Apheris

Senior Director, Computational Drug Discovery

Apheris

full-time

Posted on:

Location Type: Hybrid

Location: California • New York • United States

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Job Level

Senior

About the role

  • Own scientific direction across modalities, data, and workflows.
  • Define which drug discovery problems, modalities, and data types Apheris prioritizes with our product offerings.
  • Guide how applications and models should evolve to remain maximally useful to pharma teams.
  • Balance scientific ambition with practicality and adoption in customer environments.
  • Own the “why” and high-level structure of new scientific initiatives and proposals, while partnering closely with internal ML and science teams on detailed methodology and execution.
  • Build and lead an established, growing computational drug discovery team.
  • Lead a core team already in place, including a senior medicinal chemist and a forward-deployed scientist, both with top-tier academic and industry backgrounds.
  • Hire and integrate 1–2 additional team members over the next 6–9 months as customer demand scales.
  • Set clear direction and execution standards across all customer-facing programs.
  • Oversee scientific quality and program enablement rather than personally owning detailed technical implementation.
  • Act as the senior counterpart to pharma R&D leaders.
  • Engage comfortably and credibly with leading computational drug discovery scientists at large pharmaceutical companies.
  • Lead deep scientific discussions on program strategy, model application, and decision-making trade-offs.
  • Provide authoritative guidance grounded in real-world drug discovery experience.
  • Serve as the visible scientific face to customers, including at senior leadership level.
  • Represent Apheris in the ecosystem.
  • Build trust and credibility through talks and direct engagement with the community.
  • Strengthen Apheris’ reputation as a serious, neutral partner for computational drug discovery.
  • Contribute to strategic narratives around why federated and AI-driven approaches enable better drug programs, supported by internal ML and science teams for technical manuscript writing.
  • Oversee and challenge program-level recommendations to ensure strategic alignment and scientific rigor.
  • Drive hands-on scientific leadership across customer programs.
  • Give concrete, actionable scientific direction to application scientists and customer teams.
  • Ensure recommendations reflect how discovery programs are actually run, not theoretical workflows.
  • Review and challenge analyses, models, and conclusions to maintain a high scientific bar.
  • Partner closely with Product and ML/AI teams.
  • Translate customer needs and scientific insight into clear product and model requirements.
  • Shape prioritization decisions by grounding them in customer impact and discovery realities.
  • Act as a scientific bridge between customers and internal development teams.

Requirements

  • PhD in computational chemistry, cheminformatics, computational drug discovery, or a closely related field.
  • 8 + years of post-PhD industry experience in computational drug discovery or computational chemistry, including proven impact on drug discovery programs from hit finding through lead optimization.
  • Strong practical understanding of structure-based and ligand-based design, ADMET modelling, and integration of experimental and biophysical data in real drug programs.
  • Solid understanding of modern ML approaches in drug discovery, with sound judgment on where ML materially improves outcomes.
  • Strong scientific credibility, demonstrated through prior roles at leading pharma, top-tier biotech, or recognized computational drug discovery technology providers, and ideally a solid publication record.
  • Demonstrated experience leading and mentoring computational drug discovery teams.
  • Comfortable operating hands-on in a fast-moving, venture-backed, remote-first environment.
  • Clear motivation to enable customer drug discovery programs rather than run internal pipelines.
  • Nice to have: Background as an application scientist at a leading computational chemistry or drug discovery software provider.
  • Experience leading computational drug discovery teams at a TechBio or advanced biotech.
  • Prior exposure to federated, multi-partner data collaborations.
  • Experience shaping product direction for scientific software platforms.
Benefits
  • Direct collaboration with world-leading computational drug discovery scientists across major pharmaceutical companies.
  • A leadership role with real influence on company direction, scientific priorities, and product strategy, working closely with the founders.
  • Regular interaction with our Scientific Advisory Board and external experts at the forefront of the field.
  • The opportunity to build and scale the computational drug discovery function from the ground up.
  • Competitive compensation, including meaningful early-stage virtual share options.
  • Generous holiday allowance.
  • Great suite of benefits, including a wellbeing budget, mental health benefits, a work-from-home budget, a co-working stipend and a learning and development budget.
  • Remote-first working – work where you work best, whether from home or a co-working space near you.
  • Office Days at our Berlin HQ or a different European location (3x a year).
Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills & Tools
computational chemistrycheminformaticscomputational drug discoverystructure-based designligand-based designADMET modellingmachine learningdata integrationdrug discovery programslead optimization
Soft Skills
scientific leadershipmentoringcustomer engagementstrategic thinkingcommunicationteam buildingtrust buildingcredibilitycollaborationproblem-solving
Certifications
PhD in computational chemistryPhD in cheminformaticsPhD in computational drug discovery