Senior Principal Scientist, Discovery Oncology

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.

In Roche´s Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development organisation (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 medicine. 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.

This position is located within our Discovery Research Units within the Oncology Discovery organization dedicated to the discovery and development of novel cancer therapeutics. We collaborate closely with functions in Therapeutic Modalities and Pharmaceutical Science, as well as within the oncology therapeutic area, to translate hypotheses into innovative therapeutics.

As a Senior Principal Scientist in Discovery Oncology, you'll drive cutting-edge cancer drug discovery programs through essential preclinical research. Your primary responsibilities include mentoring a team of scientists, associates, students, and postdocs, and translating basic research into therapeutic strategies.

You will focus on understanding target mechanisms, developing patient stratification methods, and identifying effective drug combinations for clinical application.

Furthermore, you will be crucial in the evaluation and due diligence of external innovation opportunities. A key task is designing and coordinating the preclinical in vivo pharmacology strategy for portfolio projects, ensuring close collaboration and alignment with the Translational Pharmacology Research Unit.

Additional key responsibilities:

• You lead target identification and exploratory activities, moving from initial ideation to program nomination, and proactively seek future horizon opportunities while passionately co-creating new areas of focus.

• You lead high-impact, global, cross-functional portfolio projects, demonstrate resource awareness, and coordinate efforts as a matrix leader to meet long-term project objectives.

• You drive key oncology discovery efforts from bench to insight. You design and execute sophisticated preclinical experiments, transforming complex, multi-omics data into actionable insights for target validation and understanding the mechanism-of-action (MoA) of therapeutic compounds. You regularly present and discuss your research strategies and findings to project teams, project leaders, and key stakeholders.

• You are a scientific catalyst, driving the resolution of major challenges in your area of expertise. You contribute to scientific progress by providing expert, constructive feedback. Furthermore, you are responsible for proactively sourcing, integrating, and sharing new knowledge—both within your projects and across the entire portfolio—to accelerate learning and access throughout pRED.

• You partner with the External Innovation lead, DLT, Discovery/early development teams, and TMo to coordinate the full cycle of external innovation. This encompasses everything from idea generation and prioritization to landscaping, opportunity evaluation, and due diligence execution.

• You role model curiosity and flexibility in a matrix environment, proactively driving your own scientific and personal development. You actively enable learning within and across Discovery to advance the portfolio and innovation. You thrive in a dynamic, inclusive culture, helping to champion scientific excellence, accountability, urgency, partnerships, and continuous growth in technical skills and cancer biology expertise.

• You have a PhD or MD/PhD in Molecular or Cellular Biology, Immunology, Pharmacology (or a comparable biological science) with 6 years of relevant postdoctoral experience in an academic or pharmaceutical/biotech environment. You have prior industry experience (preferred).

• You have expertise in cancer-cell dependencies, as evidenced by publications in peer-reviewed journals and/or patents. You have experience in cancer drug discovery/translational research and targeting molecular pathways using diverse modalities, including small and/or large molecule compounds, protein-protein interaction disruption, induced proximity, and/or targeted conjugates.

• You have experience in intracellular oncogenic signalling/cancer cell dependencies (required). You have extensive knowledge and understanding of other areas of cancer biology, including, but not limited to, cell cycle regulation, transcription factors, oncogenic signalling and immuno-oncology.

• You have experience supporting IND study reports or contributing to relevant sections of IND study reports (considered an advantage). You have a proven record of evaluating and incorporating external innovation and working closely with colleagues in BD&L/partnering.

• You have a collaborative mindset, experience and are eager to work within a matrix organization, focus on collective goal achievement, possess excellent communication skills, and are well-versed in key stakeholder interactions. You have people leadership experience, preferably in industry research and development settings.

Unwavering focus, collaborative teamwork and exceptional delivery are key behaviours that drive our mission of doing now what patients need next. Together, we can be transformative.

If you are passionate about contributing to a committed team and have the dedication to partnership and innovation, Roche is the place for you

Every role at Roche plays a part in making a difference in patients' lives.

Apply now and join us in making an impact

To formally apply for this position, please submit your CV and cover letter.

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.