Senior Peptide Scientist – Drug Discovery and Early Innovation
Do you want to drive innovation and collaborate in an ever-evolving field of drug discovery?
Do you want to help decide which therapeutic ideas to pursue and generate the first experimental evidence to move them forward? In this role, you will apply your expertise in peptide synthesis and design for therapeutic applications, working across disciplines and organizational boundaries in an entrepreneurial setup. At Gubra, you can look forward to seeing your contributions develop into tangible projects, partnerships and results, supported by colleagues who work together to drive ideas forward.
Connect peptide discovery with early innovation.
We are looking for a Senior Peptide Scientist with deep peptide drug discovery expertise, sound scientific judgement and curiosity about new therapeutic opportunities to focus on designing, innovating, and coordinating activities that drive our drug discovery projects forward.
Your role will be shared equally between Chemistry and Drug Discovery Innovation. You will bring chemistry expertise into innovation campaigns and connect new therapeutic ideas with the knowledge and capabilities of the Chemistry department.
As an idea lead within the innovation team, you will take ownership of and contribute directly to the overall opportunity assessment, applying your understanding of the target biology and integrating specialist input to assess patient relevance, value proposition, differentiation and discovery feasibility. You will identify key risks and evidence gaps and develop clear recommendations where further investigation is needed.
Within Chemistry, you will lead the scientific design and coordination of the initial experimental phase, evaluating drug concepts in the first two project stages. You will coordinate experimental work carried out in close collaboration with the department’s laboratory technicians, draw on the expertise of scientists supporting the laboratory workflows, and interpret results with colleagues across disciplines.
As projects progress, you will ensure a clear handover of the scientific ownership to a discovery project scientist.
Your primary tasks will be to:
- Lead opportunity assessments that integrate biological rationale, human evidence, unmet medical need, the treatment landscape, strategic fit, competitive positioning and relevant intellectual property.
- Assess peptide modality fit and chemical feasibility across innovation campaigns, identifying key risks, evidence gaps and capabilities that need to be developed or accessed externally.
- Engage Chemistry scientists and coordinate specialist contributions to feasibility assessments.
- Design initial peptide compounds and experimental plans, coordinate synthesis and evaluation, and integrate findings with colleagues from Molecular Pharmacology, Computational Drug Discovery, Pharmaceutical Development, DMPK, and Translational Pharmacology.
- Present balanced recommendations on next steps and ensure a clear scientific handover when projects progress.
Deep peptide expertise and curiosity about new therapeutic opportunities
You bring substantial experience in peptide drug discovery and understand how molecular design choices shape the properties of a successful drug concept. You evaluate evidence critically, recognize uncertainty and identify the experiments needed to make a decision.
You may already have experience assessing new therapeutic opportunities, or you may be an accomplished peptide discovery scientist ready to take on broader idea leadership. In either case, you draw on colleagues’ specialist expertise while taking ownership of the overall assessment and recommendation.
Your experience and qualifications include:
- A PhD in chemistry, peptide chemistry or a related discipline, or an MSc with substantial relevant industry experience.
- Strong industry experience in peptide drug discovery, including peptide design, synthesis strategies and interpretation of structure–activity relationships.
- Experience optimizing peptide potency, selectivity, stability and exposure, using approaches relevant to the drug concept.
- The ability to integrate chemistry, analytical, biological and DMPK data to support clear scientific decisions.
- An understanding of the wider drug R&D value chain and how early target and modality choices influence later development.
Experience in early innovation, target assessment or cross-functional project coordination is an advantage. Most importantly, you are motivated to apply your peptide expertise to new therapeutic questions and develop your ability to lead opportunity assessments.
You work independently, take ownership and communicate complex science clearly. You share early ideas, challenge assumptions constructively and adapt your view as the evidence emerges. You build effective relationships and involve the right colleagues to move an assessment or experimental plan forward.
Chemistry and Drug Discovery Innovation at Gubra – your new Teams
You will be based at Gubra HQ in Hørsholm, Greater Copenhagen, working closely with colleagues in both departments. You will build a broad collaborative across multiple specialist functions network to evaluate opportunities and establish the evidence for new discovery projects.
The role offers the opportunity to influence our future project portfolio while remaining closely connected to peptide discovery. You will help make innovation a shared scientific effort by bringing ideas into Chemistry and departmental expertise into innovation decisions.
Contact and application
Please apply no later than December 1, 2026, by uploading your motivated cover letter and resume on our website.
If you have any questions, you are very welcome to contact Senior Department Manager, Martin Kræmer at mkr@gubra.dk.
We are looking forward to receiving your application.
About Gubra
Gubra is a disease-agnostic techbio company specialized in peptide-based drug discovery and development as well as preclinical contract research services striving for excellence at all levels. We insist on doing things efficiently - and often differently - to reach the results we aim for. Our vision is to become leaders in the path towards a more sustainable and healthier world. We do that by facilitating the discovery of new medicine, and by acting and inspiring others to fight the ongoing climate and biodiversity crises.
Gubra’s activities are focused on the early stages of drug development and are organised in two main highly synergistic business areas: Biotech and CRO Services. We generate our revenue by performing research for life science companies as well as by partnering projects from our discovery and development pipeline.
Our therapeutic focus is within metabolic and fibrotic diseases, and we specialize in in vivo pharmacology, ex vivo assays, drug profiling, histology, stereology and whole brain and organ imaging. In addition, we offer a full palette of advanced transcriptomics. Our ML/AI-driven peptide drug discovery platform streaMLine enables us to rapidly develop a peptide hit into a non-clinical candidate ready for development. Through a constant focus on high quality, scientific excellence, speed, and solid teamwork we have established ourselves as a highly professional and competent partner in the market.
People are our greatest asset, and our team consists of around 320 employees of which many are located in Hørsholm, Denmark. The mix of people from different cultures and educational backgrounds combined with our entrepreneurial mindset have greatly impacted our working environment, which is characterized by entrepreneurial drive, scientific curiosity, and teamwork – we join forces!
