Hybrid | Senior Pharmaceutical R&D Scientist — $65–$105/hour
Job Description:
We are sharing a specialised full-time opportunity for senior pharmaceutical and biotechnology R&D professionals with substantial experience across drug discovery, preclinical development, translational science, clinical development, regulatory affairs, or CMC.
This role supports advanced research focused on improving how AI systems reason through real-world pharmaceutical research and development work. Selected professionals will review complex scientific tasks and outputs, develop authoritative reference solutions and instructions, and translate practical drug-development judgement into rigorous standards for high-quality scientific reasoning.
Key Responsibilities
Pharmaceutical R&D Quality Review
- Evaluate pharmaceutical research and development tasks for scientific accuracy, completeness, and professional realism
- Review outputs for unsupported efficacy or safety claims, weak reasoning, missing considerations, and flawed assumptions
- Identify conclusions that appear plausible but would not withstand scientific or regulatory scrutiny
- Assess whether recommendations and interpretations are appropriately supported by available evidence
- Apply senior-level judgement across complex drug-development scenarios
Drug Discovery & Target Validation
- Develop and review tasks involving target identification, validation, and early discovery strategy
- Evaluate biological rationale, experimental evidence, and translational relevance
- Assess whether proposed discovery approaches are scientifically credible
- Identify gaps in target validation or mechanistic reasoning
- Create reference solutions reflecting realistic pharmaceutical R&D workflows
Medicinal Chemistry & Lead Optimisation
- Review problems involving compound optimisation, SAR, potency, selectivity, and developability
- Evaluate trade-offs across efficacy, safety, pharmacokinetics, and physicochemical properties
- Assess medicinal chemistry strategies and compound progression decisions
- Identify unsupported assumptions in lead-selection reasoning
- Apply practical understanding of discovery-stage decision-making
Preclinical Pharmacology & Toxicology
- Develop and evaluate scenarios involving pharmacology, toxicology, PK/PD, and preclinical development
- Review study design, interpretation, and evidence quality
- Assess safety findings and translational implications
- Determine whether conclusions are proportionate to available data
- Identify missing studies, weak controls, or incomplete development logic
Translational & Biomarker Science
- Review tasks involving translational strategy and biomarker development
- Evaluate links between preclinical findings and clinical hypotheses
- Assess biomarker selection, validation, and interpretation
- Identify gaps between mechanistic evidence and proposed clinical application
- Develop reference outputs representing strong translational reasoning
Clinical Development, Regulatory & CMC
- Contribute expertise across clinical development, regulatory strategy, and CMC where relevant
- Evaluate development plans, evidence packages, and programme decisions
- Review questions involving clinical progression, regulatory requirements, and manufacturing considerations
- Assess whether development recommendations align with scientific and operational constraints
- Identify unsupported conclusions or missing requirements within complex development scenarios
Instruction & Reference Solution Development
- Write detailed task instructions reflecting authentic pharmaceutical R&D workflows
- Produce high-quality reference solutions to complex drug-discovery and development problems
- Define what constitutes a complete, scientifically credible, and professionally defensible response
- Translate tacit development judgement into explicit evaluation criteria
- Develop new tasks based on realistic industry decision-making
Quality Standards & Calibration
- Collaborate with research teams and specialists from adjacent scientific disciplines
- Help maintain consistent standards across pharmaceutical-related evaluation work
- Identify recurring weaknesses and failure patterns in model outputs
- Refine evaluation criteria based on review findings
- Contribute domain expertise to new pharmaceutical research workflows
Ideal Profile
- PhD or PharmD in a pharmaceutically relevant discipline such as Medicinal Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Pharmacology, Molecular Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toxicology, or a related field
- MD candidates may also qualify where they have substantial drug-development experience
- 4+ years of substantive pharmaceutical or biotechnology R&D experience
- Professional experience within a pharmaceutical company, biotechnology company, CRO, translational research institute, or comparable drug-development environment
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Genuine specialisation in at least one area such as:
- Target identification and validation
- Medicinal chemistry and lead optimisation
- Preclinical pharmacology and toxicology
- Translational and biomarker science
- Clinical development
- Regulatory affairs
- CMC
- Clear progression into senior responsibility, such as Senior Scientist, Principal Scientist, Director of Research, VP of R&D, or comparable level
- Demonstrated ownership of a discovery project, development programme, or significant R&D workstream
- Peer-reviewed publications, granted patents, or contributions to programmes that progressed into clinical development are highly valued
- Practical experience using large language models in professional workflows
- Strong judgement when distinguishing rigorous scientific reasoning from superficially plausible conclusions
- Excellent written communication and ability to provide precise, structured scientific feedback
Engagement Details
- Full-time position
- Hybrid — Bay Area, California
- Expected commitment of 40 hours per week
- Initial engagement of approximately 6 months
- Compensation: $65–$105/hour
- Candidates must live in the Bay Area and be available to work on-site with the assigned team multiple days per week when required
- Candidates not currently based in the Bay Area must be willing to relocate there at their own expense before the engagement begins
- Relocation assistance is not provided
- Client-issued accounts and equipment may be provided for work within designated systems and workflows
- Projects may be extended, shortened, or concluded based on organisational needs and performance
About the Platform
This opportunity is available through 24-MAG LLC. We connect experienced professionals with remote consulting opportunities across technical, evaluation, and project-based workstreams.
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