What are the responsibilities and job description for the Director of Structural Biology position at Pinnacle Medicines?
About the Role
We are seeking a Director of Protein Science and Structural Biology, based in our Doylestown site. This role will be responsible for developing and executing forward-looking protein science, structural biology and biophysics strategy. The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of the unique characteristics of peptides as a therapeutic modality and accordingly position biophysics and structural biology as a key differentiator of our discovery platform. The candidate will have a clear perspective on how structural biology can be integrated with traditional structure-based design and emerging AI-based methods. The candidate will be part of the core discovery teams and effectively integrate biophysics and structural biology at all stages from hit ID to LO.
Responsibilities
- The candidate will oversee protein science and structure biology strategies and design biophysics experiments to elucidate structural basis of a MoA
- Collaborate closely with CADD and medicinal chemistry to integrate structural biology and biophysical data to inform structure-based design
- Manage multiple protein science and structural biology CROs and vendors
- Establish internal capabilities for analyzing and post-processing raw crystallography, cryo EM, NMR and HDX data from vendors
- Identify emerging biophysics and structural biology technologies and set up strategic collaboration with academia and CROs
- Contribute to scientific publications and patent applications
Qualifications
- PhD in Structural Biology, Biophysics, Biochemistry or related fields
- 10 years of experience with 5 years of working in drug discovery setting in academia or industry
- Demonstrated experience of leading and managing internal teams, CROs, budgets, timelines and resources
- Familiarity with medicinal chemistry principles utilized in drug discovery is required
- Demonstrated ability of designing and troubleshooting protein science and biophysical assay protocols
- Strong publication track record and established reputation in the structural biology community with deep expertise in X-ray crystallography and/or cryo-EM
- Track record of creatively leveraging diverse biophysical methods to advance medicinal chemistry and elucidate Mo
- Familiarity with AI tools, physics-based CADD and cheminformatics platforms is preferred
- Recent experience of working on Linux HPC clusters with python scripting is highly desirable
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Strong team player and comfortable with fast-paced startup environment
Salary : $185,000 - $209,000