Postdoctoral Scientist, Medicinal Chemistry

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We are a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. We give our best effort to our work, and we put people first. We’re looking for people who are determined to make life better for people around the world.

Position Summary:

This Postdoctoral Scientist position offers the opportunity to work directly on drug discovery programs with Lilly’s Medicinal Chemistry organization in South San Francisco within Lilly Small Molecule Discovery (LSMD) Team. The scientist will be embedded in an active project team, applying their synthetic expertise to design and prepare novel medicinal chemistry targets advancing real discovery efforts. While the primary focus is project-driven synthesis, there are opportunities to contribute to synthetic method development where it directly enables program goals.

Responsibilities:

• Synthesize and design new medicinal chemistry targets that optimize potency, ADME, and physicochemical properties

• Plan and execute multi-step synthetic routes to access structurally complex targets, including ring systems, stereocenters, and diverse heterocyclic scaffolds relevant to drug discovery

• Purify starting materials, intermediates, and final compounds

• Characterize reaction components including starting materials and products by modern analytical techniques including LCMS, NMR, etc

• Troubleshoot and optimize challenging reactions, applying mechanistic reasoning and synthetic creativity to advance stalled or difficult transformations

• Identify and implement enabling synthetic methods (e.g., C–H activation, photoredox, asymmetric catalysis) to access otherwise difficult chemical space in support of medicinal chemistry objectives

• Collaborate within the scientific team to conceptualize and execute methodologies for rapidly screening relevant reactions

• Review assay data, communicate results, and discuss project impact of new data, demonstrating strong attention to detail

• Uphold laboratory safety standards and safe chemical handling practices

• Generate accurate and descriptive lab records in a timely manner

• Present scientific findings and actively participate in team meetings

• Work both independently and collaboratively in a laboratory environment including maintaining and troubleshooting laboratory instrumentation and equipment

Basic Requirements:

• PhD in organic chemistry, chemistry, biochemistry, or related field with all completed requirements by October 2026

Additional Preferences:

• Self-motivated with a continuous learner mindset

• Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to communicate and interact well with colleagues, vendors, and staff at all levels

• Experience or familiarity with parallel reaction design, design of experiments, or high-throughput synthesis

• Strong background in complex molecule synthesis, including multi-step route planning and execution of challenging transformations such as cross-coupling, C–H functionalization, or asymmetric reactions

• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced, project-driven environment where hands-on contributions to active drug discovery programs are the primary measure of success

• Experience or familiarity with data science

• Familiarity with medicinal chemistry & drug design related software (LiveDesign, Maestro, MOE, PyMOL, ELN, etc)

• Excellent organizational, analytical, documentation and multi-tasking skills

• Demonstrated track record of creative problem solving

Lilly is dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities to actively engage in the workforce, ensuring equal opportunities when vying for positions. If you require accommodation to submit a resume for a position at Lilly, please complete the accommodation request form (https://careers.lilly.com/us/en/workplace-accommodation) for further assistance. Please note this is for individuals to request an accommodation as part of the application process and any other correspondence will not receive a response.

Lilly is proud to be an EEO Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, gender expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, ancestry, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Our employee resource groups (ERGs) offer strong support networks for their members and are open to all employees. Our current groups include: Africa, Middle East, Central Asia Network, Black Employees at Lilly, Chinese Culture Network, Japanese International Leadership Network (JILN), Lilly India Network, Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), PRIDE (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN), Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL), enAble (for people with disabilities). Learn more about all of our groups.

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location.  The anticipated wage for this position is

$58,000 - $123,200

Full-time equivalent employees also will be eligible for a company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance). In addition, Lilly offers a comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees, including eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k); pension; vacation benefits; eligibility for medical, dental, vision and prescription drug benefits; flexible benefits (e.g., healthcare and/or dependent day care flexible spending accounts); life insurance and death benefits; certain time off and leave of absence benefits; and well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities).Lilly reserves the right to amend, modify, or terminate its compensation and benefit programs in its sole discretion and Lilly’s compensation practices and guidelines will apply regarding the details of any promotion or transfer of Lilly employees.

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