Advisor – Synthetic Chemist / Macrocyclic Peptides (Indianapolis)

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Company: Eli Lilly and Company

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We are a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. We give our best effort to our work, and we put people first. We’re looking for people who are determined to make life better for people around the world.

This is a technical scientific position in the Peptide Therapeutics Group in Indianapolis. The ideal candidate will have the responsibility to identify, synthesize, optimize, evaluate, and advance oral macrocyclic peptides to clinical development. To accomplish selection and execution of appropriate optimization strategies, the individual will lead and influence projects in the areas of macrocyclic peptide design, peptide SAR, synthesis and characterization. This individual will be a significant contributor as part of a highly integrated and collaborative team effort in this novel peptide modality.

The individual will propose strategies and future directions to meet broader portfolio goals and effectively communicate progress to management and governance committees. Ideal candidate is expected to have demonstrated success in similar roles with proven track record of leading both scientific rationale, planning and execution leading to success in making medicines based on macrocyclic peptides. This individual will interact cross-functionally within Biotechnology Discovery Research, and across including in groups of Discovery Chemistry Research and Technology (DCRT), Therapeutic Area Teams, Genetic Medicines, Drug Disposition, Product Development and Regulatory Affairs.

KEY OBJECTIVES/DELIVERABLES:

• Work on oral macrocyclic peptides research efforts that support project teams from concept through discovery and optimization with responsibility for identification of candidate macrocyclic therapeutic peptides, material generation, and characterization of biopharmaceutical properties using biochemical and biophysical techniques.
• Implement rational SAR strategies to improve pharmaceutical properties of peptide leads in the oral macrocyclic space. This requires a broad repertoire of skills and knowledge of peptide properties including peptide synthesis and conformational analysis, molecular modeling, computational methods, analytical and physicochemical characterization.
• Therapeutic Area Focus: Is expected to exhibit strong problem-solving abilities and be familiar with understanding and resolving issues that lie at the interface of oral peptide engineering, pharmaceutical developability and formulation, and biology.
• In advancing the optimization of lead therapeutic molecules, will be required to lead/co-lead multidisciplinary teams. Accordingly, strong communication and presentation skills in sharing research findings and team plans, and effective teamwork will be required.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• PhD and/or postdoctoral degree in synthetic chemistry or peptide chemistry or related field;
  OR
• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in synthetic chemistry or peptide chemistry or related field with successful drug discovery and development experience with macrocyclic peptides; AND 5+ years of relevant lab-experience in a biotechnology/pharmaceutical company

ADDITIONAL PREFERENCES:

• Deep technical knowledge as well as mastery of the latest developments in oral macrocyclic peptides with good understanding of the challenges to accelerate from hit identification and lead optimization towards candidate declaration.
• Significant knowledge in oral macrocyclic peptides, based on library-based screening technologies including at least one of OBOC, solution-phase, AS/MS, mRNA display or related peptide library screening technologies.
• Must have demonstrated leadership in development of new medicines, ideally have worked on peptide efforts in both library-based screening technologies and design of strategies for hit identification and lead optimization.
• Familiarity with state of the art in computational and structural efforts for hit identification and lead optimization in macrocyclic peptides.
• Must be an excellent team player, strong attention to detail, strong problem-solving skills, a high level of learning agility, with the ability to lead within a globally matrixed organization and across functions.
• Great understanding of computational and AI/machine learning techniques used for the development and engineering of oral macrocyclic peptide medicines.
• Open, transparent and able to communicate equally well with employees, team members and cross-functional and/or senior leadership.

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