Despite using a novel model of computation, quantum computers break down programs into elementary gates. Among such gates, entangling gates are the most expensive. In the context of fermionic simulations, we develop a suite of compilation and optimization techniques that massively reduce the entangling-gate counts. We exploit the well-studied non-quantum optimization algorithms to achieve up to 24% savings over the state of the art for several small-molecule simulations, with no loss of accuracy or hidden costs. Our methodologies straightforwardly generalize to wider classes of near-term simulations of the ground state of a fermionic system or real-time simulations probing dynamical properties of a fermionic system.