At Roche you can show up as yourself, embraced for the unique qualities you bring. Our culture encourages personal expression, open dialogue, and genuine connections,  where you are valued, accepted and respected for who you are, allowing you to thrive both personally and professionally. This is how we aim to prevent, stop and cure diseases and ensure everyone has access to healthcare today and for generations to come. Join Roche, where every voice matters.

The Position

A healthier future. It’s what drives us to innovate. To continuously advance science and ensure everyone has access to the healthcare they need today and for generations to come. Creating a world where we all have more time with the people we love.

That’s what makes us Roche.

In Roche’s Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development organization (pRED), we make transformative medicines for patients in order to tackle some of the world’s toughest unmet healthcare needs. At pRED, we are united by our mission to transform science into medicines. Together, we create a culture defined by curiosity, responsibility and humility, where our talented people are empowered and inspired to bring forward extraordinary life-changing innovation at speed.

This position is located in Lead Discovery, a department within Small Molecule Research (SMR)  which is part of the Therapeutic Modalities function, where the discovery of chemical starting points for further optimization in medicinal chemistry is a primary focus. We closely collaborate with our therapeutic areas and functions to convert hypotheses into innovative therapeutics.

The opportunity

We are seeking an accomplished people leader and scientifically excellent cell biologist to head the cellular assay group. The mission of the group is to design and implement robust, quantitative cell-based assays that accurately reflect disease biology. In close collaboration with our high throughput screening team, these assays will be the driver of our lead finding campaigns. In addition your team will also develop and implement profiling assays to support the characterization of lead molecules towards the clinical candidate selection. This position will be part of the LD leadership team and requires excellent strategic and systemic thinking. 

As a member of the LD leadership team, you help shape and drive the strategic development of our small molecule portfolio and the overall Lead Discovery department strategy and ensure its effective implementation.

You work closely with experts and senior leaders in Therapeutic Modalities (TMo) and the Discovery Therapeutic Area (DTA) to advance small molecule projects. You nurture a strong collaboration with key disease biology experts in a strong internal and external network.

You enable the generation of state-of-the art cellular models and cell-based assays through your scientific excellence for our small molecule projects.

You lead a team of scientists  in designing and optimizing innovative cellular assays for compound characterization and screening to deliver innovative fit-for-purpose assays to find innovative lead molecules.

You ensure that our cutting-edge technology platforms are continuously adapted and optimized to meet the evolving demands of the next generation of targets and modalities.

You build and maintain relationships with external partners to keep up with technological advances.

You drive the prioritization of projects within your team, aligning with the strategies of key stakeholders in the DTA, and take on responsibility for a broader scope by implementing the impact of organizational strategies.

Provide direct line management and mentorship to a team of scientists and associates, fostering a collaborative and high-performing research environment.

Your Profile

You have a PhD in cell biology, pharmacology or a related discipline and bring 15+ years of industry experience in drug discovery, with focus on small molecule lead finding. You have deep expertise in building high quality assays using a wide variety of cellular models on a semi-automated stage for medium to high throughput. 

You demonstrate the ability to effectively lead people, manage and prioritize the team's contribution to the portfolio with equal skill. You are highly proficient in analyzing and interpreting scientific data, and drive decision making processes.  You are an expert in cell biology and assay development, in particular, knowledge in either Neuroscience or Immunology and a strong familiarity with high dimensional biology data is a plus. 

You possess advanced negotiation and influencing skills, enabling effective collaboration with disease area leaders, scientists, and external partners, and you adapt your communication style to suit different audiences and situations. You have strong communication, collaboration, and influencing abilities to effectively lead and manage in a matrix environment. A proactive, solution-driven approach to addressing scientific challenges and optimizing team dynamics is essential. You have a proven record of developing, mentoring and retaining talent and excel at  building strong teams.

 

Who we are

A healthier future drives us to innovate. Together, more than 100’000 employees across the globe are dedicated to advance science, ensuring everyone has access to healthcare today and for generations to come. Our efforts result in more than 26 million people treated with our medicines and over 30 billion tests conducted using our Diagnostics products. We empower each other to explore new possibilities, foster creativity, and keep our ambitions high, so we can deliver life-changing healthcare solutions that make a global impact.

Let’s build a healthier future, together.

Roche is an Equal Opportunity Employer.