Head of Engineering - Lab Automation

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.

Advances in AI, data, and computational sciences are transforming drug discovery and development. Roche's Research and Early Development organisations at Genentech (gRED) and Pharma (pRED) have demonstrated how these technologies accelerate R&D, leveraging data and novel computational models to drive impact. Seamless data sharing and access to models across gRED and pRED are essential to maximising these opportunities. The new Computational Sciences Center of Excellence (CoE) is a strategic, unified group whose goal is to harness this transformative power of data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist our scientists in both pRED and gRED to deliver more innovative and transformative medicines for patients worldwide.

Within the CoE organisation, the Data and Digital Catalyst organisation drives the modernisation of our computational and data ecosystems and integration of digital technologies across Research and Early Development to enable our stakeholders, power data-driven science and accelerate decision-making.

The Opportunity

The Head of Engineering - Lab Automation is a well-established, highly credible and innovative leader who will modernize lab automation engineering across Research and Early Development to power our lab in the loop vision and bridge scientific experimentation with our computational and data ecosystems. We aim to build a modern and scalable approach to run experiments, collect, move, process and analyze large scale datasets from a broad range of scientific modalities and instrumentation across the organization. This strategic and impact-driven leader will operate at the intersection of visionary leadership, scientific needs, engineering excellence, and hands-on technical implementation. With deep technical expertise in lab automation and software engineering, you will enable breakthrough research today and drive the adoption of forward-looking, novel and innovative approaches and technologies for tomorrow. In addition to strategic and technical leadership, you will focus on establishing close partnerships with stakeholders and leaders from across the organization as well as vendors to transform our data ecosystem and infrastructure to advance the delivery of more innovative and transformative medicines for patients worldwide.

You will set the vision and build a world-class team of engineers to enable cutting-edge automation capabilities that fuel large-scale experimental execution, data capture, movement, processing, and analysis. Collaborating closely with computational scientists, research scientists and laboratory managers across modalities and Research and Early Development, this team will design and implement systems and platforms that deliver modern, integrated and performant lab automation solutions. The generated large-scale experimental data will feed our AI models and ultimately revolutionize our drug discovery and development efforts. Your leadership will shape how we generate data at scale, how we embed modern engineering approaches and cutting edge technologies, and how we build modern and robust lab automation platforms to transform how research is conducted. You will recruit, mentor, and lead a technical team to realise the impact and outcomes of your vision and to shape the data and digital landscape across our global Research and Early Development organisations to accelerate research, drug discovery and development.

You will make pivotal contributions to the future of the CoE and Research and Early Development by:

• Providing strategic and technical leadership for the Lab Automation engineering group within the Computational CoE and as a member of the Data and Digital Catalysts Leadership Team

• Leading the definition and execution of a forward-looking automation engineering strategy to modernize experimental data generation by standardizing and automating scientific workflows across diverse lab instruments and modalities in a scalable, robust and performant manner, and building cloud-native infrastructure that enables high throughput experimentation, real-time data capture, and integration across global research environments

• Designing and building modular and integrated lab automation platforms and software that connect instruments, control systems, and our data ecosystem via unified orchestration and APIs

• Enable end-to-end automation-from experimental setup to data handoff-while ensuring interoperability with LIMS, ELNs, and AI pipelines

• Evaluating and embedding emerging technologies such as robotics and real-time analytics to enhance automation and data quality

• Integrate AI-driven feedback loops and data pipelines into lab workflow to support large-scale molecule making and data generation in the context of a lab in the loop AI framework

• Providing strategic guidance to leadership across the organization, advising on future lab automation opportunities, modern software engineering practices and emerging technologies to accelerate our scientific impact while also positioning Roche as a leader in this field

• Developing and implementing strategies to address unmet needs, anticipating future business requirements and challenges, while working proactively on a laboratory support vision and roadmap

• Managing and delivering strategic automation programs and rapid POCs with a view toward scaling impactful capabilities across Research and Early Development globally

• Being accountable for hiring, developing, managing and retaining high-performing talent to broaden skills and enhance outcomes of a multidisciplinary team

• Cultivating and managing partnerships with CoE stakeholders, scientists, and with technology providers to drive innovation in lab automation and software engineering

• Leading by example to establish and foster a culture of technical excellence, innovation collaborative research, and impact aligned with our values

Who you are

• Minimum BS degree; MS or PhD preferred in a scientific or technical field and 12+ years of experience including significant experience managing a group and experience forming a new team

• Extensive experience in managing and scaling lab automation platforms, data infrastructure and pipelines in research and drug discovery & development environments, including AI within a research context, with strong understanding of diverse instrumentation and integrated workflows

• Strong recent expertise in modern software engineering, data engineering, cloud computing, and large-scale data analytics to support high throughput, automated data capture and processing

• Hands-on experience and an interest in integration of automation components and interoperability with other sub-systems and software such as LIMS; ability to productively engage with and influence vendors to co-develop new solutions

• Experience with modern automation methods and engineering approaches

• Strategic Engineering leadership for the ongoing initiatives and by identifying new opportunities with an eye for consolidation, deprecation and building common solutions

• Demonstrated ability to build and lead multidisciplinary teams, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and technical excellence.

• Takes an Open Source, Cloud First, API First, AI First approach towards problem solving

• Exceptional communication skills, capable of engaging with researchers, technical teams, and leadership to maximise the impact of scientific computing initiatives. Extensive experience communicating with non-technical audiences about computing/software

Relocation benefits are available for this posting.

The expected salary range for this position based on the primary location of California is $213,100 - $395,700.Actual pay will be determined based on experience, qualifications, geographic location, and other job-related factors permitted by law. A discretionary annual bonus may be available based on individual and Company performance. This position also qualifies for the benefits detailed at the link provided below.

Benefits

#ComputationCoE

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