Computational Chemistry Principal Research Scientist (Computational Drug Design)

Location: Boston, MA; hybrid work requiring 3 days per week onsite. An onsite option with five days per week onsite is also available.

Base salary: $144,800–$217,200 annually, plus potential annual bonus and equity awards.

Company

Vertex is a global biotechnology company focused on scientific innovation.

What you will do

• Apply computational chemistry methods and tools to accelerate drug candidate discovery and design.
• Lead computational strategy across multiple hit identification, lead optimization, and discovery programs.
• Partner with medicinal chemists and interdisciplinary teams to generate design hypotheses and guide experimental decisions.
• Integrate structural, biological, and ADME/DMPK data to optimize compound profiles.
• Evaluate and advance AI-enabled methods for molecular design, prediction, and decision support.
• Communicate recommendations to project teams and leadership, mentor junior scientists, and contribute to computational best practices.

Requirements

• Ph.D. or equivalent degree in Computational Chemistry.
• 6+ years of relevant experience in computational drug design with progression in scientific leadership.
• Strong expertise in structure-based drug design and small-molecule optimization.
• In-depth knowledge of modern computational chemistry and drug discovery concepts.
• Experience with commercial and open-source molecular modeling software.
• Strong programming, data analysis, communication, and presentation skills, including expertise in Python or similar scripting languages.

Nice to have

• Experience with beyond-rule-of-five modalities.
• Experience leveraging modern AI capabilities for drug design and discovery.

Culture & Benefits

• Collaborative work within interdisciplinary project teams and a global Data and Computational Sciences group.
• Medical, dental, and vision benefits.
• Paid time off, including summer and winter company shutdowns.
• Educational assistance, including student loan repayment programs.
• Commuting subsidy, charitable donation matching, and 401(k) benefits.