Automation Scientist at Eli Lilly and Company

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.

Protomer Technologies is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lilly, a startup within Lilly, that focuses on chemical biology, molecular switches and peptide platforms. This position is focused on deep technology development in chemical biology, specifically peptides with a particular focus on peptide libraries. 

Protomer team engages in disease-relevant biological systems in order to test preclinical and clinical pipeline of innovative medicines. The candidate is expected to help develop strategy, direction and achieve scientific milestones and objectives based on an ambitious long-term strategic plan.

The ideal candidate is a significant contributor and leading a highly integrated, agile, and collaborative team effort and expected to manage the scientific portfolio, the business supporting the portfolio, and mentoring of junior scientists within the oral macrocycles group at Protomer. Ideal candidate is expected to have demonstrated success in similar roles with proven track record of leading both scientific rationale, planning and execution leading to success in making medicines.

This individual will also be expected to be able to independently lead projects, help shape the team and strategy of the group, contribute significantly to prioritization of the team objectives and interact with and create and nurture the cross-functional relationships within Lilly, including in groups of Discovery Chemistry Research and Technology (DCRT), Medicines Innovation Hub (MIH) and across Lilly Research Labs (LRL) interacting with various therapeutic areas such diabetes and obesity, neuroscience, immunology and oncology.

Responsibilities:

• Take responsibilities for automation biochemistry assay development, data analysis and computational efforts
• Work collaboratively in the group to achieve a common goal but also provide independent perspective and scientific rationale and contribute to strategy and execution.
• Balance science and the business of science by delivering the small and large (peptides) molecule portfolio through responsible planning, execution, and completion of projects.    
• Work on and lead (both directionally and operationally) molecule engineering efforts from lead identification to lead optimization and contribute along the way to phase 1b and beyond.
• Take on dedicated molecular engineering efforts towards targets of high conviction and utilize speed and prioritization to advance synthetic efforts both at Protomer and wider Lilly groups and through collaboration with the rest of LRL.
• Learn about and enhance the platform technology efforts at Protomer.
• Inspire people to collaborate in inventing great medicines by removing barriers, committing to high quality scientific hypotheses, and accelerating where possible.
• Keep safety as a top priority at all times, striving toward a proactive safety culture.
• Be an advocate for diversity and inclusion in our recruiting, retaining and developing scientists, with a commitment to coaching and development of scientists.
• Be a good team player and work effectively, responsibly and professionally with colleagues at Protomer and across Lilly. 

Basic Requirements:

• Bachelor or higher degrees in chemistry, chemical engineering, synthetic chemistry, chemical biology or peptide chemistry or related field with significant experience in these fields and a proven track record of research success.
• Knowledge of some of the latest developments in peptides and automation
• Working knowledge of automation biochemistry and assay development

• Additional Preferences:

• Familiarity with state of the art in computational and structural efforts for hit identification and lead optimization in peptides.
• Great understanding of computational and AI/machine learning techniques used for the development and engineering of oral macrocyclic peptide medicines.
• Candidate will understand the whole drug discovery process including lead generation and lead optimization and will partner with cross functional groups including other areas within Medicine Innovation Hub, therapeutic areas, ADME, nonclinical safety assessment and PK/PD.
• Open, transparent and able to communicate equally well with employees, team members and cross-functional and/or senior leadership.
• Must be an excellent team player, strong attention to detail, strong problem-solving skills, a high level of learning agility, with the ability to lead within a globally matrixed organization and across functions.
• Ability to think strategically, actively identifying gaps in competencies or capabilities within the organization and taking initiative to drive continuous improvement across Protomer.

Additional Information:

• Some domestic and international travel is anticipated and expected. 

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