Distinguished Scientist, Group Head Synthetic Medicinal Modalities - all genders

Overview

Group Head, Distinguished Scientist, Synthetic Medicinal Modalities within our Integrated Drug Discovery, Synthetic Medicinal Modalities department leads a medicinal chemistry group dedicated to discovering new therapeutic treatments for patients in need.

Responsibilities

• You lead a medicinal chemistry group comprising approximately 10 lab heads and technicians pioneering small molecule drug discovery, leveraging cutting-edge expertise to progress a variety of discovery projects from inception to hit generation, lead identification, lead optimization and clinical candidate selection.
• You contribute to defining portfolio strategies in the small molecule drug discovery space, particularly the immunology/inflammation space. You ensure these strategies align with the company's overall research objectives.
• You drive continuous improvement in discovery workflows, identifying opportunities to accelerate timelines across your group and external partners.
• You champion the integration of AI models and digital tools to enhance scientific productivity and decision-making.
• You actively develop talent within your group through mentoring, coaching, and creating growth opportunities, fostering a culture of scientific excellence and psychological safety.
• You cultivate highly productive partnerships with our external collaboration partners from project start to clinical candidate selection, building work plans, discussing project progress in joint team and steering committee meetings and presenting to internal governance bodies. In addition, you support due diligence activities, competitive assessments, and the evaluation of external opportunities.

Qualifications

• Experienced medicinal chemist, PhD with 12+ years in the pharmaceutical or biotech industry. Experience as a group leader with people and portfolio responsibility is a strong plus.
• Thorough understanding of all aspects and scientific methods used in small molecule drug discovery, accompanied with deep expertise in certain disease and technology areas, preferably including experience in establishing internal technology platforms, working with external CROs and collaboration partners.
• Strong track record of delivering milestones along the whole discovery path from target assessment to clinical candidate selection, including ability to take critical project go/no-go decisions, balancing scientific rigor and execution speed.
• Ability to build a highly collaborative and interdependent team environment both within the group as well as in the cross-functional network to progress the portfolio forward with urgency combined with a strong desire to develop their team members applying mentoring and coaching skills.
• Excellent communication skills. Admired for your inclusive way of working, you can influence at all levels. You are skilled at presenting portfolio and program strategy, issues, mitigation plans and critical steps to governance committees and senior leadership
• Data fluency and comfort working with digital tools and AI-enabled platforms
• Proven track record of publishing in peer-reviewed journals and presenting at scientific conferences. Demonstrated experience in fostering collaborative relationships within the broader scientific community
• Fluent English required; German language skills are a plus.