Director, Discovery Chemistry

Responsibilities

• Drive discovery chemistry strategy with emphasis on small molecule design and synthetic innovation
• Lead the design and execution of synthetic routes for novel small molecules
• Develop efficient workflows for molecular design and iterative design–make–test cycles
• Partner with automation teams to establish robotic and high-throughput chemistry capabilities
• Oversee molecular optimization by integrating structure–activity relationships and physicochemical properties
• Collaborate with biology and screening teams to translate assay data into molecular design decisions
• Establish best practices for experimental design, data capture, and quality control

Requirements

• PhD in Organic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Chemical Biology, or related discipline
• 12–15 years of experience in small molecule discovery and molecular design
• Demonstrated experience building and leading high-performing chemistry teams
• Proven track record advancing small molecule programs through candidate progression
• Deep expertise in synthetic organic chemistry, retrosynthesis, and route design
• Experience working in interdisciplinary environments spanning biology, automation, and computational sciences

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in AI-enabled discovery environments
• Experience building or scaling automated or robotics-enabled chemistry platforms
• Familiarity with modern synthesis-enabling technologies
• Ability to translate chemistry needs into platform requirements and instrumentation selection

About the Company

Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence™ to solve humankind's greatest challenges. LILA combines advanced AI models with proprietary AI Science Factory™ instruments into an operating system for science that executes the entire scientific method autonomously.