Roche fosters diversity, equity and inclusion, representing the communities we serve. When dealing with healthcare on a global scale, diversity is an essential ingredient to success. We believe that inclusion is key to understanding people’s varied healthcare needs. Together, we embrace individuality and share a passion for exceptional care. 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.

Within Roche’s Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED), Pharmaceutical Sciences (PS) is a pivotal function, comprising over 500 experts dedicated to ensuring the safety and efficacy of new drug candidates throughout the development lifecycle. PS plays a crucial role in developing safe and effective medicines by leveraging its expertise in translational safety, translational and clinical DMPK/PD, and biomarkers, guiding drug candidates from discovery to clinical proof of concept and filing.

The opportunity (including the key responsibilities)

This project aims to integrate data from clinical trials, observational studies, and real-world patient cohorts to develop advanced statistical and PK/PD models. These models can be further refined and extended into mechanistic frameworks, tailored to address specific research objectives and scientific questions. They will characterize patient heterogeneity and predict the progression of neurodegenerative diseases by analyzing longitudinal Neurofilament Light Chain (NfL) profiles across conditions such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), and Huntington’s Disease (HD).

Ultimately, this work seeks to bridge the gap between biomarker discovery and clinical implementation, offering a novel framework for tracking neurodegenerative processes, designing more efficient clinical trials and improving patient outcomes.

Who you are:

Essential:

• PhD applied to life sciences in the fields of mathematical modeling, computational biology, biophysics, applied mathematics, machine learning or biostatistics;

• Strong analytical skills, with ability to understand and develop mathematical/statistical methods and to translate them into a computational algorithm;

• Solid expertise in analyzing longitudinal preclinical/clinical data by developing PK/PD, QSP and disease models from first-principle using domain expertise knowledge;

• Strong computational and coding skills and proficiency in at least one high level scientific language (such as R/MATLAB/Julia/Python)

• Excellent communication and writing skills in English as well as a proven track record of publishing in peer reviewed journals.

Desirable:

• Previous experience of working on projects in neuroscience

• Experience with population approach (e.g. non-linear mixed effect models, Bayesian hierarchical models) and M&S software (e.g. NONMEM, Monolix, nlmixr, Pumas-AI, Stan, etc.);

• Experience in exploratory data analysis and machine learning methods (e.g. regression, classification, dimensionality reduction, ensemble methods, neural nets and deep learning) ;

• Background in pharmacology, life sciences or medicine with a clear interest in clinical research and in developing deep understanding of disease biology;
  

In addition to your scientific expertise and critical technical skills we are looking for candidates who

• are curious and have a growth mindset along with a keen willingness to foster the education of others on complex themes and technologies.

• bring excellent written communication and presentations skills with a high fluency in English.

• are resourceful and flexible in problem solving, and can work in agile matrix teams with a sense of urgency in a fair, open and collaborative manner

Your Location

This position is based in Basel

Our commitment

Roche commits to recognising talent and aptitude. We prioritise encouraging and supporting our employees on their personal journeys by providing a safe, creative space to help them reflect, make decisions and grow in their career.

Who we are

At Roche, more than 100,000 people across 100 countries are pushing back the frontiers of healthcare. Working together, we’ve become one of the world’s leading research-focused healthcare groups. Our success is built on innovation, curiosity and diversity.

Basel is the headquarters of the Roche Group and one of its most important centres of pharmaceutical research. Over 10,700 employees from over 100 countries come together at our Basel/Kaiseraugst site, which is one of Roche`s largest sites. Read more .

Besides extensive development and training opportunities, we offer flexible working options, 18 weeks of maternity leave and 10 weeks of gender independent partnership leave. Our employees also benefit from multiple services on site such as child-care facilities, medical services, restaurants and cafeterias, as well as various employee events.

We believe in the power of diversity and inclusion, and strive to identify and create opportunities that enable all people to bring their unique selves to Roche.