Applied AI Head - Roche Information Solutions China

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.

The Position

Job Summary:

As the Applied AI Lead, you will report to the Head of RIS China and will be a member of the RIS China leadership team.

You will lead a high performing team to drive digital research and innovation initiatives, influencing cross-functional teams, fostering a culture of creativity and experimentation, and aligning emerging technologies, particularly AI and innovation efforts with overarching business objectives and strategic priorities.

Collaborate closely with product lifecycle team & engineering team to identify opportunities & synergies for reusability, consolidation, simplification, enhance speed of delivery and ease of scaling through unified technology stacks like China Digital Platform & common infrastructure.

The Opportunity:

• Develop and Execute AI & Innovation Strategy: Define the vision, strategy, and actionable roadmaps for innovation, specifically leveraging Artificial Intelligence, to drive new products, services, businessmodels, and reshape existing use cases.
• Spearhead AI Prototype Development and Implementation: Manage a team of Applied Scientists responsible for translating & delivering cutting-edge concepts/business hypotheses into real-world prototypes/solutions in order to validate business viability, customer desirability & technology feasibility. Balancing high-risk, high-reward projects with incremental innovations that deliver transformative business values.
• Adopt Customer-Centric Development: Focusing on the early phases of UNDERSTAND-IT and EXPLORE-IT. Leverage rapid prototyping approach and leverage on customer insights to quickly identify & validate product desirability.
• Implement AI Observability & Reliability: Proactive monitoring, tracking & analyzing model/algo performance, identifying potential biases, and detecting data and model drift, ensuring the AI system functions reliably and fairly during PILOT-IT & SCALE-IT phases.
• Ensure Responsible AI, Governance, and IP: Champion ethical AI practices, ensuring responsible development, fairness, and safety. Setup and develop efficient operational and development best practices, potentially following agile and DevOps principles, while adhering to relevant security, governance, and compliance standards. Manage risks associated with AI initiatives & emerging technologies.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally and Stakeholders Management: Collaborate and co-innovate with key stakeholders and external & internal partners to showcase & emphasis on Roche ability to leverage on cutting edge technologies for scientific use cases in the increasingly competitive and evolving personalized healthcare landscape.
• Collaborate closely with the engineering team to develop and implement a common Roche China platform and championing reusable services to accelerate digital product delivery, increase implementation efficiency and drive scaling across Roche China install bases.
• Analyze digital healthcare market, competitors, and technology trends: Thorough market research and competitive analysis to identify emerging trends, opportunities, threats, and refine the innovation agenda. Continuously maintain awareness of new technologies, industry developments, and research publications.
• Lead and develop High-Performing Teams: Build, lead, manage, mentor, and grow a multidisciplinary team of Applied scientists and innovation professionals and foster a collaborative, inclusive, and continuous learning environment.

Who you are:

• Master's or Ph.D. in Medicine, Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering or a related health science fields (such as M.D. or Ph.D. in Medicine, Clinical Informatics, or Life Sciences). quantitative field.
• Solid foundational grounding in both quantitative methods (mathematical modeling, machine learning) and scientific/clinical principles.
• 10+ years of experience of practical experience in applying machine learning, deep learning, or statistical modeling to complex clinical or life science challenges.
• Demonstrated track record of taking AI/ML concepts from laboratory proof-of-concept to real-world clinical or operational validation.
• Fluent in contemporary Digital technologies and platforms, including UX, APIs, MicroServices, AI and Machine Learning (Generative AI, RAG, AI Agents, MCP, etc), Analytics, XaaS, etc.
• Hands-on experience with machine learning and deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow) and relevant programming languages (e.g., Python, R, Java, JavaScript)
• Familiarity with Design Thinking, Prototyping methods and agile methodology
• Experience working with complex healthcare datasets, such as Electronic Health Records (EHR/EMR), medical imaging, digital pathology, or multi-modal diagnostic data. Familiarity with clinical data formats and systems (HL7, FHIR, OMOP, LIS, EMR) is highly preferred.
• Awareness of the Healthcare industry and its activities, with experience of leading digital product management teams. Previous experience in managing areas relevant to Digital Healthcare will be highly desired.
• Highly developed leadership and people influencing skills: Demonstrating a clear commitment to people development and effective mentoring; promoting a culture of trust and support. Demonstrated success in establishing a high performing environment.
• Proven ability to establish and articulate a vision, set goals, develop and execute strategies, and track and measure results
• Innovative, detail-oriented, and effective in stressful and challenging environments.
• Problem-Solving and Resilience to tackle roadblocks and adapt to uncertainty
• Fluent in both speaking and writing English and Mandarin.

Who we are

A healthier future drives us to innovate. Together, more than 100’000 employees across the globe are dedicated to advance science, ensuring everyone has access to healthcare today and for generations to come. Our efforts result in more than 26 million people treated with our medicines and over 30 billion tests conducted using our Diagnostics products. We empower each other to explore new possibilities, foster creativity, and keep our ambitions high, so we can deliver life-changing healthcare solutions that make a global impact.

Let’s build a healthier future, together.

Roche is an Equal Opportunity Employer.