12 Month University Industrial Placement Student: Computational Chemistry

About the Company

Responsibilities

• ● y Medicinal Chemistry Department and will be involved in a range of computational chemistry research activities relevant to drug discovery. The purpose of these activities is to support our medicinal chemistry design efforts to discover and optimise new drugs in the Oncology therapeutic area.
• ● Cambridge is one of the most exciting bioscience hotspots in the world. The Discovery centre (DISC), located at the heart of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, is designed to play a central role in our mission to deliver life-changing medicines to patients. As our largest research and development centre in the UK, it will have more than 2,000 people working across therapy areas and drug discovery and development once fully occupied. It is uniquely designed to strengthen collaboration, promote openness, and improve the sustainability of every aspect of our science and our business operations.
• ● Examples of tasks the individual might conduct during the placement are:
• ● Carrying out structure- and ligand-based drug design
• ● Employing machine learning and generative AI algorithms for de novo molecule design
• ● Implementing cheminformatics workflows
• ● Analysis of data from literature and high-throughput screens
• ● Running physics-based modelling including docking, free energy perturbation and molecular dynamics simulations
• ● The placement will aim to provide candidates an opportunity to gain knowledge of/ experience in:
• ● Structure and Ligand-based drug design
• ● Usage of modern commercial software packages such as Maestro and MOE
• ● Develop knowledge of machine learning and AI methods applied to drug design
• ● Develop a knowledge of programming and cheminformatics workflows
• ● Working within a team

Requirements

• ● Currently undertaking an undergraduate chemistry degree with the opportunity to spend 1 year in industry starting in September 2027.
• ● Strong planning and organisation skills
• ● Ability to see opportunities, learn, and apply that learning to drive innovation
• ● Good collaboration and teamworking skills
• ● To support your application, please include a cover letter highlighting any scholarships, publications, work experience or extracurricular activities demonstrating leadership and teamwork. Your cover letter should be included in the same document as your CV, and the uploaded file should be named in the format Surname, First name.
• ● Applications Open: 4th September 2026
• ● Applications Close: 2nd October 2026
• ● Assessment Day: 11th November 2026
• ● Start Date: 6th September 2027
• ● This position is a 12-month fixed term contract.
• ● AstraZeneca is proud to be ranked as a Top 100 'Best Student Employer' in the UK by RateMyPlacement. Browse our reviews here ( link )
• ● AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.
• ● Date Posted 04-Sept-2026
• ● Closing Date 02-Oct-2026