VIB Recruits a Senior Drug Discovery Scientist in Leuven

VIB (Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie) is recruiting a Senior Drug Discovery Scientist for its Discovery Sciences team in Leuven (Flemish Brabant), Belgium. This on-site opportunity suits a scientist with substantial small-molecule discovery experience who can lead early programmes across target classes and therapeutic areas. The work calls for sound chemistry knowledge, engagement with computational and experimental evidence, and the ability to coordinate contributors around clear programme decisions.

Based within VIB Discovery Sciences, the Senior Drug Discovery Scientist will contribute to translational work that moves promising life-science findings towards discovery projects. Candidates whose experience covers hit finding, hit-to-lead work and collaboration across scientific disciplines will be well aligned with the scope described for this Leuven position. Fluency in spoken and written English is required for the role, which brings together internal and external scientific contributors.

Opportunity Details

Overview of the Vacancy

Location, Sector, and Role Context

The post sits in VIB Discovery Sciences, a translational group within the Innovation & Business unit. Its purpose is to support promising basic-life-science findings as they progress towards drug, biomarker, diagnostic and agro-discovery projects. In this position, the scientist will lead early-stage small-molecule programmes, establishing project direction and priorities from initial hit identification through early lead optimisation. Decisions at key progression points form part of the remit, as does work towards programme milestones that can support licensing, industrial collaboration or the creation of new biotechnology ventures. The role is concerned with programmes at the early discovery stage, where coordinated scientific direction can influence how potential opportunities are advanced.

Day-to-day work combines scientific judgement with project coordination. The Senior Drug Discovery Scientist will bring structural modelling, cheminformatics, predictive approaches and AI-enabled methods into structure-activity relationship analysis, alongside rigorous experimental validation. The role also provides discovery-chemistry advice to VIB researchers on subjects including assay design, hit-matter assessment, hit expansion, hit-to-lead planning and basic pharmacology. A suitable background therefore includes relevant doctoral study, industry experience in small-molecule discovery, and a record of working productively with chemists, biologists, cross-functional colleagues and external partners. The work requires the scientist to connect computational and experimental contributions when forming programme-level recommendations.

About the Employer: VIB (Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie)

Organization and Relevant Services

Verified Employer Overview

VIB was founded in 1995 and became operational in 1996. It is a life-sciences research institute in Flanders, Belgium, with a mission that includes conducting groundbreaking biomolecular research for scientific and societal enrichment. The institute undertakes strategic basic research and pursues technology transfer intended to benefit consumers and patients. Its institutional activity therefore connects fundamental biomolecular research with the transfer of technologies arising from that work. For this vacancy, VIB is seeking a scientist whose discovery expertise can help translate scientific findings into work with potential practical application, while contributing within the remit of the Discovery Sciences group.

Research at VIB is connected with departments at Flemish universities, including Ghent University, KU Leuven, the University of Antwerp and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. VIB describes itself as an entrepreneurial non-profit research institute working closely with five Flemish universities, including Hasselt University. It is also a founding member of EU-LIFE, an alliance of European life-sciences research institutes. The university relationships link VIB researchers with departments across the Flemish higher-education landscape, while EU-LIFE places the institute within a European alliance of comparable research organisations. This setting places the Leuven role alongside academic research links and an institute-wide interest in translating research insights.

Professional Setting and Role Context

Work Environment, Operations, and Facilities

VIB Discovery Sciences makes specialist expertise available to VIB projects that are suitable for translation. The team facilitates early drug and agro-discovery, helping turn scientific insights into potential therapeutics or agrochemicals. Embedded in VIB's Innovation & Business unit, Discovery Sciences works with VIB scientists, core facilities and external partners. This specialist function supports projects from the point at which a promising finding can be taken forward into discovery activity. The Senior Drug Discovery Scientist will contribute within this part of the organisation by directing early-stage small-molecule work and by offering discovery-chemistry input to the wider scientific community, alongside colleagues and partners involved in translational project activity.

The Discovery Sciences team includes senior scientists with industry training and technicians, and operates from research infrastructures in Leuven and Ghent. Its activities include the design and execution of in-vitro assay-development campaigns, alongside the design and optimisation of biologics and small-molecule compounds. The advertised post is located in Leuven, Flanders, and is based at the VIB site. These research infrastructures are the operational setting for the team’s assay-development campaigns and compound-design work. They also provide the immediate context for collaboration with research groups, core units, computational and experimental scientists, consultants and contract research organisations.

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Open Positions

1. Senior Drug Discovery Scientist

Official title: Senior Drug Discovery Scientist

Location: Leuven (Flemish Brabant), Belgium | Employment information: Full-time open-ended contract on site

As Senior Drug Discovery Scientist, the appointed professional will take responsibility for the scientific and strategic direction of early small-molecule programmes. The remit moves from hit finding through early lead optimisation and includes choices about priority and programme progression. It combines leadership of project teams with detailed engagement in structure-activity relationship analysis, modelling and experimental evidence. Equally, the role is a consulting resource for VIB researchers who need guidance on discovery-chemistry questions connected with assays, hits, lead development and basic pharmacology. The position also involves collaboration across internal research and core-unit colleagues, external advisers and contract research organisations as programmes are shaped towards defined value inflection points.

Responsibilities

• Establish early-stage small-molecule discovery project teams for assigned programmes.
• Coordinate the contributors working on those discovery project teams.
• Set the strategy that guides each programme from hit finding into early lead optimisation.
• Determine programme priorities as the discovery work develops.
• Take the principal go or no-go decisions that shape movement towards valorisation.
• Incorporate computational approaches into structure-activity relationship analysis and programme choices.
• Act as a discovery-chemistry adviser to VIB's scientific community.
• Provide advice on assay design, hit-matter evaluation, hit expansion, hit-to-lead planning and basic pharmacology.
• Work with VIB research groups and core units, computational and experimental scientists, external consultants and contract research organisations.
• Help steer programmes towards value inflection points relevant to licensing, industry partnerships and new biotechnology ventures.

Qualifications

• Hold a PhD in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences or a related discipline.
• Bring five to ten years of relevant industry experience in small-molecule discovery.
• Apply working knowledge of organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry to discovery work.
• Use molecular modelling and predictive methods, from empirical approaches through machine-learning approaches.
• Demonstrate effective collaboration with both chemists and biologists.
• Show a record of leading early hit-finding and hit-to-lead programmes with cross-functional teams and external partners, while communicating fluently in written and spoken English.
• Preferred: Bring familiarity with biochemical and cell-based assays, high-throughput screening, biophysical techniques and structural-biology approaches used in small-molecule discovery.
• Preferred: Critically interpret data from these methods and guide experimental strategy with assay-development, structural-biology and screening specialists.
• Preferred: Have prior exposure to translational activities such as licensing, industry partnering or new-venture creation.

Skills and Competencies

• Use a hands-on, proactive and solution-driven approach when directing early discovery programmes.
• Build productive professional connections across VIB groups, core units and external contributors.
• Work carefully and independently when assessing programme evidence and priorities.
• Maintain self-motivation while coordinating work that spans scientific disciplines.
• Demonstrate an eagerness to learn in a role involving evolving computational and experimental approaches.
• Communicate fluently in spoken and written English with the scientists and partners involved in the work.
• Bring a sense of humour, which the vacancy recommends for this collaborative setting.

Benefits and Employment Information

• VIB lists full social security for the role, including a pension scheme and a health-care programme.
• The listed setting is supportive, stimulating and international, with a focus on drug development.
• The successful candidate can access VIB initiatives for personal and professional development and lifelong learning.
• For this Senior Drug Discovery Scientist post, the employment information is a full-time, open-ended contract on site; part-time may be negotiable, and the vacancy does not publish a salary.

Application Guidance

Prepare a Focused Application

CV, Evidence, Documents, and Interview Preparation

As general preparation guidance, applicants for senior discovery-science positions may organise examples that show how they evaluated a hit-finding or hit-to-lead programme, set priorities and worked through a progression decision. It can be useful to describe the scientific evidence considered, the contribution of chemistry and biology colleagues, and the way external collaborators were coordinated. For this vacancy, examples may be most relevant when they demonstrate small-molecule work, structure-activity relationship reasoning, computational input and careful interpretation of experimental results. This is preparation guidance rather than an additional employer requirement.

General interview preparation for this type of role can include concise explanations of approaches to assay design, hit-matter analysis, hit expansion and early lead optimisation. Candidates may also prepare to discuss how structural modelling, cheminformatics, predictive methods or AI-enabled approaches informed a programme while experimental validation remained central. A clear account of collaboration with chemists, biologists, screening, structural-biology or assay-development specialists can help present relevant experience. Applicants may additionally consider how to explain exposure to licensing, industry collaboration or new-venture work, where applicable. These are general suggestions, not stated selection steps.

• Prepare a clear example of leading an early small-molecule programme from hit finding towards lead work.
• Outline how chemistry, biology and modelling evidence informed a programme-priority or progression decision.
• Select an example of coordinating cross-functional contributors and external partners.
• Be ready to explain an approach to structure-activity relationship analysis and experimental validation.
• Prepare concise examples of advice on assays, hit analysis, hit expansion or basic pharmacology.
• Arrange the CV, motivation or cover letter and at least two references in English before using the application route.

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How to Apply

Submit Your Application Through the Verified Route

Apply Through the Official Employer Portal

Prepare a CV, a cover or motivation letter and at least two references in English, the language used for this vacancy. Submit the materials for the Senior Drug Discovery Scientist role through the official employer application portal accessed by the button below the instructions. The VIB application route is shown once a ten-second wait has passed.