Septerna is a biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, CA on a mission to develop life-changing medicines for patients with the vision to become the industry-leading G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-focused drug discovery company. The company’s Native Complex Platform™ recapitulates GPCRs with their native structure, function, and dynamics outside of the cellular context. This approach enables novel access to modern structural and screening technologies used in industrial-scale drug discovery for the entire class of GPCRs. Septerna has an emerging pipeline of GPCR-targeted small molecule programs with potential for growth to target many GPCRs that have been undruggable and unexploited to date.
We are excited to expand our multidisciplinary team of individuals focused on creating revolutionary medicines to address the unmet needs of patients. At Septerna we strive to embrace diversity of thought, expertise, and background through collaboration. To join our ambitious team, be prepared to bring your real self to work every day; grow and learn from a talented team of drug hunters, scientists, and business professionals; and contribute your passion, creativity, and energy to accomplish our mission. We share a fearless pursuit of ground-breaking innovations and cultivate an environment where our employees succeed by learning from each other and working as a team.
We are committed to the development of meaningful therapeutics for patients with indications of high unmet need. This is a tremendous opportunity to work with talented individuals on the frontlines of therapeutic discovery and development. You will directly help move therapies through preclinical research, positioning them for success in the clinic. The successful candidate will add their passion, unique talents, and expertise to a dynamic team motivated to discover new disease-modifying therapeutics for patients in a fast-paced environment.
For more information see: www.septerna.com.
The Role:
Septerna is seeking an experienced Data Scientist for our Data Science and ML team to drive our drug discovery efforts through the application of advanced data science and machine learning techniques. In this role, you will apply your experience with ML for chemistry and drug discovery to develop models for key tasks such as hit identification and molecular property prediction. You will have the opportunity to mine Septerna’s extensive GPCR datasets to deliver impactful ML solutions in collaboration with our data science and experimental teams.
Key responsibilities:
- Apply machine learning techniques (e.g., deep learning, graph neural networks, ensemble methods) to drug hit finding and molecular property prediction.
- Work extensively with chemical data, including various molecular representations (e.g., SMILES, molecular graphs, fingerprints).
- Utilize machine learning libraries, platforms, and infrastructure to build, train, and evaluate models.
- Collaborate closely with chemists, biologists, and other data scientists to understand project goals and translate them into data science solutions.
- Develop and implement robust data pipelines for preparing and analyzing chemical and biological data.
- Evaluate the performance of models using appropriate metrics and iterate to improve their accuracy and applicability.
- Communicate findings and insights clearly and effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Stay current with the latest advancements in machine learning for drug discovery and recommend their adoption where appropriate.
Qualifications:
- Ph.D. in a quantitative field (e.g., Data Science, Computer Science, Chemistry) with 5+ years of relevant industry experience.
- Strong understanding of the principles and application of machine learning in drug discovery.
- Proven experience in building and deploying ML models for tasks such as chemical property prediction or hit identification.
- Proficiency in handling and analyzing chemical data using relevant tools and libraries (e.g., RDKit).
- Experience with various molecular representations (SMILES, fingerprints, graphs).
- Strong programming skills in Python and experience with relevant data science and machine learning libraries (e.g., scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch).
- Familiarity with databases and experience working with large datasets.
- Experience with cloud computing platforms for ML model training and data storage.
- Excellent communication, presentation, and collaboration skills.
Preferred skills
- Experience working with DNA-encoded library (DEL) data and analysis.
- Familiarity with cheminformatics and/or computational chemistry techniques.
- Working knowledge of AWS solutions for ML and data science (e.g. Athena, Sagemaker, Batch).
The anticipated salary range for candidates who will work in South San Francisco, CA is $140,000 - $185,000. Individual pay may vary based on additional factors, including, and without limitation, job-related skills, experience, work location and relevant education or training. Septerna's compensation package also includes benefits, stock options, and annual target bonus for full-time positions.
We are an Equal Opportunity employer and will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability status.
Note to Employment Agencies: Please do not forward any agency resumes. The company will not be responsible for any fees related to resumes that are unsolicited.
Top Skills
What We Do
Septerna is on a mission to make the promise of future GPCR medicines a reality for patients. Combining the latest advances in biochemical, structural and computational drug discovery approaches, we have built an industrialized platform to precisely control and modulate GPCR biology and pharmacology to discover and develop new high-impact medicines. With our Native Complex™ platform, we are opening a new frontier in GPCR small molecule discovery technologies to expand the druggable GPCR landscape.
We are always looking for talented scientists, drug hunters, and business professionals to join our mission to launch a new era of GPCR medicines. If you’re passionate about innovation, energized by teamwork, and fueled by the desire to change patient lives, join us and become a part of the Septerna story!
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