Principal Operations AI Data Scientist

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:

• You lead the design, development, and deployment of AI/ML agents that drive workflow efficiencies and operational insight

• You identify high-impact opportunities for automation across the R&D data ecosystem and translate them into technical solutions

• You design intelligent process monitoring and optimization pipelines leveraging structured and unstructured data

• You prototype and productize AI agents that support internal users across PDD, including metadata enrichment, task routing, or data retrieval

• You apply advanced techniques in NLP, system optimization, or process analytics in real-world business contexts

• You collaborate with engineering, domain experts, and business stakeholders to ensure feasibility, usability, and value delivery

• You contribute to cross-functional initiatives by representing the AI operations strategy and fostering scalable solution design

• You provide technical leadership, share best practices, and guide junior colleagues in navigating operational AI use cases

Who you are:

• You have a Bachelor’s or advanced degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Engineering, Biomedical Informatics, or a related field

• You have a minimum of 8 years of experience designing and delivering AI/ML solutions with measurable operational impact; or an advanced degree with 6 years of equivalent work experience

• You have deep expertise in Python software development and AI libraries (e.g., PyTorch, Tensorflow, scikit-learn, Transformers, Langchain/Langgraph, Autogen)

• You have a track record of applying AI or automation to optimize internal workflows or business processes

• You are familiar with operational data, ML pipelines, and AI productization frameworks

• You have a deep understanding of model reproducibility, interpretability, and validation best practices

• 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

• Experience developing and deploying operational agents, RAG pipelines, or domain-specific LLM applications

Preferred:

• Familiarity with monitoring tools for system performance and workflow analytics

• Knowledge of best practices in MLOps, DevOps, and collaborative AI development

• Contributions to open-source or internal AI tooling in the automation or productivity space

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.