Medicinal Chemistry Project Leader at Arvinas Inc.

Arvinas is a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to improving the lives of patients suffering from debilitating and life-threatening diseases through the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapies that degrade disease-causing proteins. Arvinas uses its proprietary PROTAC^® Discovery Engine platform to engineer proteolysis targeting chimeras, or PROTAC^® targeted protein degraders, that are designed to harness the body’s own natural protein disposal system to selectively and efficiently degrade and remove disease-causing proteins.

The company is progressing multiple investigational drugs through clinical development programs, including vepdegestrant, targeting the estrogen receptor for patients with locally advanced or metastatic ER+/HER2- breast cancer; ARV-102, targeting LRRK2 for neurodegenerative disorders; and ARV-393, targeting BCL6 for relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

In April 2024, Arvinas entered into a transaction with Novartis, including a global license agreement for the development and commercialization of the clinical stage PROTAC^® androgen receptor protein degrader ARV-766 for the treatment of prostate cancer. The transaction closed in May 2024.

#TeamArvinas is made up of approximately 450 passionate and curious employees, whose diverse thoughts and perspectives are highly valued. Arvinas employees embrace the freedom to pursue innovation, think creatively, and give back. They are driven by the company’s values and mission – to improve the lives of patients with serious diseases by pioneering therapies created with our revolutionary PROTAC® protein degradation platform. We’re really excited about the work we’re doing inside and outside of Arvinas, and think you will be, too. But don’t just take our word for it – learn more about life at Arvinas and what employees have to say.

Position Summary

This position reports to the Executive Director, Neuroscience Medicinal Chemistry and will be located at our headquarters in New Haven, CT. Hybrid work arrangements are available, with 2-3 days a week being remote, depending on work requirements and project needs.

Principal Responsibilities

Key responsibilities of this role include, but are not limited to:

• Effective team-oriented leadership of multiple target-oriented PROTAC® projects to deliver milestone decisions in line with target project profiles and timelines
• Expeditious molecular and synthetic design of PROTACs and libraries in conjunction with state-of-the-art computational chemistry resources to enable program advancement
• Dynamic interaction with external CRO resources to ensure synthetic and PK/ADME data needs are fulfilled according to agreed timelines and standards
• Solicitation and analysis of necessary experimentation/data to allow identification and prioritization of issues, and crisp decision making within the project environment to meet company, project and personal goals and timelines
• Ensure that key program progression, compounds, and data are being generated and decision-making based on strong scientific judgment is occurring
• Provide considered and focused input across all phases of drug discovery, collaborate effectively with other drug discovery functional areas, , and exemplify leadership, demanding excellence in performance at all levels
• Provide transparent, coherent, and focused updates to manager and company executives on request and represents company interests at conferences and in scientific matters to external organizations as needed
• Contribute novel insights and analysis to further develop and evolve the PROTAC platform

Qualifications

• Extensive knowledge of synthetic and medicinal chemistry-related scientific and technological principles to design and execute drug-discovery experiments on a project basis
• Experience working in the neuroscience therapeutic area and/or on targeted protein degradation projects is preferred
• Manages time and completes tasks in timely manner
• Manages a group of external scientists
• Maintains accountability for ensuring own goals, project team goals, and company objectives are met
• Represents research project team at high level meetings within the company
• Maintains orderly and timely record of project plans and results in accordance with company policy and legal requirements
• Makes broad scientific contributions that have a positive impact on the research direction of the company
• Writes procedures/protocols and professional/technical reports and writes scientific articles, publications and patents
• A track record of creative contributions to drug design, especially optimizing pharmaceutical & DMPK properties and making critical scientific contributions at the project team level as a chemistry and/or project leader
• Represents the company effectively in scientific matters to external organizations
• A strong patent and publication record evidencing scientific curiosity and strong communication skills
• Proficiency with database mining and multi-parameter optimization
• A successful candidate will have an enabling attitude, be a problem solver and have a desire to work in a collaborative manner across all the functional areas

Education 

• A PhD medicinal chemist with 12+ years of pharma/biotech-based drug discovery experience, with a track-record of leading neuroscience research projects towards IND-track nomination

#LI-New Haven, CT

Arvinas is proud to offer a competitive package of base and incentive compensation as well as a comprehensive benefits program designed to support the health, wellness and financial security of our employees and their families. Benefits include group medical, vision and dental coverage, group and supplemental life insurance, and much more. To learn more about Arvinas, please visit www.arvinas.com

Arvinas is an Equal Opportunity Employer