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Research Scientist, Life Sciences (Chemistry)
Description
Anthropic's Life Sciences team is building a research group focused on biological discoveries by combining AI with hands-on biological research. We're seeking research scientists with deep expertise in experimental chemistry to join the team. We welcome chemists from across the field, including medicinal, synthetic organic, physical organic, organometallic, inorganic, analytical, physical, and materials chemistry, as well as formulation science. Our goal is to speed up progress in the life sciences by an order of magnitude, and this role puts that mission into practice. You'll be an expert in your area of chemistry with hands-on experience designing, and running experiments, from synthesizing, purifying, and characterizing compounds to studying reaction mechanisms and kinetics. Above all, you'll close the loop between AI-generated hypotheses and experimental data to share with the community. Working alongside AI researchers and engineers, you'll drive experimental programs end to end and pressure-test AI-designed molecules, AI-proposed synthetic routes, and AI-predicted mechanisms and properties against real chemistry.
This role is fully on-site in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Key responsibilities
Depending on your area of chemistry, you will:
- Design multi-step synthetic routes for small molecules and oversee their execution end to end, including route selection, reaction optimization, purification strategy, and interpretation of full characterization data (NMR, LC-MS, HPLC)
- Design and run mechanistic, kinetic, and spectroscopic studies to explain and predict reactivity, selectivity, and molecular properties
- Prepare and characterize inorganic and organometallic compounds, materials, and formulations, and relate their composition and structure to their properties
- Coordinate synthesis and biological evaluation with external contract research organizations and academic partners
- Evaluate AI-designed molecules, AI-proposed synthetic routes, and AI-predicted mechanisms and properties, drive them to experimental readout, and feed results back to research teams
- Generate experimental and computational data, for example from quantum mechanical calculations, that research teams use to train and evaluate AI models
- Apply medicinal chemistry principles, including SAR analysis and physicochemical property optimization, to compound design and prioritization
- Ensure experimental data across programs is high quality and well documented, including procedures, spectra, and failure modes
- Communicate findings clearly to chemistry, AI research, and life sciences audiences
Qualifications
- PhD in chemistry
- Demonstrated depth in your area of experimental chemistry (for medicinal chemists, SAR-driven design and optimization of small molecules,), with recent, sustained hands-on laboratory work
- Comfort navigating ambiguity and defining problems in a rapidly evolving research environment
- Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across cross-functional teams, with strong written and verbal communication skills
Nice to have
- 5+ years of experience in your area of chemistry beyond the PhD
- For medicinal chemists, a track record of advancing programs from hit identification through lead optimization
- Experience directing chemistry activities at contract research organizations
- Computational chemistry, cheminformatics, or coding skills, for example quantum mechanical calculations (DFT) or Python with RDKit or pandas for data analysis and automation
- Experience using AI or ML tools in chemistry or the life sciences
- Publications and/or patents demonstrating scientific impact
Benefits
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