Roche

Principal Data Scientist

Basel Full time

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

This role is based in the Innovation Accelerator (IA) team, the innovation engine and connective tissue for Design, Data and Data Science innovation strategy within Product Development Data Sciences (PDD). We translate our long-term PDD vision into actionable strategy, shaping and prioritizing innovative cross-functional use cases that span PDD, PD, and Pharma. As both integrators and incubators, we explore, prototype, and help productize solutions to deliver impact in close partnership with internal Roche teams and external collaborators. With a mindset rooted in openness, value creation, and adaptability, we navigate the innovation ecosystem to drive transformative impact and future readiness across the organization.

The Opportunity:

The IA Data Scientist plays a pivotal role in building and deploying AI/ML-powered digital solutions that transform how we develop medicines. You will partner closely with product managers, engineers, and UX researchers to design, test, and scale models that unlock actionable insights from clinical, operational, and real-world data. With a strong product-thinking mindset and deep technical fluency, you will help create intelligent tools that are scalable, ethical, and built for impact in regulated healthcare environments.

  • You support or lead the development and application of advanced statistical and machine learning methods for clinical development and decision-making support

  • You design and execute simulation studies to evaluate innovative trial designs and statistical frameworks

  • You translate complex scientific and operational questions into robust models, collaborating with domain experts to validate assumptions and interpret results

  • You independently drive exploratory analysis of complex clinical, biomarker, and operational data to extract insights and develop predictive models

  • You develop scalable, reproducible pipelines for data processing, model training, evaluation, and deployment in regulated environments

  • You optimize model performance, ensure algorithmic fairness, and proactively mitigate bias or drift in deployed systems

  • You co-lead the architectural design of ML systems supporting traceability, compliance, and explainability

  • You partner with engineering, product, UX, and science teams to integrate models into real-world user applications

  • You contribute to scientific leadership by publishing and presenting novel methodologies in high-impact venues

  • You serve as a best-practice resource for modeling strategy, code quality, and responsible AI principles

  • You lead or co-lead cross-functional data science efforts that impact portfolio strategy and delivery

Who you are:

  • You have a Master’s or PhD in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Bioinformatics, or a related field

  • You have 6+ years of experience applying advanced statistical and ML techniques in biomedical, clinical, or digital health domains

  • You have proven expertise in model development, simulation studies, and decision-support frameworks

  • You have strong hands-on experience with Python or R, and ML libraries such as scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, or similar

  • You have a track record of translating complex domain questions into robust statistical models or ML systems

  • You have experience building pipelines for training, evaluating, and deploying ML solutions in production environments

  • You are familiar with cloud-native ML architectures, ML Ops tools, or real-world data pipelines

  • You have attention to detail and quality work with an ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects simultaneously, including both long-term and short-term initiatives

  • You have excellent collaboration skills, including statistical consulting skills, interpersonal skills to contribute effectively in cross-functional team settings, ability to influence others without authority, and ability to build strong collaborative relationships with scientific and non-scientific partners

  • You have capacity for independent thinking and ability to make decisions based upon sound principles

  • You exhibit excellent strategic agility including problem-solving and critical thinking skills, and agility that extends beyond technical domain

  • You demonstrate respect for cultural differences when interacting with colleagues in the global workplace

  • You possess excellent verbal and written communication skills, specifically in the areas of presentation and writing, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts in clear language

Preferred:

  • Experience leading technical design or mentoring junior team members

  • Experience deploying ML models in compliant, regulated environments

  • Familiarity with data governance, privacy, and regulatory frameworks relevant to ML in pharma

  • Strong publication record or external visibility in scientific communities

  • You have a solid understanding of  demonstrated expertise with RWD, Bayesian methods, decision theory, high-dimensional data, or causal inference

Relocation benefits are not available for this posting  

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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.