Postdoctoral Scholar

US-OR-Portland

Requisition ID: 2026-39590
Position Category: Postdoctoral
Job Type: Postdoctoral
Posting Department: Center for Experimental Therapeutics - Knight Cancer Institute
Posting Salary Range: DOE
Posting FTE: 1.00
Posting Schedule: Monday through Friday
Posting Hours: 8:30am to 5:00pm plus occasional nights and weekends
HR Mission: School of Medicine
Drug Testable: No

Department Overview

The Center for Experimental Therapeutics (CET) at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute is working to develop better treatments for cancer patients through collaboration within OHSU and with other academic centers, biotech, and pharma companies around the world. The center unites cutting-edge technologies with a multidisciplinary group of clinicians and scientists to advance drug discovery and development. OHSU is one of the few universities nationally to bring together the infrastructure to translate scientific discoveries from the lab into effective therapies for human diseases.

Every Knight Cancer employee is expected to embody our guiding principles:

• We act BOLDLY—Breakthroughs require pushing the boundaries of science, exploring new frontiers, and thinking differently
• We SUPPORT each other—Respect leads to trust, which leads to excellence
• We work as a CONNECTED team — We must leverage our collective brain power to conquer cancer because no one individual can do it alone

Function/Duties of Position

The CET is seeking a Postdoc to join the Chemical Biology & Drug Discovery laboratory. Expertise in synthetic organic chemistry is essential for this position to drive the SAR optimization cycle and achieve project goals. The selected candidate will participate in establishing project goals, defining short and long-term scientific strategies, and contribute to the generation of project-related documents and presentations. They will collaborate with functional and technical experts to facilitate scientific achievement, and will be responsible for compliance with applicable Corporate and Divisional Policies and procedures. They will demonstrate a high degree of responsibility in maintaining scientific standards and safe laboratory practices for the work unit.

Duties include:

• Conceive and executesynthetic/ medicinal chemistry research and development that achieves project and area goals. Generate new scientific synthetic and medicinal chemistry proposals and lead those efforts. Investigate, identify, develop, and optimize new methods/ techniques.
• Critically evaluate relevant scientific advances and integrate this knowledge into research programs. Maintain a high level of productivity in the laboratory setting. Demonstrate the ability to resolve key project hurdles and assumptions by effectively utilizing available information and technical expertise.
• Publish research in peer-reviewed journals and present work at scientific conferences. Proactively seek out new information in the literature and incorporate this into individual project(s) as well as the overall program. Effectively write and/or communicate research and regulatory materials.

Required Qualifications

• Doctoral degree in medicinal/organic chemistry or a related discipline
• Strong background and training in synthetic methodologies, retro-synthetic analyses, purification, and verification of chemical structure (e.g., NMR, mass spec, FT-IR, etc.)
• Experience in designing and synthesizing structure-activity relationship (SAR) sets
• Must have the ability to interact with an interdisciplinary group including disease area biologists, chemists, data analysts, laboratory biologists, and computer scientists
• Ability to prioritize multiple tasks at one time
• Excellent communication, analytical and organizational skills: both written and verbal, with the ability to develop, implement and clearly communicate chemistry strategies and progress to team
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team while being collaborative in resolving problems
• Must be proficient with computers running Windows and PC applications e.g. MS Excel,Word and PowerPoint)

Additional Details

Apply online. Please be sure to upload a Cover Letter and Resume/CV.

We offer a variety of benefits on top of joining a thriving organization:

• Medical, dental and vision coverage at no or low cost to employees
  • Covered 100% for full-time employees and 88% for dependents
• Several retirement plans to choose from with contributions from OHSU
• 120 hours of vacation time per year
• 96 hours of sick leave a year (prorated for part-time employees)
• Commuter subsidies
• Tuition reimbursement
• Access to group life insurance, disability insurance and other supplemental benefits
• Annual Raises
• Growth/Development Opportunities
• Employee discounts to local and major businesses

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