Microscopy Platform Head

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.

360 Labs Initiative at a Glance

The 360 Labs are a new capability that is currently being built up within the Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development organization (pRED ). The primary mission of this effort is to provide greater access and support for the use of cutting-edge biomedical research technologies by scientists across our discovery portfolio.

The 360 Labs will deliver core scientific technologies, expertise and enabling activities, as well as facilitate knowledge sharing in close collaboration with our therapeutic areas and functions. Our ambition is to bring to life a thriving workplace environment, where your collaborative mindset is as valued as your professional expertise. Our goal is to act as a highly integrated ecosystem, supporting research and development, working collaboratively, and focused on fostering excellence and sustainability. Together, these efforts will serve to increase the speed, enhance the robustness and improve the sustainability of our exploratory research and early discovery activities.

The Opportunity

We are offering an outstanding opportunity for a highly motivated, engaged and dynamic leader to shape the strategy of a new Microscopy Technology Platform. You will serve as a key member of the 360 Labs leadership team, working closely with the Global Head, to develop a bold vision and strategy to operationalize a cutting-edge Microscopy Technology Platform. You will have a proven track record of engaging with senior leaders and key stakeholders and have a strong background in the life sciences with extensive experience in the application of advanced optical microscopy technologies and image analysis approaches in biomedical research. You will drive the early implementation and growth of the Microscopy Technology Platform and its support of exploratory research and early drug discovery within the pRED organization.

Your Role and Responsibilities

• Act as a strategic visionary, providing key guidance and oversight in the deployment and application of advanced optical microscopy technologies across pRED;

• Evolve and lead a matrix team with purpose, collaborating closely with our therapeutic areas and functions to prioritize and implement innovative scientific strategies to explore disease-relevant hypotheses leveraging quantitative optical microscopy techniques;

• Drive the continued evolution of the Microscopy Platform by innovating new approaches, leveraging automation to streamline workflows, staying up to date with the scientific literature, actively engaging with internal and external optical microscopy communities, and continuously evaluating new technologies in the microscopy field.

Who you are

• A PhD degree in biology, chemistry, biomedical engineering or a related field with at least 8 years of professional experience in an academic setting and / or pharmaceutical industry / biotech sector, with proven effective leadership of an optical microscopy-focused team;

• An experienced scientist with both an in depth theoretical and hands-on knowledge of optical microscopy techniques and commercial as well as open-source image analysis approaches, along with their application to exploratory research and early drug discovery. Preference will be given to candidates with an established track record of scientific accomplishments and successful collaborations documented for example by either publications or poster/presentations at conferences or professional society meetings;

• Awareness of, and the ability to implement novel, cutting-edge approaches in quantitative optical microscopy, such as widefield, confocal (both fixed and live-cell), high-content imaging, multi-photon, label-free, lightsheet including tissue clearing, super-resolution (both localisation and point-spread function engineering), as well as a strong awareness of next-generation technologies in spatial biology.

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

• Customer-focused with a drive for growth and a questioning mindset. Skilled in creative problem-solving, organization, and implementing innovative ideas efficiently in a fast-paced research context;

• Excellent communicators with a high fluency in English, a desire to continuously build a personal network and the ability to thrive in a dynamic, inclusive environment which gives you full accountability for your own contributions and development.

Your Location

This position is based in Basel.

Our commitment

Roche commits to recognizing talent and aptitude. We prioritize 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.

We are confident that we find the most innovative solutions by gaining different perspectives, asking and answering hard questions, and challenging the status quo. Roche embraces diversity and equal opportunity in a serious yet enthusiastic way; we are devoted to building a team that represents a range of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.

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.