AI & Digitalisation Intern

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

Location: Welwyn/UK

Duration: 12 months 

FTE: ~30 - 50% to work alongside your studies. 

Type: Temporary Roche Employee 

In Pharma Development Strategy and Delivery (PSD), our mission is clear: to translate Roche Strategies into PD priorities and deliver our portfolio (Molecule & Molecule Enabling Programs) with excellence. 

We see ourselves and our partners as a team that can only reach its full potential together. Driven by this collaborative spirit, our expertise, and an enterprise mindset, we create an environment where ideas grow and new ways of doing things are realized, accelerating the PD portfolio and delivering medicines to patients faster.
 

The Opportunity

The PSD functions are global teams in R&D that are looking to improve their internal activities and ways of working: increasing productivity, efficiency, and the ability of our organization to collaborate across its global organizational interfaces with groups and functions across PD. 

To support our digitalization journey, we are looking for a talented and driven Digital, Agentic graduate with a passion for eliminating wasteful and mundane tasks through innovative technology. In this role, you will be instrumental in enabling our organization’s transformation to Agentic AI by building agentic solutions for our internal business challenges.

You will bridge the gap between technical data engineering and business process analysis, ensuring our internal activities operate in a seamless, automated, and data-driven ecosystem.

As part of a global team, you will collaborate with experts coming from IT and PSD contributing to build solutions that enhance the productivity of our internal tool service and support teams, while maintaining the highest standards of data integrity, privacy, and security.

This role offers a unique opportunity to gain real-world exposure to late stage drug development and bring meaningful improvements to how we do our work. 

Key Responsibilities

• Identify Automation Opportunities: Act as an internal consultant, interviewing/working with end users in PSD, analysing historical information/data to scope and propose potential AI tools that could streamline daily tasks.
• Business Process Analysis and Requirements Gathering: Seek input from the PSD functions to pinpoint recurring operational delays or pain points where automation and AI could provide benefits. Provide a technical perspective on how challenging the solutions would be to build and maintain to inform decisions on prioritisation of use cases. Analyze, map, and define requirements for specific use cases. Partner with the PSD functions to evaluate the value and scalability of solutions before starting any building beyond proof-of-concepts
• Agentic AI Solutions: Combine your technical knowledge in Agentic AI, our internal systems and data architectures, and work with business experts and IT colleagues to build and enable scalable agentic solutions. 
• Responsible AI & Compliance: Build and implement all solutions in line with Roche's defined AI standards, including Human-in-the-Loop design, ethical AI principles, and the use of approved technology only. Maintain strong awareness of data privacy and GxP requirements given the sensitivity of working within a pharma R&D environment, ensuring solutions are compliant, auditable, and safe to scale.
• Secure & Compliant Working Practices: Follow Roche's guidelines for secrets/credential management & confidentiality when building & testing solutions, escalating any data security or privacy concerns to the lead for review.
• Data Modernization: Support our digitalisation efforts by driving the standardization and migration of data from legacy systems/tools to AI-ready modern architectures for scalability and performance.
• Documentation: Ensure robust documentation to ensure sufficient details of technical development and testing are available for others to pick up and use in the future.
• Partner & Collaborate with the PSD AI Squad: Participate in global teams across our organization in support of digitalisation initiatives, working with PSD leaders and IT professionals to bring value to our organization at scale. Ensure transparency on progress and risks identified with the Squad and PSD leadership. 
• System Awareness: Develop and maintain an awareness of the Roche organization and key organizational drivers. Work within existing Roche procedures to drive progress. 
• Success measures / definition of done: Completion of  assigned work includes contribution and support of the AI Squad's work packages with defined concrete outcomes (e.g., 2 use cases into production") in addition to support testing/documentation on use cases.

Who you are

You are a proactive problem-solver who thrives in a multicultural environment. You are not “just” a coder; you are a "systems thinker" who understands the business impact of data and automation. You are comfortable navigating ambiguity and are committed to continuous learning in the rapidly evolving landscape of AI and automation, supporting our colleagues to accelerate program delivery. You are a strong communicator able to translate complex technical concepts into everyday language.

Basic Qualifications

• Education: Pursuing a degree or further degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Business or Economics, Physical Sciences (e.g., Biology, Chemistry, Physics) or a related technical field.
• ​Language: Excellent command of English (written and spoken) for effective collaboration in a global environment. 
• Global Flexibility: Ability to support a flexible schedule that periodically accommodates collaboration across multiple time zones (primarily PST), ensuring effective communication with global stakeholders and project teams
• Travel: Occasional travel, up to 1 week, 1-2 times per year to other Roche sites in US and Europe
• Awareness of a Pharmaceutical Industry: General knowledge of Pharma R&D business operations
• Awareness of Responsible AI Principles: Familiarity with, or strong willingness to learn, core responsible AI concepts such as Human-in-the-Loop design, ethical AI, and data privacy, with an appreciation for why these matter in a GxP/pharma R&D setting.

Technical Skill Requirement

• Programming Foundations: Working proficiency in at least one language commonly used in data/automation work (e.g., Python, JavaScript, or Apps Script), and proficiency in using AI coding harness to generate & review code gained through coursework or personal/academic projects. 
• Data Warehouse: Ability to query (ie SQL) and establish API/ MCP connections with secure data products in centralized data lakes (eg Snowflake / AWS) using service accounts.   
• Agent Development & RAG system: Prior experience in setting up AI RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) systems or Agent driven workflows connecting with diverse data sources that are scalable with low AI latency  
• Ability to process / organize unstructured/heterogenous data sources that are effective or optimized for AI use Generative AI & NLP: Hands-on experience with LLM integration, prompt engineering, and semantic text analysis.
• Data Handling & Integration: Comfortable working with varied data formats (structured and unstructured), including basic experience with spreadsheets, databases e.g. Airtable or similar, or APIs.
• Low-Code/No-Code Platform Familiarity: Awareness of or interest in low-code/no-code AI development platforms
• Version Control & Documentation Practices: Basic familiarity with version control (e.g., Git) and structured documentation practices.
• Data Privacy & Security Awareness: Basic understanding of data anonymization, access controls, and secure data handling practices. Awareness of, or willingness to learn, good practices for secrets/credential management and confidentiality guidelines relevant to a regulated pharma R&D environment.

Application Process:

Application submission by candidates: The application deadline is 18th November, but the listing may be extended depending on the number of applicants. 

Phase I: 

Purpose - our focus on this first stage is to understand why you have applied for this role and what you will bring to the role to ensure team and personal success

• CV & Cover Letter
• Video Interview

As part of your cover letter, Roche is keen to understand your motivation in applying for this position.

• Why Roche: What is your key motivation for applying for this placement?
• Why you: What personal qualities, skills, behaviours, mindset and experience will you bring in relation to what the role will require?
• In your cover letter, please indicate your availability and how many hours you can commit to per week.

Your cover letter should not exceed one page.

Phase II:  Video interview
If successful at the Video interview, you will be invited to the final stage of the application process. 

Phase III: Final Assessment Center/In-person interview as final stage at Roche UK head office (Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire). Expected date: End of November/Early December
This final stage will include a face to face interview, and relevant activities critical for the role, giving you a taste of Roche and the placement opportunity. Prework on an AI test case to be presented and discussed at the In person interview 

Please note: Unfortunately, visa sponsorship is not available for this role. Candidates must already hold valid authorisation to work in the UK.

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.

The statements herein are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees, and are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. Furthermore, they do not establish a contract for employment and are subject to change at the discretion of Roche Products Ltd. At Roche Products we believe diversity drives innovation and we are committed to building a diverse and flexible working environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion or belief, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, disability or age. We recognise the importance of flexible working and will review all applicants’ requests with care. At Roche difference is valued and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer where you are encouraged to bring your whole self to work.