Head of Chemistry (Professorial Research Fellow)

About us

The ARUK UCL Drug Discovery Institute (ARUK UDDI) is a fully equipped drug discovery centre with access to state of the art, industry-standard capabilities and equipment for discovering and developing new medicines. Embedded in the enriched academic environment of UCL, the ARUK UDDI is positioned to build strong collaborations around cutting-edge approaches to targeting disease biology and rapidly progress ideas into full drug discovery programs.

About the role

The ARUK UDDI Head of Chemistry is a highly visible and strategic leadership role where you will design, champion and resource the best projects with appropriate biological support to progress to new therapies for patients with neurodegenerative diseases and collaborate closely with the Chief Scientific Officer and the rest of the UDDI Leadership Team to drive the strategic direction of the UDDI.

As an experienced medicinal chemist, you will lead your team to design and develop the chemistry projects for the range of complex drug targets at the UDDI from early targets to later projects approaching candidate.

Your team will be responsible for early hit finding, SAR and lead optimisation and deliver high-quality molecules across the portfolio to progress towards the clinic, as well as manage the intellectual property strategy in collaboration with experts at UCL. You will use your experience and network to identify and enrol new projects and technologies into the portfolio and build programs to test quality scientific hypotheses. You will lead and develop a multidisciplinary team of medicinal and computational chemists and work seamlessly with all UDDI project teams to maintain appropriate support as projects progress.

As a Professorial Research Fellow (Grade 10), you will ensure the UDDI is established as a key innovator and partner of choice at UCL, support UCL’s translational initiatives, and contribute to the rich culture in the Institute of Neurology, supporting your group to do the same.

The post is available now and is fully funded by Alzheimer’s Research UK until 31 October 2025 in the first instance; funding is renewed in five-year tranches subject to successful quinquennial review.

If you have any queries regarding the application process, please contact Laura Allum, HR Manager (l.allum at ucl.ac.uk).

Informal enquiries regarding the role can be addressed to Professor Fiona Ducotterd, Chief Scientific Officer (f.randall at ucl.ac.uk).

Application deadline: 23:59, Monday, 13 February 2023

For a full job description and to apply for this role please visit UCL’s online recruitment portal (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/search-ucl-jobs) and search using vacancy reference B02-04415.

About you

Are you committed to transforming the lives of patients with neurodegenerative diseases? Are you passionate about working at the cutting edge of disease biology and a drug discovery expert in neurodegeneration who can take therapeutics through the pipeline from idea to validation at the heart of a cross-disciplinary team? Do you want to lead a high performance and creative team on innovative programs and also mentor/coach/develop a broad spectrum of talents in your organisation? If yes, we welcome you to join us at the ARUK DDI at University College London.

What we offer

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer a competitive salary and some great benefits; visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.

We will consider applications to work on a part-time, flexible, and job share basis wherever possible.

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