RNA Biology Associate in oligonucleotide screening
About this opportunity
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.
Therapeutic Modalities (TMo) organization, accountable for translating disease biology into high-quality drug candidates across small molecules, large molecules, oligonucleotides, and genomic medicines. By integrating deep modality expertise with cross-disciplinary collaboration, TMo drives innovation within and across platforms to enable differentiated, sustainable therapeutic impact.
The opportunity
We are looking for an experienced Lab Associate with a focus on molecular biology and RNA biology tasks to join our Nucleic-acid-based medicines team. You will support screening oligonucleotide-based therapeutics and development of RNA technologies by setting up and executing various molecular biology assays.
Develop cell-based screening assays and perform cell culture maintenance
Implement lab automation for high throughput screening of oligonucleotides
Purification and handling of RNA samples
Perform digital PCR, quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays to support portfolio and platform projects
Prepare and process tissue samples from animal studies for subsequent molecular analyses.
Assist in setting up and executing advanced molecular biology assays, including transcriptome profiling (e.g., DRUG-Seq, BRB-Seq, RNA-Seq).
Who you are
B.Sc in molecular biology or related field with a minimum of 10 years experience in drug discovery or M.Sc with a minimum of 5 years experience
Experience with therapeutic oligonucleotides, including screening and in vitro characterization
Hands-on wet-lab experience with molecular biology, RNA biology techniques (qPCR) & lab automation, ideally in an industrial setup
Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment
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.
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.
Job details
How this role compares
Computed from every other active Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 157 comparable Associate Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 40 biopharma companies.
Salary context
46 of 157 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 157 comparable roles
+ 9 more countries
Seniority mix
157 of 157 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
23 of 157 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
Similar opportunities
The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.
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How we calculate "similar"
No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.
Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.
0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.