Computational Chemistry Research Scientist

Join California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) as a founding member of a brand new, interdisciplinary computational toxicology team focused on evaluating unassessed chemicals using novel risk assessment methods to predict chemical toxicity from data, including data from non-mammalian systems, high-throughput tests, key characteristics (KCs), and inferences based on “read-across” from related chemicals. Specifically, the duties for the Computational Chemistry Research Scientist include:

• Serving as a subject matter expert in chemistry who makes independent decisions in the analysis of chemical structures and properties as well as computational simulation of complex chemical-biological interactions at the molecular level to predict human risks;
• Planning and conducting original research into the development and application of novel risk assessment methods to perform timely evaluations of unassessed chemicals that have little or no toxicology testing in laboratory animals;
• Applying new computational-toxicology approaches to develop hazard and dose-response assessments that can support regulatory standards for unassessed chemicals and chemical groups.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Possession of a doctoral degree in Chemistry or a closely related field, or possession of the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
• Ability to develop, refine and improve scientific methods and principles for chemical hazard identification and dose-response assessment in a data-sparse context.
• Ability to write complex scientific and technical documents, such as reports, project summaries, and journal articles to clearly communicate methods, analyses, findings, and recommendations.
• Knowledge of chemical databases and software relevant to SARs, QSARs, QSPRs, and QPPRs.
• Experience with data management and statistical methods.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Committed to ethical scientific research principles.
• Ability to retrieve and manage data for subsequent analysis.
• Functions well as part of a multidisciplinary team and works cooperatively with external partners from within and outside of state government.
• Knowledge of the qualitative and quantitative read-across assessments.
• Successful experience in having a major leading role in projects or activities or on teams.

OEHHA has a hybrid work environment that includes work in an office setting and telework at home.

Please note in that order to be eligible for a job with the State of California, you must successfully be placed on an employment eligibility list for the specific classification. To establish your eligibility, follow the instructions for the Research Scientist IV (Chemical Sciences) classification at https://www.calcareers.ca.gov/JOBSGEN/8PB05.PDF. (Individuals appointed to this classification will also receive an educational pay differential of 3% on top of their salary for possession of a Ph.D.)