Director Medicinal Chemistry

iTeos Therapeutics is a publicly-held (NASDAQ: ITOS), clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to extending and improving the lives of cancer patients by designing and developing next generation immunotherapies.

Based in Gosselies, Belgium and Cambridge, MA, iTeos Therapeutics was founded out of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) and the de Duve Institute (UCLouvain) in 2011. In March 2020, the Company completed a $125 million Series B2 financing, and in July 2020, we completed our IPO raising over $200million of  proceeds.

This additional capital will allow us to continue to develop our clinical pipeline and maintain our investments in our discovery research team to leverage its fantastic science to improve the lives of cancer patients. For more information, please visit www.iteostherapeutics.com. In order to strengthen iTeos Therapeutics' team, we are currently looking for a (m/f) :

Director Medicinal Chemistry

iTeos Therapeutics has an immediate opening for a talented and highly motivated individual to lead the medicinal chemistry team based in Gosselies, Belgium. The Director of Medicinal Chemistry will directly report to the VP of Research and Development, and lead from the bench the  medicinal chemistry efforts, from inception to clinical proof of concept. The incumbent will communicate and execute the vision for the medicinal chemistry group, and drive continued development of a high-quality, innovative compound pipeline. The successful candidate will be responsible for managing internal chemistry team members, coordinating external chemistry resources, and will be expected to closely collaborate with DMPK and toxicology consultants.

The candidate understands the challenges of discovering new medicines and has a demonstrated track record of advancing clinical candidates. The candidate is deeply curious about novel biology and willing to think creatively in close collaboration with biology colleagues in cross-functional multidisciplinary project teams to develop suitable novel chemistry. The position requires excellent people skills, a positive can-do attitude and the ability to thrive in a highly interactive, fast-paced, team environment.

Key responsibilities :

• Serve as senior medicinal chemistry lead for internal drug discovery projects and drive to clear decision points to ensure timeline adherence and project alignment with company goals.
• Prioritize medicinal chemistry activities, managing internal medicinal chemists and external chemistry resources.
• Design, implement and execute medicinal chemistry strategies.
• Build, critically interpret and react to structure activity relationships incorporating structural information and physicochemical properties.
• Collaborate with the internal drug discovery teams (e.g. pharmacology) and external consultants (DMPK and toxicology)
• Establish partnering strategies to leverage external knowledge and capabilities
• Assist in preparing patent applications and publications
• Collaborate effectively with the leadership team and other departments and functions
• Maintain a high level of scientific integrity

Profile :

• Ph.D. with 10+ years’ experience working in a pharmaceutical and/or biotechnology setting as a medicinal chemist or equivalent experience.
• At least 5 years of experience in a chemistry leader role, with proven advancement of projects through various stages of drug discovery, from hit-to-lead through lead optimization and delivery of multiple clinical candidates
• Experience in the field of oncology and/or CNSdrug discovery is a plus.
• Skilled people manager, managing external and internal chemistry resources (including career development for direct reports) to ensure maximum productivity and efficiency and the ability to manage timelines and resources to drive projects toward key decision criteria
• Experience with structure-based drug discovery, knowledge of high throughput experimentation set-ups is considered a plus
• In-depth knowledge of synthetic organic chemistry reaction mechanisms and retrosynthetic analysis and experience with multi-step synthetic organic chemistry, with good understanding of modern synthetic & analytical techniques
• Highly knowledgeable in the understanding of the relationship between physiochemical and ADME properties on drug exposure, and the integration of this information into compound design and profiling.
• Track record of scientific contributions (peer reviewed publications, patents, oral presentations).
• Possess a clear and effective communication style to disseminate project data and medicinal chemistry approach to both internal colleagues and external collaborators.
• Proficient in English both verbal and in writing.

Offer :

• A stimulating position within a high-potential innovative biotech company
• The opportunity to work in a science-driven, dynamic, human‐sized, respectful and professional environment
• A challenging scientific and business growth in which you get to bring your knowledge and skills
• A permanent contract with an attractive salary package in line with the position responsibilities and your experience

Interested?

Send your CV together with an adapted cover letter to the following address : recruitment@pahrtners.be

Your application and related information will remain strictly confidential.