Roche

Software Development Engineer/Senior Software Development Engineer, Agentic Systems, AI for Drug Discovery

Roche$110K — $204K *
Pharmaceuticals & Biotech
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
  • 3+ years of professional software engineering experience for Software Engineer level or 5+ years for Senior Software Engineer level.
  • Proficiency in Python with strong software engineering fundamentals.
  • Experience delivering production software from design to deployment.
  • Familiarity with cloud environments, relational databases, and CI/CD practices.
  • Ability to communicate effectively with various stakeholders and translate user needs into technical solutions.
  • Interest in AI applications and integrating scientific tools into workflows.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and maintain backend services, APIs, and user-facing applications for a drug design platform.
  • Integrate machine learning models and scientific applications into end-to-end workflows.
  • Implement agentic capabilities for tool execution and workflow management.
  • Enable scientists to configure and run computational design workflows.
  • Deploy models in secure, scalable cloud environments.
  • Write clean, maintainable code and participate in automated testing and code reviews.
  • Monitor and troubleshoot deployed services to enhance platform performance and usability.

Benefits

  • Opportunities to work closely with scientists and researchers in drug discovery.
  • Exposure to cutting-edge AI technologies and applications in the pharmaceutical industry.
  • Collaborative work environment with cross-functional teams.
  • Potential for impact through improved scientific workflows and tools.
  • Onsite presence in a vibrant campus setting in South San Francisco or NYC.
Full Job Description

The Opportunity

Within AI for Drug Discovery, the Software Engineering team builds and operates software platforms that put advanced models and computational tools into the hands of scientists. Our focus is on developing technology and deploying reliable, intuitive solutions that are adopted by users and create measurable impact across drug discovery. We are seeking a very talented Software Development Engineer to help build our agentic platform for molecule design. The platform enables scientists to use AI agents, computational models, scientific tools, and internal data sources together in coordinated workflows that support the design and evaluation of therapeutic molecules. In this role, you will develop production-quality software, integrate scientific and machine learning capabilities, and improve the experience of scientists using the platform. You will collaborate with software engineers, machine learning researchers, computational scientists, product managers, and drug discovery teams across Roche and Genentech.

In this role, you will:

  • Develop and maintain backend services, APIs, and user-facing applications for an agentic drug design platform.

  • Integrate machine learning models, scientific applications, databases, and internal services into reliable end-to-end workflows.

  • Implement agentic capabilities, including tool execution, workflow orchestration, state management, evaluation, and observability.

  • Build software that enables scientists to configure, run, inspect, and reproduce computational molecule design workflows.

  • Deploy models and scientific tools into secure, scalable, cloud-based production environments.

  • Write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code, and contribute to automated testing, documentation, code reviews, and CI/CD practices.

  • Monitor deployed services, troubleshoot issues, and improve platform reliability, performance, and usability.

  • Work closely with users to understand scientific needs, gather feedback, and translate requirements into practical software solutions.

  • Contribute to technical design decisions and the ongoing evolution of the platform’s architecture.

  • Develop familiarity with relevant drug discovery concepts and apply software engineering best practices in a scientific research environment.

Who You Are:

  • For the Software Engineer level, you have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience, and 3+ years of professional software engineering experience and for the Senior Software Engineer level, you have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience, and 5+ years of professional software engineering experience

  • You are proficient in Python and have strong software engineering fundamentals, including API design, automated testing, data modeling, and system design.

  • You have experience independently delivering production software from technical design and implementation through deployment, monitoring, and ongoing support.

  • You have built backend services, platform capabilities, developer tools, or user-facing applications in a cloud environment.

  • You are comfortable working with relational databases, asynchronous workflows, containers, version control, and CI/CD practices.

  • You can translate user and scientific needs into practical technical solutions and communicate effectively with engineers, researchers, product managers, and domain experts.

  • You are interested in AI-enabled applications and in integrating models, scientific tools, and data into reliable workflows.

  • You are motivated by delivering software to users and improving real scientific workflows.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experience with frontend development using a modern framework such as React.

  • Familiarity with frameworks and standards for agentic applications, such as Model Context Protocol, workflow orchestration, retrieval systems, or evaluation frameworks.

  • Experience developing software for scientific research, cheminformatics, computational chemistry, biology, or drug discovery.

Onsite presence, on our South San Francisco or NYC campus, is expected for at least 3 days a week.

Relocation benefits are NOT available for this job posting.

The expected salary range for this position based on the primary location of California for the Software Engineer is $115,200 - 214,000, and for the Senior Software Engineer is $142,500 - 264,700. For the primary location of New York for the Software Engineer is $110,200 - 204,600, and for the Senior Software Engineer is $136,300 - 253,100.  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.

#ComputationCoE
#ArtificialIntelligence
#DrugDiscovery

About Roche

Roche Holding AG is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has bearer shares listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The company headquarters are located in Basel. Roche is the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, and the leading provider of cancer treatments globally. The company also produces a range of diagnostic tests for medical professionals and patients. Roche was one of the first companies to bring targeted treatments to patients. In 2019, Roche had over 100,000 employees worldwide, and generated revenue of CHF 61.5 billion.
Learn more about Roche
Size
100,920 employees
Industry
NASDAQ

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