Director​/Senior Director, Software Engineering

Overview

A healthier future drives us to innovate and continuously advance science, ensuring everyone has access to the healthcare they need today and for generations to come. Roche’s Research and Early Development organisations at Genentech (gRED) and Pharma (pRED) have demonstrated how advances in AI, data, and computational sciences accelerate R&D. The new Computational Sciences Center of Excellence (CoE) is a unified group leveraging data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist scientists across gRED and pRED in delivering innovative medicines worldwide.

Within the CoE, the Data and Digital Catalyst (DDC) organization modernizes computational and data ecosystems across R&D to enable data‑driven science and accelerate decision‑making. Our Solutions team builds modernized, interconnected computational and data ecosystems that power the work of Computational and Bench Scientists and enable ML/AI efforts. As a leader, you will shape the future of data solutions, lead a talented engineering team, and build collaborative partnerships to foster a culture of growth and impact.

• Drive an AI‑first transformation, connecting cutting‑edge artificial intelligence with enterprise software engineering and guiding the organization from traditional development toward an AI‑native approach in product and tool development.
• Combine rigorous, hands‑on technical depth with a sharp understanding of the competitive landscape to build and deliver software systems leveraging the best available AI techniques and tools.
• Provide strategic engineering leadership, identify new opportunities to build common, scalable solutions, and drive the technical vision and delivery of robust data flows and applications across key R&D domains.
• Lead, mentor, and develop a diverse team of software, data, and machine learning engineers, fostering a culture of growth and collaboration.
• Oversee the full talent lifecycle, from implementing an inclusive recruitment strategy to retaining and developing team members.
• Champion technical excellence by improving application architecture and data ecosystem, leveraging modern, cloud‑first, and API‑first patterns.
• Make key technical decisions to reduce technical debt and drive the consolidation of legacy systems.
• Enable advanced analytics and AI/ML capabilities by delivering integrated data sets and facilitating model implementation.
• Build and maintain strong partnerships with key stakeholders and leaders across our global organization.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
• Master’s degree or higher preferred.
• 12+ years of experience in software engineering and 7+ years of experience managing teams, including forming a new team.
• Deep experience and technical understanding of modern software and data engineering approaches, including data flow within the cloud and cutting‑edge data storage solutions.
• Experience developing software using the latest AI coding tools.
• Experience with full‑stack development, building front‑ends using HTML/CSS, JavaScript, and other libraries, and back‑ends using high‑level languages such as Python or Java.
• Working knowledge of databases, data analytics (SQL/No
  
  SQL, ETL/ELT), and APIs (REST, Graph
  
  QL).
• Experience designing highly reliable, scalable, performant, secure, and robust data applications, preferably on a public cloud platform.
• Open‑source, cloud‑first, API‑first, and AI‑first approach to problem solving.
• Technical leadership of large complex projects involving multiple teams and stakeholders, achieving outstanding results efficiently.
• Ability to influence, motivate, and align others toward common technical decisions, leveraging shared ownership.
• Highly collaborative with strong oral and written communication skills.
• Strategic thinker who optimizes for the long term while acting with urgency.
• Passion for technical and product excellence, building highly usable solutions.
• Experience reducing technical debt and consolidating/deprecating legacy solutions.
• Mentor and coach others, consistently exhibiting servant leadership and teamwork.

• Onsite presence at the South San Francisco campus is expected for at least 3 days…