Roche Posted November 6, 2026

(Sr) Principal Applied Scientist

Shanghai, Shanghai, China's Mainland FULL_TIME
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Roche is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

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

Job Summary:

As an Applied Scientist with at least 5 years of experience, you will join a dynamic, multi-disciplinary agile team, using your skills to transform healthcare by delving deep into a variety of data sources. Your role will involve identifying needs, designing analytical solutions, offering consulting support to key stakeholders, and demonstrating impact through proof-of-value initiatives.

The Opportunity:

Developing and implementing Data Science products, focusing on Natural Language Processing using LLMs and Generative AI tools.

Collaborating with stakeholders to proactively identify relevant LLM/NLP use cases.

Applying your NLP/LLM expertise to create and refine models that meet Roche's business requirements.

Work closely with clients to understand their business needs, gather requirements, and provide consultative insights to inform strategic decisions.

Supporting prioritisation efforts, understanding feasibility and business impact, and making informed decisions in a rapidly changing environment.

Strong consulting and project management skills, with the ability to lead projects and work with clients across various industries.

Working within global agile teams to develop products that deliver value to Roche Pharma and Diagnostics business stakeholders.

Providing guidance and hands-on support for analytical LLM/NLP use cases, evaluating different NLP approaches and Generative AI platforms.

Communicating findings and promoting the value of use cases to key stakeholders.

Contributing to the positioning of data science as a key competency within the company.

Who you are:

M.Sc. or PhD in a related field and experience with machine learning/data mining/artificial intelligence.

Experience with Python programming and common NLP libraries (e.g., transformers, gensim, spaCy).

Familiarity with key frameworks (e.g. PyTorch, GenAI/Agentic AI, Vector DBs) and infrastructure components (Docker, GPU) for NLP tasks.

Experience using open source (e.g. HuggingFace) and commercial LLM models with different deep learning architectures.

Knowledge of training and optimising language models for seamless integration.

Familiarity with code generation best practices, code documentation, data security, and compliance in cloud-based data science workflows.

Experience providing advanced analytical solutions.

Ability to communicate data and results to a non-technical audience through data storytelling and visualisation tools.

International, goal-oriented mindset with a positive attitude.

Experience in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry preferred.

Fluency in English and Chinese.

A minimum of 5 years' hands-on experience in AI, data science and machine learning.

 

 

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

Seniority
Principal
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Shanghai, Shanghai, China's Mainland
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Manufacturing & CMC role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 640 comparable Principal Manufacturing & CMC roles across 90 biopharma companies.

640Comparable roles tracked
606Currently active
90Companies hiring similar roles
28Countries represented

Salary context

232 of 640 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.

This roleSubject Not listed on this posting
Lowest disclosed · Senior Technician Calibration - Maintenance · Mylan Technologies, Inc. $37,000/yr – $80,000/yr
Peer group range $58,500 – $288,000 (median $149,863)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 640 comparable roles

United States421
India45
Ireland31
Netherlands16
Germany15
Switzerland12

+ 22 more countries

Seniority mix

640 of 640 peers have a known seniority level

Senior408
Principal128
Director104

Therapeutic area mix

6 of 640 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Vaccines & Infectious Disease3
Oncology1
Dermatology & Aesthetics1
Respiratory1

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.

60%similar
Lilly Suzhou, Shanghai, China Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
50%similar
AbbVie Shanghai, Shanghai Director
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
Roche Shanghai, Shanghai, China's Mainland Senior
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
Novartis Changping County (Beijing), China Director
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
Novartis Changping County (Beijing), China Senior
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
Roche Shanghai, Shanghai, China's Mainland Senior
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country

Notify me about similar jobs

Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.

Or follow a whole field: get every new Manufacturing & CMC job in China, and choose locations and companies.

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.

60%
(Sr. / Principal) Engineer - EG Process
Lilly · Suzhou, Shanghai, China · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
50%
(Senior) Specialist - Filling 分装(高级)专员
Roche · Shanghai, Shanghai, China's Mainland · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
50%
Senior Specialist - Production Process Support 生产流程支持高级专员
Roche · Shanghai, Shanghai, China's Mainland · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
50%
Sr Inventory Control Assoc
IQVIA · Beijing, China · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 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.