Research Synthesis Chemist

Your work will change lives. Including your own. 

The Impact You’ll Make

We are growing our chemistry team at Recursion and are seeking a Research Synthetic Chemist to join our Automated Chemistry group. We are looking for an individual that thrives in a dynamic and collaborative team environment and successfully adopts new technologies and workflows to accelerate drug discovery.

You will independently convert synthesis requests into structured experimental plans for our state-of-the-art Chemistry Automation platform. You will collaborate with other scientists and automation specialists with our chemistry team to meet project deadlines by providing hands-on experimental support and take ownership of your experimental work to deliver compounds and reaction data. 

With structured training and drawing on previous experience of lab automation or methodology development, you will develop deep familiarity with the Chemistry Automation Platform and workflow software, and be able to propose, develop and translate new methodologies onto the automated platform in collaboration with senior chemists and automation engineers. 

In this role, you will:

• Execute synthetic routes by seamlessly integrating traditional laboratory techniques with our automated chemistry platforms to deliver high-quality compounds independently for drug discovery projects.
• Translate synthetic methods to the automation platform utilising critical thinking and your technical knowledge of chemical reactivity and methodology development. 
• Learn how to diagnose and resolve chemical or procedural issues within our automated workflows seeking assistance from automation specialists where needed.
• Collaborate with teams at the interface of automated chemistry, medicinal chemistry, software and hardware engineering to develop our platform and tools to better serve patients
• Champion a culture of laboratory excellence by taking a proactive approach to HSE (Health, Safety, and Environment) standards and maintaining a high-performance lab environment. 

The Team You’ll Join 

As a core member of Recursion’s Automated Chemistry team, you will join a multidisciplinary group of highly skilled scientists and engineers. This team operates at the technological cutting edge, focusing on the application of automation and advanced cheminformatics tools to synthetic organic chemistry in support of our medicinal chemistry programmes.

The Experience You’ll Need

• A PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry or BS/MSc degree in Chemistry (with equivalent experience) and experience of performing synthetic organic chemistry in an industrial setting.
• Adept at safely planning and executing chemical synthesis for medicinal chemistry or equivalent applications delivering high quality contributions in an independent manner.
• Demonstrable experience of adopting computational tools, new software or lab automation with a positive impact on throughput or data quality.
• Strong communication skills, ensuring clear and concise information exchange with peers and key stakeholders.

Preferred

• Exposure to automation in synthesis (e.g., liquid handling, HTE, powder dispensing, parallel synthesis, or flow), even if not yet the primary focus of your role.
• Experience supporting library expansions or direct-to-biology in a medicinal chemistry or discovery context.

Working Location & Compensation:

This position is based at our office located in Milton Park (Bell Labs), UK. We operate a hybrid environment, but this lab‑based role requires the majority of time onsite to perform hands‑on experimental work and collaborate directly with the Automation Chemistry team. Specific onsite expectations can be discussed during the hiring process.

At Recursion, we believe that every employee should be compensated fairly. Based on the skill and level of experience required for this role, the estimated current annual base range for this role is £52,000 to £70,400. You will also be eligible for an annual bonus and equity compensation, as well as a comprehensive benefits package. 

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The Values We Hope You Share:

• We act boldly with integrity. We are unconstrained in our thinking, take calculated risks, and push boundaries, but never at the expense of ethics, science, or trust. 
• We care deeply and engage directly. Caring means holding a deep sense of responsibility and respect - showing up, speaking honestly, and taking action.
• We learn actively and adapt rapidly. Progress comes from doing. We experiment, test, and refine, embracing iteration over perfection.
• We move with urgency because patients are waiting. Speed isn’t about rushing but about moving the needle every day.
• We take ownership and accountability. Through ownership and accountability, we enable trust and autonomy—leaders take accountability for decisive action, and teams own outcomes together. 
• We are One Recursion. True cross-functional collaboration is about trust, clarity, humility, and impact. Through sharing, we can be greater than the sum of our individual capabilities.

Our values underpin the employee experience at Recursion. They are the character and personality of the company demonstrated through how we communicate, support one another, spend our time, make decisions, and celebrate collectively.

More About Recursion

Recursion (NASDAQ: RXRX) is a clinical-stage TechBio company decoding biology to radically improve lives. Recursion is advancing a portfolio of differentiated investigational medicines across its wholly owned and partnered pipeline in oncology, rare disease, neuroscience, immunology, and other therapeutic areas with significant unmet need. Enabling its mission is the Recursion OS, an AI-native, end-to-end drug discovery and development platform integrating biology, chemistry, and clinical development into a unified intelligence system. Powered by proprietary multimodal data, purpose-built AI models, and bilingual teams fluent in both science and AI, the Recursion OS is designed to translate complex science into medicines that matter — faster, better, and at scale — for patients who are waiting.

Recursion’s platform infrastructure is anchored in Salt Lake City, Utah and Milton Park, Oxfordshire, where its automated biology and chemistry laboratories generate proprietary data at industrial scale. Recursion also maintains offices in New York, Montréal, and London, three global hubs for talent and leadership at the intersection of AI and scientific innovation. Learn more at www.recursion.com, or connect on X and LinkedIn.

Recursion is an Equal Opportunity Employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, local, or provincial human rights legislation. 

Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.

Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Recursion Pharmaceuticals and its affiliate companies do not accept resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to Recursion or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Recursion’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of Recursion, and Recursion will not owe any referral or other fees. Our team will communicate directly with candidates who are not represented by an agent or intermediary unless otherwise agreed to prior to interviewing for the job.