Machine Learning 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

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.​

The Swiss Machine Learning (ML) group within Prescient Design / (MLDD - Machine Learning for Drug Discovery) in Roche/Genentech seeks exceptional researchers who have a demonstrated research background in machine learning, a passion for independent research and technical problem-solving, and a proven ability to develop and implement ideas from research.

The group provides a dynamic and challenging environment for cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research, including access to heterogeneous data sources, close links to top academic institutions around the world, as well as internal Genentech Research and Early Development (gRED) and Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development (pRED) partners and research units.

The Opportunity

The Kelow lab within the Large Molecule Drug Development team of Prescient is looking for exceptional machine learning scientists who want to perform high-quality research at the cross-section of machine learning and biology that have a direct impact in large molecule drug discovery. Researchers will primarily focus on the deep learning subfield of machine learning and should have a strong interest in fundamental research in self-supervised learning and training and fine-tuning foundation models. 

• Develop novel Computational Biology/Machine Learning methods to answer challenging research questions in Large Molecule Drug Development (LMDD)

• Work with the Roche pRED team to build and apply LLMs/agents for therapeutic molecule design

• Work with the Foundational Models team within Prescient supporting the development of foundational models for drug discovery

• Work with biological data from heterogeneous sources

• Form close working relationships with research teams across the pRED organization

• Work closely with therapeutic project teams at pRED/gRED to apply developed technologies towards discovery and optimization of therapeutic molecules

• Contribute to and drive publications and present scientific findings at internal/external venues.

Who you are

• A PhD degree in Computer Science, Computational Biology, Physics, or related disciplines, or an MS degree in the above disciplines with 3+ years of industry research experience.

• Demonstrated experience with Python and deep learning libraries such as Pytorch and/or Jax.

• Proven research experience, including at least one first-author publication or equivalent.

• Experience working with data from biology, immunology, or related disciplines.

• Research experience related to large language models with a public portfolio of computational projects (available on e.g. GitHub).

• Strong communication and collaboration skills.

Unwavering focus, collaborative teamwork and exceptional delivery are key behaviors 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!

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.

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.

Roche is an Equal Opportunity Employer.