Automation Scientist in Genomics

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

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.

Operating as an integrated ecosystem, the 360 Lab environment will deliver core scientific technologies, expertise and enabling activities, as well as facilitate knowledge sharing and learning experiences in close collaboration with our therapeutic areas and functions. Together, these efforts will serve to increase the speed, enhance the robustness and improve the sustainability of our exploratory research and early discovery activities.

We are currently recruiting scientific professionals with varied backgrounds in Flow Cytometry, Genomics, Proteomics, Histopathology and Microscopy / Imaging. In these new roles, your collaborative mindset is as valued as your scientific expertise. The 360 Labs are by nature a hands-on, interactive workplace where face to face presence in our labs is a priority. Our ambition is to bring to life a thriving workplace environment, acting as an highly integrated ecosystem, supporting research and development, working collaboratively, and focused on fostering excellence and sustainability.

Job Mission and Impact

The Genomics Core Technology Platform in the 360 Labs Initiative is seeking to add to its team an experienced, highly motivated, collaborative, and customer-centric lab-based scientific professional, who is passionate about leveraging automation approaches to enable high-throughput bulk and single-cell Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) workflows in drug discovery. The successful candidate will have a life sciences background and robust skills in the implementation and fine-tuning of high-throughput liquid-handling systems to automate both standard and bespoke NGS workflows. Your contributions will be key to boosting our operational capacity and improving data quality and robustness. You will work with a sense of urgency as a part of a matrix team, interacting with experts from each of our therapeutic disease areas and functions to advance early drug discovery projects, and will participate in the continued evolution of the Genomics Core Technology Platform within the pRED organization.

Your Role and Responsibilities

• Create and execute comprehensive NGS workflows on automated liquid handling systems, including, but not limited to; Hamilton, Beckman Coulter and Tecan, with demonstrated expertise encompassing coding, fine-tuning, and validation, Hands-on execution of both standard and bespoke NGS workflows expected;

• Oversee maintenance, and troubleshooting of automated NGS platforms. Partner with research teams to adapt automation strategies for specialized NGS projects, and train Genomics 360 Technology Platform staff on those systems;

• Embrace a continuous learning mindset by actively engaging with the scientific literature to stay abreast of emergent technologies/approaches in the genomics field.

Who you are

• You have a Master’s or a PhD degree in Biotechnology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, or a related field, with 5-7 or 3-5 years of research experience respectively in genomics, preferably within either the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry;

• You possess demonstrated experience working in an NGS core facility or similar environment, with practical knowledge in carrying out diverse NGS workflows and automating these processes on liquid handling platforms;

• You are proficient in both the operation and programming of liquid handling systems that utilize Python or Venus as a programming language; proficiency with Hamilton platforms is highly desired;

• You are familiar with softwares, tools and resources commonly used in the storage and analysis of NGS data.

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.