Principal Engineer

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.

Roche Diagnostics International Ltd in Rotkreuz is one of the world’s leading providers of diagnostic system solutions for clinics, laboratories and doctors’ offices. The company employs over 2200 people in Rotkreuz and is one of Roche Diagnostics main sites. Roche is an equal opportunity employer and strictly prohibits unlawful discrimination based upon an individual’s race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin/ancestry, mental/physical disability, medical condition, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

As a Principal Engineer within our PCR HW Chapter, you will be a hands‑on technical leader driving innovation for Molecular, Core, and Point‑of‑Care laboratory solutions. In this domain‑expert role, you will define, build, and release high‑quality software for both IVD and non‑IVD products, directly influencing our future product portfolio through the following responsibilities:

• Conceptual Leadership:
  Develop technical concepts and lead feasibility studies to ensure all technical requirements and overarching system designs are met.
• Software Lifecycle Ownership:
  Perform hands‑on development tasks, including defining, estimating, and planning work packages while documenting SW unit specifications and designs.
• Architectural Contribution:
  Contribute to the SW architecture, defining key quality attributes and ensuring the team stays current with evolving technology trends.
• Quality & Maintenance:
  Conduct root‑cause analysis for complex issues and provide high‑quality bug fixes for post‑market software releases using established checklists and templates.
• Risk Management:
  
  Continuously assess and report project risks, creating contingency and scenario plans for major risks on the critical path.
• Process & Compliance:
  Ensure strict adherence to regulatory and market standards (IVD) while proposing process improvements to enhance development efficiency.
• Cross‑Functional Communication:
  Collaborate across business areas to present complex technical topics to high‑level audiences, utilizing excellent verbal and written communication skills.

You’re a self‑motivated team player who wants to influence your own development. It is natural for you to be proactive in working with your teammates and other parts of the organization. You like sharing your know‑how to help the whole team advance. Bringing in new ideas to improve existing products with new functions and cost optimization is important to you. You’re looking for a company where you have the opportunity to pursue your interests across functions and geographies—where a job title is not considered the final definition of who you are, but the starting point.

To be successful in this role, you should possess the following core qualifications and experience:

• 10+ Years of Technical & Management
  
  Experience:
  • Management:
    Proven history of direct oversight of global teams, including talent acquisition, performance management, and strategic program delivery.
  • Technical:
    Continuous, active, hands‑on architectural leadership in high‑end embedded systems.
  • Expert‑Level Medical Instrument Control:
    Proven mastery in designing and architecting software for Real‑Time Linux (Debian/Yocto) environments, specifically for complex, high‑precision laboratory or diagnostic medical instruments (IVD).
  • Advanced Modern Systems Stack:
    Deep technical proficiency in C++ and Rust for safety‑critical applications, paired with experience architecting distributed internal device messaging using Rabbit
    
    MQ.
  • Specialized Middleware & Design Patterns:
    Extensive experience with Asynchronous programming (async/await),…