Senior Computational Scientist

We are looking for an experienced computational protein scientist to lead receptor design at Priora and take ownership of the computational strategy from initial concept through to experimentally testable candidates.

You will develop and operate the computational design pipeline spanning structure generation, sequence design, ligand-pocket optimisation, structural filtering and docking. More importantly, you will determine how these approaches are combined and applied to generate high-quality receptor candidates within the specific functional and structural constraints of our platform.

You will work directly with modern protein-design and structure-prediction methods, build and maintain the underlying computational workflows, and design the libraries that progress into experimental screening.

A central part of the role will be the iterative interface between computation and experiment. Working closely with our wet-lab scientists, you will use screening data to refine design hypotheses, improve candidate selection and guide successive design cycles.

This position would suit someone who combines deep technical expertise in protein design with strong scientific judgement: someone able to move from an open-ended biological objective to a tractable computational strategy, prioritise candidates intelligently, and take responsibility for a design campaign from first principles through experimental iteration.

Tasks

• Build and run the design pipeline, from ligand-conditioned backbone and pocket generation through sequence design, structural filtering and docking
• Design de novo GPCRs and mini-GPCRs within a tight size envelope
• Validate and deploy established chemogenetic receptor systems in-house
• Design the libraries and filtering strategy that feed wet-lab screening
• Work alongside the wet-lab team, turning screening results into the next design pass

Requirements

You may be a good fit if you:

• Hold a PhD in a computational, structural or biophysical discipline, with 3+ years of further research experience. Exceptional candidates with a Master’s degree and equivalent experience will also be considered
• Have built and run the modern design stack within the last two years, such as RFdiffusion, LigandMPNN or ProteinMPNN, and AlphaFold or Boltz
• Have modelled GPCRs or other integral membrane proteins
• Do ligand docking and pocket design
• Design and filter in silico libraries at scale
• Write strong Python and are comfortable with structural-biology tooling
• Can own a design campaign end to end, and have code or first-author work published

Strong candidates may also have experience with:

• De novo GPCR design, whether agonist, antagonist or state-selective
• Selecting ligand chemical space with metabolic stability in mind
• Designing barcoded or flow-seq libraries for pooled screening
• Taking designs through wet-lab screening and iterating on the results
• Small-protein or mini-scaffold design
• Building and maintaining protein-design pipelines in an industry setting
• Laboratory automation and high-throughput experimental design

Benefits

Highly competitive salary and pension contribution, alongside a wellness and lifestyle package that includes support towards gym membership and living close to the lab. All employees participate in the company share option scheme.

Application Submission: All applicants should use the following link to apply: https://form.typeform.com/to/neHqe4I2#r=jo