Aqemia
Aqemia

Principal Scientist - Biology

Permanent contract
Paris
Salary: Not specified
A few days at home
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Aqemia
Aqemia

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The position

Job description

About Aqemia

Aqemia is a next-gen pharmatech company generating one of the world's fastest-growing drug discovery pipeline.

Our mission is to design fast innovative drug candidates for dozens of critical diseases.

Our differentiation lies in our unique quantum and statistical mechanics algorithms fueling a generative artificial intelligence to design novel drug candidates. The disruptive speed and accuracy of our technological platform enables us to scale drug discovery projects just like tech projects. Our endeavors are further underscored by prestigious partnerships with industry leaders, including prominent pharmaceutical companies, FrenchTech ecosystem, and esteemed investment funds.

About the team you’ll join

We are looking for a Principal Scientist specialized in Biology to evaluate therapeutic targets and accelerate the invention of drug candidate.

You will report directly to our COO and Co Founder, Emmanuelle Martiano, who has over 10 years' experience in the industry, and currently leads the search for all our internal discovery projects (multi-target).

Your role as a Principal Scientist - Biology at Aqemia

  • The Principal Scientist - Biology will have an impact in several critical areas of the organization:

    • 1. Assess therapeutic targets in order to launch promising drug discovery projects

    - Provide scientific and strategic inputs to build Aqemia’s internal portfolio, including but not limited to:

  • Assess the mechanism of action of certain target and the associated indication areas
  • Identify unmet medical need compared to the standard of care

    • - Collaborate with Aqemia’s tech platform to shape the strategies of target sourcing and assessment:

  • Partner with the tech platform to improve our algorithm to identify key targets with fast high-quality screening
  • Perform more in-depth review on the select targets and provide feedback to the tech platform

    • 2. Support our drug discovery programs on biology research

  • Lead the design of assay flowchart, defining the experiments required to rush from hit identification to in vivo proof of efficacy
  • Provide key biological insights and interpret the experimental results across different stages of drug discovery process
  • Challenge and collaborate with Contract Research Organisations (CROs)
  • Actively identify additional resources or expertise to support Aqemia’s drug discovery pipeline (KOLs, clinicians, etc.)

    • Note: Our internal portfolio spans across multiple therapeutic areas, with some of our projects dedicated to oncology and immuno-oncology.

    The skills that we are looking for

  • PhD in Biological Science, and 10+ year in the industry experience is a must
  • You have a broad understanding of the scientific and business challenges across the life sciences landscape, with rich and diverse experiences ideally across different industrial players such as pharma, biotech/techbio, and/or CRO.
  • You have deep understanding on the drug discovery process, especially for small molecule drugs, with first-hand experiences on multiple projects across different stages (target identification, hit identification, hit to lead, lead optimization, pre-clinical development)
  • You have strong experience in the setup and development of biological assays, including but not limited to enzymatic assays, cellular assays, vitro ADMET, vivo pharmacology and efficacy
  • Experience in target assessment, biomarker identification and / on clinical development of drug candidates is a strong plus
  • English is our work language

    • Mindset

  • You are eager to play an active role in contributing to Aqemia’s strategy to develop drugs for patients
  • You are willing to bring your wealth of knowledge and skills to the table to inspire and coach brilliant people from diverse backgrounds
  • You are keen to solve tough problems on issues that truly matter, with a proactive and a can-do attitude
  • You thrive on working collaboratively in a fast-paced, interdisciplinary environment that keeps everyone on track

    • Our recruitment process

  • 1 - Discovery interview : with Athena Li (Drug Discovery Project Lead)
  • 2 - Hiring Manager’s interview : you’ll meet directly with your future manager, Emmanuelle Martiano (co-founder and COO)
  • 3 - Technical assessment of your skills with two experts in the team
  • 4 - Final interview with our other co-founder and CEO Maximilien

    • About us

    We work for a mission: joining us means having your own impact on changing the way drugs are discovered, and helping to shape the direction of our fast-growing company and team.

    - Our approach is completely unique in the industry, using AI & deep physics to discover new drugs.

    - We are a team of +50 people from world-class institutions (AstraZeneca, GSK, Sanofi, Harvard, Princeton, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Ecole Polytechnique, BCG...). 

    - We are also a multinational team: our working language is English.

    - Our founders boast : 10+ years of research experience at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, not to mention a stint at Oxford and Cambridge / 10+ years of strategy consulting experience at BCG.

    - We are part of the French Tech 2030 program (https://lafrenchtech.com/fr/la-france-aide-les-startup/french-tech-2030/).

    - We recently signed a $140 million contract with Sanofi to accelerate their drug discovery.

    - Global Series A fundraising of up to 60M€.

    What can we offer

    - Competitive salary and BSPCE policy

    - Hybrid remote working policy: 2 days/week can be worked remotely

    - Beautiful office in Paris, metro Pasteur (line 12)/Sèvres-Lecourbe (line 6)/Duroc (lines 13 & 10) - Montparnasse station less than 15 minutes walk.

    - Alan mutuelle, Swile lunch card

    - Transportation: green participation if you come by bike

    - If needed: a relocation package to move to Paris, including various services to help you get settled

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