Research Chemist

Research Chemist – Molecular and Olfactory Science

The Role

We are seeking a Research Chemist with interdisciplinary experience across volatile organic compounds (VOCs), small molecules, proteins, receptor biology, and genomics. The chemist will research and structure molecular evidence, investigate how odor molecules interact with biological systems, and support the development of the company's scientific knowledge platform and functional fragrance products.

This is a remote, research-intensive role requiring strong scientific judgment, independent execution, and effective collaboration with a distributed team.

Key Responsibilities

• Research VOCs, aroma chemicals, natural extracts, and other biologically active small molecules.
• Analyze relationships between molecular structure, physicochemical properties, volatility, odor perception, receptor activity, and potential biological responses.
• Investigate small-molecule interactions with olfactory receptors, proteins, enzymes, ion channels, and relevant signaling pathways.
• Review evidence related to protein–ligand interactions, receptor binding, gene expression, genetic variation, and biological mechanisms.
• Analyze scientific literature, patents, regulatory databases, chemical repositories, and genomic resources.
• Build structured molecular profiles covering chemical identity, properties, sources, odor characteristics, receptors, genes, pathways, safety, and supporting evidence.
• Evaluate the quality, limitations, and relevance of in vitro, in vivo, clinical, sensory, and computational evidence.
• Support structure–activity relationship analysis and identification of molecular patterns across related compounds.
• Help develop research protocols, scientific taxonomies, evidence-ranking frameworks, and data-quality standards.
• Support fragrance ingredient selection, formulation research, stability investigations, and product-safety assessments.
• Review Certificates of Analysis, Safety Data Sheets, allergen declarations, and supplier documentation.
• Collaborate remotely with chemists, perfumers, biologists, data scientists, engineers, clinicians, and regulatory specialists.
• Prepare technical reports and translate complex scientific findings into clear recommendations for product and technology teams.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology, pharmaceutical science, biotechnology, bioinformatics, chemical engineering, or a related field.
• Strong understanding of VOCs, small molecules, proteins, genomics, receptor biology, and biological pathways.
• Strong knowledge of organic chemistry, molecular properties, structure–activity relationships, and protein–ligand interactions.
• Ability to connect chemical structure, volatility, receptor activity, genomic context, sensory perception, and potential biological outcomes.
• Experience reviewing and synthesizing peer-reviewed scientific literature.
• Familiarity with chemical, protein, genomic, and biomedical databases.
• Strong scientific writing, documentation, data-organization, and critical-thinking skills.
• Ability to work independently, manage priorities, and communicate effectively in a remote environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with olfactory receptors, sensory science, fragrance chemistry, aroma chemicals, or natural-product chemistry.
• Familiarity with cheminformatics, computational chemistry, molecular docking, bioinformatics, or multi-omics analysis.
• Experience using resources such as PubChem, ChEBI, UniProt, Protein Data Bank, NCBI Gene, Ensembl, Gene Expression Omnibus, or related databases.
• Knowledge of analytical methods such as GC-MS, HPLC, LC-MS, FTIR, or spectroscopic analysis.
• Familiarity with IFRA Standards, RIFM assessments, ingredient allergens, and cosmetic-product safety.
• Experience with knowledge graphs, scientific data annotation, ontology development, or AI-ready dataset creation.
• Familiarity with Python, R, SQL, or scientific data-visualization tools is an advantage.

Remote-Work Expectations

• Participate in scheduled virtual meetings and interdisciplinary research reviews.
• Maintain detailed digital research records, citations, and version-controlled documentation.
• Communicate progress, findings, risks, and evidence gaps clearly and consistently.
• Work independently while meeting agreed deliverables and timelines.
• Maintain confidentiality and follow company’s data-security and intellectual-property requirements.

What Success Looks Like

Within the first six months, the Research Chemist will:

• Develop well-structured profiles for priority VOCs and small molecules.
• Establish consistent methods for connecting molecules with proteins, receptors, genes, pathways, and human responses.
• Identify critical scientific evidence gaps and recommend research priorities.
• Improve the quality and scientific defensibility of company’s molecular datasets.
• Contribute actionable molecular insights to company’s product-development roadmap.