Scientific Outsourcing Manager in Welwyn

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

In Roche’s Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development organization (pRED), we make transformative medicines for patients in order to tackle some of the world’s toughest unmet healthcare needs. At pRED, we are united by our mission to transform science into medicines. Together, we create a culture defined by curiosity, responsibility, and humility, where our talented people are empowered and inspired to bring forward extraordinary life‑changing innovation at speed.

At the intersection of science and innovation, pRED’s Pharmaceutical Sciences (PS) organization enables the discovery and development of safe and effective therapeutics at optimal doses in relevant populations with a vision to power translation, continuously improve the accuracy of our predictions and accelerate the development of tomorrow’s medicines. By seamlessly integrating our three core pillars—Translational Safety, Translational Pharmacology, and Biomarkers—we drive End to End asset development across the entire value chain, from target assessment to on‑market support. Our mission is to continuously improve predictive accuracy, optimize dosing strategies for the right patient populations, and accelerate the development of tomorrow’s safe and effective therapeutics.

Purpose of the Position

The Scientific Outsourcing Manager orchestrates the end‑to‑end external workflows that fuel our Pharmaceutical Sciences engine. Moving beyond traditional vendor management, this role treats external scientific expertise as a seamless, integrated extension of our team. By connecting internal capabilities with a global ecosystem of external partners in the laboratory space to assess safety and efficacy in the preclinical and clinical area, this role ensures that complex, multi‑disciplinary workflows are executed with maximum velocity, data integrity, and compliance. As a champion of modern R&D, the position spearheads pRED‑ and cross‑Roche collaborative network approaches to ensure the end‑to‑end implementation of R&D Excellence (RDE) solutions.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Scientific Outsourcing Operations
• Portfolio & Data Integration: Transition fragmented outsourcing into unified, portfolio‑level external workflows and automated “sample‑to‑data” pipelines, ensuring secure, seamless, and frictionless access to advanced scientific capabilities.
• Performance Oversight & Risk Management: Utilize modern tracking tools to provide holistic visibility into external pipelines, actively monitoring vendor performance, optimizing data exchange, and proactively eliminating operational and scientific bottlenecks.
• Supplier Management
• Ecosystem & Partnerships: Leads a curated network of premier Contract Research Organisations (CROs) and tech partners, shifting relationships from tactical vendors to strategic, co‑innovative allies.
• Performance & Problem Solving: Tracks partners via dynamic metrics (engagement, delivery, quality, cycle times) and champions rapid, proactive resolution of scientific and operational hurdles.
• Demand Coordination
• Predictive AI Models: Transitions to AI‑supported forecasting to anticipate workflow volumes, capacity constraints, and intelligently match demands to optimal partners.
• Financial & Strategic Alignment: Integrates real‑time financial tracking to maximize cost‑efficiencies while dynamically aligning with shifting portfolio priorities and business‑critical milestones.
• Governance & Compliance
• Quality & Data Integrity: Ensures all external workflows rigorously meet global regulatory compliance, data governance standards, and company benchmarks.
• Modern Governance Execution & Traceability: Leads agile external partner governances and audits actions implementation while maintaining flawless documentation for full traceability of partnership plans.
• Continuous Improvement
• Implement Novel Outsourcing Models: Conceptualize, pilot, and deploy innovative outsourcing models and processes across both non‑clinical and clinical spaces, driving tangible, measurable operational efficiencies.
• Spearhead R&D Excellence (RDE): Drive and align with pRED and Roche‑wide networks to scale end‑to‑end solutions that elevate scientific productivity.
• Modernization & Friction Reduction: Integrate next‑generation digital tools and streamline internal processes to eliminate administrative burdens for scientists.

Who You Are

To be successful in this role, you bring:

• Academic & Industry Experience: A university degree in Science paired with a minimum of 5 years of experience managing external partnerships (e.g., CROs, external alliances, or procurement) within the pharmaceutical industry.
• Drug Development & Regulatory Expertise: A deep understanding of the end‑to‑end drug development process, including robust knowledge of scientific methodologies and the regulatory landscape governing preclinical and clinical environments.
• Systems‑Thinking & Data Literacy: A proven track record of mapping complex processes into automated, scalable workflows, with practical experience in data exchange and leveraging data‑driven or predictive tools to forecast capacity and financial commitments.
• Strategic Partner Management: Outstanding capability in driving outsourcing solutions and transforming supplier relationships from tactical vendors into high‑performing, strategic partnerships built on co‑innovation and mutual accountability.
• Agile Problem‑Solving & Efficiency: A proactive ownership mindset focused on streamlining processes, removing administrative burdens for scientists, and engineering rapid, creative solutions when external partners encounter scientific and operational hurdles.
• Matrix Leadership & Communication: Exceptional communication and matrix‑leadership skills, with a demonstrated ability to influence without authority and align diverse, cross‑functional stakeholders around shared operational goals.

At Roche, we aim high to deliver life‑changing healthcare solutions. If you’re ready to make a meaningful impact on patients and healthcare systems worldwide, this is the place for you.

Where pay transparency applies, details are provided based on the primary posting location. For this role, the primary location is Basel. If you are interested in additional locations where the role may be available, we will provide the relevant compensation details later in the hiring process.

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.