Advanced Cheminformatics Data Scientist

With over 35 nationalities and a range of backgrounds represented in our Benevolent team, we aim to build an inclusive environment where our people can bring their authentic selves to work, be respected for who they are and the exceptional work they do. We welcome and actively encourage applications from all sections of society and are committed to offering equal employment opportunities regardless of sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, parental status, disability, age, citizenship, or any other basis. We see our diversity as an asset as we tackle challenging problems that bridge the gap between drug discovery and technology.

The Role

We are looking for a Cheminformatics Data Scientist to apply state of the art methods to positively impact the advancement of our small molecule Drug Discovery Portfolio. You will contribute to a high performing cross-functional team who seek to apply their knowledge to a diverse range of programmes from Target Identification through to Hit ID, Hit Expansion and Lead Optimisation. We’ve assembled an exceptionally diverse, talented and spirited team who sincerely enjoy coming to work every single day to bring their ideas and real passion for new technology and medicine discovery. You will work alongside recognised thought leaders at the cross section of Machine Learning, Chemistry data and Drug Discovery. You will apply your skills and experience to advancing the drug discovery programmes in our portfolio. This includes devising computational solutions to project-specific challenges, and applying new and existing technologies to support the needs of our wider portfolio.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead the modelling work for drug discovery projects to which you are assigned in our portfolio working closely with medicinal and computational chemists, and the rest of the project team.
• Develop processes and customisable workflows that can be adapted and applied across the drug discovery portfolio.
• Collaborate and communicate effectively with members of the Chemoinformatics, Computational Chemistry, Bioinformatics, Drug Discovery, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Engineering, UX and Product teams to deliver BenevolentAI corporate strategic goals.
• Building predictive models and applying innovative ideas and best practices in their generation.
• Provide Chemoinformatics and compound design support and data analysis for the Drug Discovery programmes undertaken by BenevolentAI.

We are looking for someone with:

• PhD in Chemoinformatics, Computational Chemistry, Molecular Modelling or a closely related field.
• A solid understanding of Chemoinformatics approaches and their application to live drug discovery projects and being able to objectively design scientifically-merited experiments.
• Strong in at least one programming language, preferably Python.
• Strong and demonstrable programming and technical skills and familiar with open source and proprietary Chemoinformatics libraries e.g. RDKit or other leading industry toolkits.
• Experience in commercial tools, such as those from Schrodinger, ChemAxon, and KNIME.
• Capable of processing and deriving novel insights from large chemical data resources, e.g. ChEMBL, SureChEMBL, and PubChem.
• Practical experience of computational techniques applied to drug discovery, such as implementing compound library design, QSAR, docking, virtual screening, molecular fragmentation, structure-based drug design, pharmacophore generation and analysis, or multi-parameter optimisation.
• Basic understanding of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
• Innovator of new ideas and approaches in the Chemoinformatics and Computational Chemistry fields of research, as demonstrated by appropriate papers, presentations, or code contributions to open source projects.
• Excellent communicator, especially when working with colleagues from other specialities.
• Experience with popular machine learning libraries would be advantageous e.g. scikit-learn, PyTorch, TensorFlow.
• Experience with large-scale chemical information representation, extraction, indexing, analysis and innovation.

About us

BenevolentAI unites AI with human expertise to discover new and more effective medicines. Our unique computational R&D platform spans every step of the drug discovery process, powering an in-house pipeline of over 25 drug programmes. We advance our mission to reinvent drug discovery by harnessing the power of a diverse team, rich with different backgrounds, experiences, opinions and personalities. In our offices in London and New York and research facility in Cambridge (UK), we work in highly collaborative, multidisciplinary teams, harnessing skills across biology, chemistry, engineering, AI, machine learning, informatics, precision medicine and drug discovery.

We share a passion for being part of a mission that matters, and we are always looking for curious and collaborative people who share our values and want to be part of our journey. If that sounds like a fit for you, hit the ‘apply’ button and join us.

Want to do a little more research before you apply?

Head over to our Glassdoor page to learn about our benefits, culture and to find out what our team think about life at Benevolent. You can also find out more about us on LinkedIn and Twitter.