Senior Scientist, Next Generation Medicine Design

Working with Us
Challenging. Meaningful. Life-changing. Those aren’t words that are usually associated with a job. But working at Bristol Myers Squibb is anything but usual. Here, uniquely interesting work happens every day, in every department. From optimizing a production line to the latest breakthroughs in cell therapy, this is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it. You’ll get the chance to grow and thrive through opportunities uncommon in scale and scope, alongside high-achieving teams rich in diversity. Take your career farther than you thought possible.

Bristol Myers Squibb recognizes the importance of balance and flexibility in our work environment. We offer a wide variety of competitive benefits, services and programs that provide our employees with the resources to pursue their goals, both at work and in their personal lives. Read more: careers.bms.com/working-with-us.

Traditional targets and modalities that have historically provided rich opportunities for drug discovery and decades of productive academic and industrial research are gradually giving way to new scientific frontiers. A steady shift is underway in the target and modality landscape, with novel approaches such as targeted protein degradation emerging as particularly exciting and rapidly evolving areas of research.

We seek exceptional scientists who are high-energy, innately curious self-starters with versatile skill sets and the capacity to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced research environment. Joining the New Leads and Computational Sciences team, you will drive our Protein Homeostasis portfolio by leveraging structure-based and ligand-based computational chemistry methods, data visualization, data analysis, and advanced machine learning and AI techniques. Your goal will be to design molecules demonstrating superior degradation profiles and pharmacological properties.

In close collaboration with multidisciplinary Protein Degrader project teams, you will proactively generate and test scientific hypotheses, design and execute sophisticated computational experiments, deliver thorough analyses, interpret experimental outcomes, and translate insights into actionable molecular designs that meaningfully advance our discovery programs. Your technical expertise, clear communication skills, and collaborative approach will enable you to effectively partner with scientists across the R&D organization, significantly influencing the pipeline from target identification through degrader optimization to candidate nomination.

Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Lead and influence the strategic application of computational methods to rigorously evaluate therapeutic targets, protein degradation modalities, and novel degrader designs within multidisciplinary project teams.

• Develop and apply a diverse suite of computational chemistry methods to optimize molecules for potency, selectivity, protein degradation efficiency, and favorable ADME properties, while proactively identifying and mitigating potential toxicological risks.

• Partner closely with experimental and project scientists to drive informed decision-making, ensuring computational insights directly support and accelerate project objectives.

• Utilize structural modeling, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), statistical analysis, and data visualization techniques to deepen structure-activity relationship (SAR) insights, contributing actively to project strategy and decision-making processes.

• Innovate and apply advanced multi-parameter optimization approaches to identify and enhance biologically relevant molecular features, ensuring optimal therapeutic profiles.

• Provide strategic scientific leadership in target validation and assessment activities, including comprehensive literature and patent reviews, competitive intelligence gathering, chemical feasibility evaluations, and in-depth characterization of target druggability and binding site properties.

• Maintain expertise and continually expand your proficiency in state-of-the-art computational chemistry methods, actively exploring and implementing emerging technologies to enrich and advance our discovery pipeline.

Background Requirements:

• A completed Ph.D. in computational chemistry or a related field with strong application background as demonstrated by contributions to leading journals

• A minimum of 5+ years of biotech/pharmaceutical industrial experience.

• Demonstrated expertise in a subset of computational methods, such as: docking methods, structure-based drug design, ligand-based drug design, molecular dynamics simulations, homology modeling approaches, free energy simulations, machine learning techniques, statistical methods, large-scale data visualization/analysis, molecular matched pair analyses, or multiple parameter optimization methods.

• Demonstrated experience applying computational chemistry methods to a variety of biological targets (e.g., proteins, DNA, RNA). Familiarity with diverse therapeutic modalities is preferred, such as: covalent/non-covalent inhibitors, allosteric modulators, targeted protein degraders, antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, etc.

Scientific/Technical/Functional Skills:

• Proven expertise in computer-assisted drug design, proficiently utilizing industry-standard modeling and computational chemistry software tools.

• Ability to independently review scientific literature and project data, creatively formulate design hypotheses, conduct insightful data analyses, and design innovative molecular agents tailored to project goals.

• Demonstrated ability to serve as an independent computational chemist on discovery teams, proactively driving projects and ensuring timely achievement of scientific milestones.

• Solid working knowledge of medicinal chemistry principles and drug discovery processes.

• Familiarity with at least one scripting or programming language (e.g., Python, R, Java, C++).

• Strong interpersonal, organizational, and communication skills, with a collaborative mindset that thrives in multidisciplinary and geographically dispersed project teams.

• Scientific integrity, curiosity, creativity, proactive problem-solving abilities, and a high degree of motivation and work ethic.

If you come across a role that intrigues you but doesn’t perfectly line up with your resume, we encourage you to apply anyway. You could be one step away from work that will transform your life and career.

Uniquely Interesting Work, Life-changing Careers
With a single vision as inspiring as “Transforming patients’ lives through science™ ”, every BMS employee plays an integral role in work that goes far beyond ordinary. Each of us is empowered to apply our individual talents and unique perspectives in an inclusive culture, promoting diversity in clinical trials, while our shared values of passion, innovation, urgency, accountability, inclusion and integrity bring out the highest potential of each of our colleagues.

On-site Protocol

BMS has a diverse occupancy structure that determines where an employee is required to conduct their work. This structure includes site-essential, site-by-design, field-based and remote-by-design jobs. The occupancy type that you are assigned is determined by the nature and responsibilities of your role:

Site-essential roles require 100% of shifts onsite at your assigned facility. Site-by-design roles may be eligible for a hybrid work model with at least 50% onsite at your assigned facility. For these roles, onsite presence is considered an essential job function and is critical to collaboration, innovation, productivity, and a positive Company culture. For field-based and remote-by-design roles the ability to physically travel to visit customers, patients or business partners and to attend meetings on behalf of BMS as directed is an essential job function.

BMS is dedicated to ensuring that people with disabilities can excel through a transparent recruitment process, reasonable workplace accommodations/adjustments and ongoing support in their roles. Applicants can request a reasonable workplace accommodation/adjustment prior to accepting a job offer. If you require reasonable accommodations/adjustments in completing this application, or in any part of the recruitment process, direct your inquiries to adastaffingsupport@bms.com. Visit careers.bms.com/eeo-accessibility to access our complete Equal Employment Opportunity statement.

BMS cares about your well-being and the well-being of our staff, customers, patients, and communities. As a result, the Company strongly recommends that all employees be fully vaccinated for Covid-19 and keep up to date with Covid-19 boosters.

BMS will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, pursuant to applicable laws in your area.

If you live in or expect to work from Los Angeles County if hired for this position, please visit this page for important additional information: https://careers.bms.com/california-residents/

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