while performing the essential functions of this job.

*To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each role and responsibility satisfactorily. The requirements listed above are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Loxo Oncology, Inc. is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.

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