Senior/Principal Software Engineer, AI Enablement (Backend)

We advance science so that we all have more time with the people we love. 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. That's what makes us Roche.

Advances in AI, data, and computational sciences are transforming drug discovery and development. Roche's Research and Early Development organizations at Genentech (gRED) and Pharma (pRED) have demonstrated how these technologies accelerate R&D, leveraging data and novel computational models to drive impact. Seamless data sharing and access to models across gRED and pRED are essential to maximizing these opportunities. The new Computational Sciences Center of Excellence (CoE) is a strategic, unified group whose goal is to harness this transformative power of data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist our scientists in both pRED and gRED to deliver more innovative and transformative medicines for patients worldwide.

Within the CoE organization, the Data and Digital Catalyst (DDC) organization drives the modernization of our computational and data ecosystems and integration of digital technologies across Research and Early Development to enable our stakeholders, power data-driven science and accelerate decision-making.

The Engineering - AI Enablement group within DDC is accountable for... enabling AI! We do this across the board with our scientific and computational partners based on their goals. We help embed our AI strategy across our research organizations by providing employees with the tools and support needed to adopt AI into our daily work-helping us work smarter and enhancing our day-to-day work. We also build and deploy AI based solutions that reshape and transform business processes in order to unlock value at scale and optimize workflows. We also work on scaling up model training and inference, evaluating the quality of AI/ML models and output, and building impactful applications which accelerate the scientists doing the critical work of drug discovery and development. Partnering with colleagues to build, deploy and evolve a modern tech stack and utilities to enable our AI/ML and agentic efforts will be a key foundation to our success. Our aim is for everyone who can benefit from AI/ML to be able to leverage that utility where and when they need it, from data analysis to literature search to documentation writing. We are aiming for AI/ML to be an everyday utility. The team is cross-functional, impact driven, independent, and constantly evolving to meet the scientific needs.

The Opportunity:

As a software engineer in AI Enablement with a focus on backend and data engineering, you will be working closely with folks that span the gamut from Computational Scientists, Research Scientists, AI/ML experts, Product leaders, DevOps, and everyone in between. You'll build, own, and constantly improve scalable AI/ML based systems that unlock the potential of our diverse scientific data, accelerating the discovery and development of life-changing treatments for patients.

• Design, develop, and test robust, scalable, and maintainable AI/ML facing scientific web applications and backend systems.

• Build tools to evaluate AI/ML model performance and establish new ways to understand AI quality.

• Partner with product managers and scientists to understand user needs, shape requirements, and translate them into actionable technical specifications.

• Develop and maintain systems for collecting, structuring, and storing diverse scientific data that support advanced analytics, machine learning, and other data-driven initiatives.

• Constantly improve the performance and effectiveness of our platforms, pipelines, and practices

• Contribute to architectural decisions, code reviews, and the evolution of our development processes.

• Be willing to span the stack and contribute where needed, even outside of your core area of expertise.

• Stay up-to-date with emerging technologies and industry best practices and adopt a culture of continuous learning, collaboration, and curiosity.

Who You Are:

• Bachelor's, Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science or similar technical field, or equivalent experience and 4+ years of professional experience in backend or data engineering roles (Senior Software Engineer) ; 7+ (Principal Software Engineer).

• Excellent proficiency with Python and backend languages such as Rust or Java

• Expert knowledge of ML performance optimization, GPU best practices.

• Experience with kubernetes, relational databases, NoSQL databases, or data lakes, and experience working on cloud-native architectures in public clouds (ideally AWS).

• Strong awareness of AI/ML frameworks, libraries, and toolsets.

• Proven understanding and application of engineering best practices.

• Excellent communication skills and ability to build trusted partnerships with internal and external collaborators.

• Ability to quickly acquire new technologies and programming languages and a passion for continuous learning.

Preferred But Not Required:

• Experience with imaging or biological data and processes is a strong plus.

• Experience working with scientists or in a research environment is advantageous.

• Experience with workflow automation, GenAI, and/or agents is a plus.

• Experience with Rust is a massive plus.

This position requires onsite work 3 days per week.

The expected salary range for this position based on the primary location of California $142,500-264,700 (Senior Software Engineer) and $162,600-302,000 (Principal Software Engineer). Actual pay will be determined based on experience, qualifications, geographic location, and other job-related factors permitted by law. A discretionary annual bonus may be available based on individual and Company performance. This position also qualifies for the benefits detailed at the link provided below.

Benefits

#ComputationCoE

Genentech is an equal opportunity employer. It is our policy and practice to employ, promote, and otherwise treat any and all employees and applicants on the basis of merit, qualifications, and competence. The company's policy prohibits unlawful discrimination, including but not limited to, discrimination on the basis of Protected Veteran status, individuals with disabilities status, and consistent with all federal, state, or local laws.

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