Senior Staff Scientist, Computational Chemistry
Content + Source + Freshness • 12 Dec 2025 • 95% confidence
Offer value
This role is appealing due to its focus on computational chemistry and drug discovery with a strong salary offering, making it relevant in the biotech market.
- Salary Range: $170,000 - $185,000/year
- Key role in computational drug discovery and design
- Strong interdepartmental collaboration opportunities
- High experience requirement may deter some candidates
Pros
- Opportunity to work in cutting-edge drug design
- Strong salary range with added bonuses
- Collaboration with various teams to enhance drug discovery
Cons
- Requires advanced degree and extensive industry experience
- High demands may be stressful
- Potential limited flexibility in work format
Who it's for
Mid to Senior • Hybrid/On-site
Good fit
- Experienced computational chemists
- Candidates motivated by drug discovery
- Individuals interested in interdisciplinary teamwork
Not recommended for
- New graduates without relevant experience
- Job seekers preferring fully remote settings
- People disinterested in a fast-paced work culture
Motivation fit
Key skills
About the job
Septerna is a biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, CA on a mission to develop life-changing medicines for patients with the vision to become the industry-leading G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-focused drug discovery company. The company’s Native Complex Platform™ recapitulates GPCRs with their native structure, function, and dynamics outside of the cellular context. This approach enables novel access to modern structural and screening technologies used in industrial-scale drug discovery for the entire class of GPCRs. Septerna has an emerging pipeline of GPCR-targeted small molecule programs with potential for growth to target many GPCRs that have been undruggable and unexploited to date.
We are excited to expand our multidisciplinary team of individuals focused on creating revolutionary medicines to address the unmet needs of patients. At Septerna we strive to embrace diversity of thought, expertise, and background through collaboration. To join our ambitious team, be prepared to bring your real self to work every day; grow and learn from a talented team of drug hunters, scientists, and business professionals; and contribute your passion, creativity, and energy to accomplish our mission. We share a fearless pursuit of ground-breaking innovations and cultivate an environment where our employees succeed by learning from each other and working as a team.
We are committed to the development of meaningful therapeutics for patients with indications of high unmet need. This is a tremendous opportunity to work with talented individuals on the frontlines of therapeutic discovery and development. You will directly help move therapies through preclinical research, positioning them for success in the clinic. The successful candidate will add their passion, unique talents, and expertise to a dynamic team motivated to discover new disease-modifying therapeutics for patients in a fast-paced environment.
For more information see: www.septerna.com.
The Role:
We are looking for a dynamic and innovative computational chemist to join our team and advance our small molecule drug discovery programs. Reporting to the Director of Computational Chemistry, you will play a key role in shaping our computational chemistry strategy, selecting tools, and optimizing workflows to move from hit identification to lead optimization and candidate selection. You’ll use cutting-edge in silico screening and both ligand-based and structure-based design methods to drive our advanced approach in GPCR structure-based drug discovery. Collaborating closely with teams in Medicinal Chemistry, Structural Biology, and Research Informatics, you’ll also have the chance to work with external computational experts and a talented internal team dedicated to developing transformative therapeutics for patients.
Qualifications
Ph.D. in computational chemistry, chemical informatics, physical organic chemistry, biophysics, or related field with at least 8 years of industrial experience applying their skills to small molecule drug design.
Requirements
- Experience in computational chemistry drug design and optimization approaches including ligand-based (pharmacophore modeling) and structure-based (docking based on X-ray/Cryo-EM structures and homology models) methods, an appreciation of MD simulation and free energy perturbation calculations, and the ability to effectively leverage predictive models (for potency and additional drug property features).
- Knowledge of in silico virtual screening towards hit-id. Data analysis of chemical HTS and DEL-library screens is a plus.
- Experience in chemical informatics and modern machine learning techniques for drug discovery is a plus.
- An ability to collaborate cross-functionally with scientific colleagues in medicinal chemistry (to evolve new design hypotheses), structural biology (to generate structural hypotheses; low-resolution structure refinement a plus) and research informatics (contributions to the analysis, sharing and visualization of all data is a plus).
- Outstanding communication skills with demonstrated ability to make effective presentations in a broad range of settings, and strong collaboration, and organizational skills.
- The successful candidate will be motivated to discover new disease-modifying therapeutics for patients and enjoy working in a fast-paced dynamic team environment.
The anticipated salary range for candidates who will work in South San Francisco, CA is $170,000 - $185,000. Individual pay may vary based on additional factors, including, and without limitation, job-related skills, experience, work location and relevant education or training. Septerna's compensation package also includes benefits, stock options, and annual target bonus for full-time positions.
We are an Equal Opportunity employer and will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability status.
Note to Employment Agencies: Please do not forward any agency resumes. The company will not be responsible for any fees related to resumes that are unsolicited.
