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
Section Head, Medicinal Chemistry
The Medicinal Chemistry Department at the China Innovation Center of Roche (CICoR) in Shanghai is a community of drug hunters specializing in synthetic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and chemical biology. In partnership with our disease therapeutic areas and technology functions, our mission is to translate disease-relevant biological hypotheses into innovative small molecule therapeutics for indications with high unmet medical needs, including oncological, autoimmune, inflammatory, cardiovascular, and metabolic disorders. We offer a unique platform to impact small molecule drug discovery through your combined scientific acumen and leadership capabilities.
Key Responsibilities
In this role, you will:
● Lead internal and external chemistry teams (CRO) on small molecule drug discovery programs, leveraging advanced technologies to establish SAR and SPR profiles for potency, DMPK, and safety.
● Formulate comprehensive project strategies, including target compound profile, hit generation approaches, screening cascade, decision matrices, and patent strategies, collaborating within cross-functional teams and aligning with site-wide disease and technology strategies.
● Steer drug discovery campaigns and facilitate vital go/no-go decisions for project progression, prioritization, or termination from hit generation through to clinical candidate nomination.
● Foster robust collaborative networks with project team peers to successfully advance candidate molecules, acting decisively and adaptively in a dynamic setting.
● Take on the development and execution of new diseases or technological areas as assigned.
● Provide subject matter expertise to evaluate novel target or technology opportunities and support due diligence initiatives when requested.
● Serve as Section Head, directing a group of highly skilled medicinal chemists (minimum of 8, primarily PhDs) for their performance and career development, reporting directly to the Head of Medicinal Chemistry at CICoR.
Candidate Profile
We are seeking an experienced medicinal chemist holding a PhD in organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry or chemical biology with over 8 years of professional experience within the pharmaceutical or biotech industry, or equivalent academic tenure.
Required Qualifications
You possess:
● A comprehensive grasp of small molecule drug discovery methodologies and scientific disciplines, complemented by deep knowledge in specific therapeutic fields (e.g., oncological, autoimmune, inflammatory, cardiovascular, or metabolic diseases) and technology platforms (e.g., covalent drugs, induced proximity, ADCs).
● A proven track record of achieving milestones from target validation through to clinical candidate selection for a first-in-class (FIC) target, managing critical project decisions with a balance of scientific rigor and prompt execution.
● Excellent problem-solving capabilities, with a passion for cultivating creative, innovative solutions to fulfill project goals and drive impact.
● High learning agility and a flexible operational style, with the capacity to build interdependent, collaborative team environments that advance programs with urgency.
● Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills, enabling you to influence stakeholders at all levels, work inclusively, and effectively present program strategies, risks, and mitigations to leadership and governance bodies.
● The capacity to align individual projects with a broader portfolio strategy, demonstrating a readiness to make challenging decisions and pivot as necessary.
● Professional fluency in both spoken and written English.
If you are proud of contributing and feel you have the dedication to teamwork and innovation that we are seeking, then Roche is the organization for you. Every role at Roche plays a part in making a difference to patients’ lives. If you want to work in a passionate team, make your mark & improve lives, apply now.
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 414 comparable Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 58 biopharma companies.
Salary context
141 of 414 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 414 comparable roles
+ 12 more countries
Seniority mix
329 of 414 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
45 of 414 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.
Matched on job function only -- seniority, specialty, and location weren't confirmed as aligned.
Matched on job function only -- seniority, specialty, and location weren't confirmed as aligned.
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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.