Research Associate

Acuitas Therapeutics is a private biotechnology company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We are the premier global provider of LNP delivery systems for nucleic acid therapeutics. Acuitas is partnered with multiple international, biotechnology and pharmaceutical partners who are focused on bringing new vaccines and drugs into clinical development and to the marketplace._
- All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other status protected by applicable law._

**Position**:Research Associate / Scientist - Synthetic Chemistry**

Acuitas Therapeutics is seeking a highly skilled MSc or PhD level scientist with expertise in synthetic organic and/or medicinal chemistry to work in the Chemistry Group, reporting to the Director, Chemistry. The role holder will be responsible for the design, synthesis and characterization of novel compounds in support of our ongoing development of state-of-the-art LNP formulations for nucleic acid delivery. They will work as part of a cross-functional team, regularly interacting with our analytical chemistry, formulations and preclinical research groups. Acuitas Therapeutics has a global reputation for the quality of our compounds and our innovation in the LNP space and this is an exciting opportunity to be a part of this incredible team.

**Responsibilities**:
The Research Associate/Scientist will work at the bench performing research related to the design, synthesis and characterization of novel lipids for use in LNP formulations. They will contribute to the understanding of the structure activity relationship of these compounds and suggest further iterative improvements to the compounds to provide optimal performance of our LNP formulations.

Working with the Director, Chemistry, the responsibilities would include:

- Design and execution of the synthesis, purification and characterization of a variety of lipids and small molecules.
- Contribute to the design of new compounds based on current understanding of the SAR and feedback from colleagues in other disciplines across the organization.
- Work effectively in a cross-functional team and contribute to team, departmental and organizational meetings.
- Keep detailed lab notes at industry standards.
- Participate in drafting the technical portion of intellectual property filings and research papers.
- Lab management duties as required.
- Collaborative analytics with other departments including Formulation Development, Process Development and Preclinical.
- Maintain familiarity with relevant scientific knowledge and advancements.

**Requirements**:

- MSc/PhD with 0 to 2 years of experience in a drug discovery/synthetic chemistry/medicinal chemistry organization, or other relevant experience.
- Current and comprehensive knowledge of modern synthetic organic chemistry, purification, and characterization techniques.
- Experience in optimizing discovery scale chemical reactions to enable multi-gram synthesis is an asset.
- The ability to develop and master new techniques quickly and to be able to work independently.
- Familiarity with industry standard chemistry-specific software and cheminformatics tools.
- Excellent communication skills, data driven and organized.

In return for your skills and talents, Acuitas offers a competitive employment package including highly competitive salary and bonus scheme, benefits, flexible working arrangements and a diverse and exciting working environment,