Roche is leading global research-driven healthcare company based in Basel, Switzerland, with major strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the largest biotechnology company in the world focused on marketing and developing medicines in oncology, neuroscience and rare diseases, immunology, infectious diseases, and ophthalmology. Roche has over 94,000 employees worldwide and invested 11 billion Swiss francs in research and development in 2018. The Roche Group, which includes Genentech in the United States, had to its credit sales of 56.8 billion Swiss Francs in 2018. Roche also has a majority stake in Chugai, based in Japan.
With 120 years of history in bringing medicines to patients, Roche takes a long-term commitment to research and development. The patient is a constant at the center of Roche’s philosophy and activities. Continuing innovations in precision medicine and digitalization of healthcare place Roche in a unique position to transform science to medicines and improve standards of care for patients worldwide. Roche is advancing access to science and medicines in developed and emerging markets that will provide additional growth opportunities.
Roche has had substantial successes in research and development. Over the past three years pRED has transitioned four programs to late stage clinical development in the areas of neuroscience and rare disease. Our efforts in discovery and early clinical development span multiple indications of unmet medical need in neuroscience, with over 25 novel molecular entities at distinct stages of evaluation. Roche continues to invest heavily in R&D, and is thus poised to accelerate the development of new medicines for patients in the years ahead.
With its long history in neuroscience and strengths across diverse disciplines, Roche is uniquely positioned to lead in transforming science to medicines for patients with disorders of the nervous system. The Neuroscience and Rare Diseases (NRD) Discovery and Translational Area (DTA) group currently has approximately 160 members based in Basel, Switzerland. The neuroscience group within the NRD DTA in Basel and Genentech’s neuroscience group in South San Francisco operate in collaboration and in parallel.
The Position
Roche is seeking a VP and Head of Neuroscience Discovery in NRD DTA who will interface with translational medicine and late stage development to discover molecules that will ultimately become treatments for disorders of the nervous system. Reporting to the Head of NRD DTA, the executive will lead a group of 90 employees. The focus of the Head of Discovery will be to lead the discovery efforts and advance preclinical neuroscience programs into translational development.
Experience
The candidate qualifications include a PhD or MD/PhD focused in any area of biology and deep understanding of molecular and systems neuroscience as well as disorders of the nervous system. The successful candidate will be an accomplished international leader in neuroscience, neurobiology, neurogenetics, or related areas and ideally will also have experience in driving discovery efforts in a pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry setting. Candidates must also have a proven record of leadership in academia or industry with at least ten years of experience following completion of training.
Competencies
• Scientific accomplishments in neuroscience or related disciplines. The key quality sought in our candidates will be scientific accomplishments, insights, and acumen. A strong record of scholarship and evidence of leadership in a field of study will be sought in academic leaders and evidence of strong scientific insights and success in discovery efforts in industry leaders. Ideally, the candidate will be an internationally recognized academic scientific leader with strong industry experience.
• Collaborative leadership. The candidate is highly collaborative internally and externally. The role requires an executive who makes decisions in an input-driven manner, inspires others to work together, and the ability to work with peers and a large number of partners across the organization who are not in the line-of-command in order to improve performance and meet goals. The candidate has a track record of encouraging and supervising multiple relationships across academic institutions and industry partners.
• Strategic vision. In partnership with other leaders in the NRD DTA, the candidate will articulate and implement a vision and direction for Neuroscience Discovery. The candidate will have the ability to monitor and reassess strategic priorities of the organization. In addition, the candidate will articulate long-term opportunities and threats, evaluates options, and takes proactive steps to address them. The candidate will also understand how to align the direction of Neuroscience in the context of the NRD DTA, pRED, and Roche enterprise.
• Results orientation. The candidate understands how to make difficult decisions and will be able to focus on key priorities and delivery toward goals.The candidate will have the ability to inspire those around to pursue innovative ideas in the search for new treatments for disorders of the nervous system. The ideal candidate has made strategic decisions and will have implemented them beyond expectations.
• Team leadership. The successful candidate has established dynamic and thriving groups of investigators in a research setting and has set up an environment that fosters creativity and innovation. The candidate will have the ability to attract diverse individuals with the right overall mix of skills to provide exceptional results. The executive will have the ability to empower the team and has thorough appreciation of each individual’s contribution, and nimbly creates efforts of the organization accordingly. The executive will inspire and create a strong sense of team spirit in the organization.
Key responsibilities
• Oversee progression of and provide scientific direction for preclinical portfolio projects from Target Assessment to Entry into Human (EIH)
• Chair the Research Review Committee (RRC) and serve as decision maker on approval key preclinical milestones leading to EIH
• Chair the Neuroscience Management Team (NMT) and serve as key decision maker on preclinical budget requests
• Line management of ~90 scientists and research associates in Neuroscience Discovery
• Serve as a core member of the Neuroscience and Rare Diseases Leadership Team (NLT) to develop and implement strategy for target identification and drug discovery in the NRD
• Lead the assessment of new target proposals and initiation of new projects in the Neuroscience portfolio
• Oversee the implementation and progress of key technology development platforms to enable drug discovery for brain disorders
• Oversee the allocation of internal and external resources to support Discovery projects
• Oversee the effective integration and execution of internalized and externalized Neuroscience portfolio projects in collaboration with Roche Partnering
• Explore and implement collaborations with industry and academia to increase understanding of disease biology and facilitate the discovery of new targets for therapeutic intervention
• Represent Roche in public-private partnerships related to drug discovery for disorders of the nervous system