The Opportunity

Underdog Pharmaceuticals (www.underdogpharma.com), a newly formed venture-funded startup company located in Mountain View, California, has an opening for a Senior Scientist/Medicinal Chemist to join the team. The successful applicant will oversee the chemistry and synthesis of cyclodextrin-based drugs aimed at removing toxic oxysterols as a treatment for atherosclerosis and will help provide scientific oversight for transitioning its drug discovery program into clinical development.    

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate and manage outsourced vendors for medicinal chemistry/synthesis, formulation, DMPK, preclinical safety, etc. and move programs forward to IND submissions
• Provide oversight of IND-enabling drug development, including synthesis, scale-up, manufacturing and analytics, and assist with regulatory filings
• Conduct SAR analyses and oversee data management
• Present research findings to project teams and prepare study reports and summaries
• Document and organize data, write patents and generate technical reports

Personal Characteristics

The candidate must be highly innovative, energetic, and be comfortable working in a small team startup environment. As such, she or he must be willing to do whatever task is needed to support the team at any given moment. He or she will bring a creative energy to the team and be able to collaborate with other institutions.  

Personal Qualities

• Excellent interpersonal, organizational and oral/written communication skills with ability to thrive in a goal driven team startup environment
• Ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing in an inter disciplinary environment
• Ability to run a meeting
• Creative and curious out of the box thinker—leading implementation of new approaches and capable of rigorously prioritizing adoption of new techniques
• Go-getter & self-starter who can take initiative
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to work in a collegial manner, a team player
• Highly tolerant and respectful of all members of a small team environment
• Focused and goal-oriented, yet flexible enough to deal with unanticipated challenges and opportunities
• Pro-active and positive attitude  

Technical Skills and Qualifications 

• The ideal candidate should have a Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry or related chemical field
• The ideal candidate should have 2-5 years of industry experience with chemical synthesis/medical chemistry  

• Postdocs will be considered, but they should have excellent communication / mentorship / collaboration skills
• Expertise in molecular recognition preferred. Eg calculation of dissociation rates from host-guest interactions, etc.
• Experience conducting SAR analyses and data management experience, including use of chemoinformatics tools

• Analytical chemistry skills such as HPLC, mass spec, NMR
• Industry experience using rational drug design and testing of small molecule drug candidates 
• A background in carbohydrate (ideally cyclodextrin) chemistry is a plus
• Experience with scale-up of therapeutics and transfer to manufacturing

• CRO/vendor management experience

• Impressive track record of delivering outstanding results, including being on a team involved in IND filings
• Detailed knowledge of the drug development process, Good Laboratory Practices and FDA regulatory requirements
• Pharmaceutical / biotech startup experience preferred
• Strong scientific accomplishment with a track record of high impact publications and innovative discoveries (patents)  

Compensation
We offer benefits including: flexible vacation and sick leave, fully covered health insurance (inclusive of dependents). Underdog is an equal opportunity employer.

If you are interested in this opportunity, I would be happy to set up a time to speak with you. Please send a copy of your resume to:

Toby Freedman, Ph.D.

President, Synapsis Search Recruiting and Author, Career Opportunities in Biotechnology and Drug Development, www.careersbiotech.com

toby@synapsissearch.com

650-681-4555, www.synapsissearch.com

• Principals only. Recruiters, please don’t contact this job poster.
• do NOT contact us with unsolicited services or offers.