Mid/Senior Computational Drug Discovery Scientist Sittingbourne

Mid/Senior Computational Drug Discovery Scientist

Computational Drug Discovery Scientists use modelling and simulation to accelerate early-stage drug discovery. They design and optimize small molecules through computer-aided drug design (CADD) and structure-based modelling.

Core duties:

• Running molecular docking, dynamics, and pharmacophore modelling – Using software like Schrodinger, MOE, or OpenEye.

• Collaborating with medicinal chemistry and biology teams – Informing compound selection and SAR analysis.

• Designing virtual screening workflows – Prioritising libraries and filtering based on predicted properties (e.g., ADMET).

• Building QSAR and ML models – To predict compound activity and guide lead optimization.

• Contributing to publications and intellectual property – Supporting innovation across internal pipelines or collaborations.

Candidates typically have a PhD in computational chemistry, structural biology, or cheminformatics, with strong coding and visualization skills.​

Sittingbourne

Sittingbourne is located in the Swale district of Kent in south east England approximately 45 miles from London, 17 miles from Canterbury, 20 miles from Ashford and 17 from Maidstone.   Sittingbourne has direct railway links to London’s Victoria and St Pancras International stations with a journey time of around one hour and road links, particularly to the coastal ports, are also excellent.  

The main employers in the Sittingbourne area are in the paper manufacture, cement making and fruit farming industries, Kent is particularly famous for its apples and cherries.  In days gone by the Sittingbourne area was also well known for brick making, barge building and water transport.  The Dolphin Sailing Barge Museum provides an insight into the barge building industry.  New industries growing in the Sittingbourne area include engineering, IT, distribution/logistics and life sciences, the latter particular at the Kent Science Park.