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
Global Pharma Strategy (GPS) serves as the central engine that sets the rhythm for collective success across the Roche Pharma Division. Positioned at the unique intersection of R&D, Commercial, and Manufacturing, GPS acts as the steward for Pharma, Portfolio, and Product strategies. Our mission is to catalyze the Roche ecosystem by leading end-to-end lifecycle management, commercialization excellence, and competitive fitness.
We are a future-focused organization committed to delivering on Roche's Pharma Ambition - to launch 20 transformative medicines by 2030. By leveraging cutting-edge technologies, data insights, and an "outside-in" market perspective, GPS ensures that groundbreaking scientific discoveries are transformed into impactful healthcare solutions that reach patients swiftly and sustainably. In GPS, we work with a clear purpose and sense of urgency, knowing that the strategic choices we make today fundamentally transform the lives of people tomorrow.
As we strive toward our 2030 Pharma Ambition, the newly created Business Process & Operations (BPO) Unit is designed to ensure our internal operational backbone is efficient, compliant, and scalable. In the complex ecosystem we operate in, we drive consistency, transparency, and quality across all initiatives, ensuring that strategic goals are translated into measurable business impact.
The Opportunity
The Global Program Manager is a critical leadership role within the newly established GPS Business Process & Operations (BPO) Unit. While the Head of BPO sets the vision and the Business Manager enables the operations, you are the architect of coherence and driver of effective delivery.
Your mission is to bring structure to complexity while also proactively removing roadblocks and navigating through ambiguity. You will lead high-priority enterprise initiatives, ensuring they are designed with a customer-centric lens, ensuring that our "customers" (internal stakeholders across Therapeutic Areas, Functions and Organisational Units) experience clarity, not noise. You will be responsible for creating the frameworks that ensure GPS initiatives are not just launched, but successfully pulled through the organization with strategic alignment and operational excellence.
In this position, you will:
Drive Strategic Execution Through Program Management Excellence: Architect pragmatic and user-focused solutions and lead the execution of complex, enterprise-wide programs across GPS and partner functions. Establish clear milestones, governance structures, dependencies, and accountability frameworks, while maintaining consistent program management standards and overseeing key GPS strategic processes to ensure successful delivery of strategic priorities and business objectives.
Enable Cross-Functional Alignment and Strategic Coherence: Partner with leaders, project teams, strategic process owners, and communications partners to translate strategic priorities into actionable roadmaps while embedding maturing new capabilities and create a clear understanding of the "why" behind key initiatives. Drive alignment across the GPS operating model, ensuring initiatives are connected, prioritized effectively, and contribute to broader Pharma and GPS strategic goals.
Advance Operational Business Excellence, Intelligence and Communications: Drive operational excellence by embedding effective processes, governance models, systems, business analytics, and ways of working that enhance organizational performance, support the adoption of new capabilities, and continuously improve execution, decision-making, and business outcomes through lean and value stream management approaches.
Champion Stakeholder Engagement: Partner with the Business Enablement Team (BET), including Change Leaders and Communications stakeholders, to build engagement and support the successful adoption of strategic initiatives, while representing the voice of internal stakeholders and customers to ensure solutions are practical, intuitive, and deliver meaningful business value.
Operational Leadership: Lead cross-functional teams and rotational or development opportunities, providing coaching, guidance, and support to enable collaboration, build capabilities, and ensure high-quality delivery of strategic initiatives.
Prioritization, Risk Management & Decision Making Moderation: identify, establish and monitor program interdependencies and manage trade offs across them (incl. Resources, timelines, deliverables and sequencing). Act as a steward of decisions and moderate cross program stakeholder decision making
Who you are
You are a seasoned program manager who excels at bringing structure, clarity, and direction to complex programs and initiatives-especially in environments with high ambiguity. You are pragmatic and believe that excellence in execution is just as important as the strategy itself.
Qualifications & Skills:
Experience: 8-12 years of experience in program management, business architecture, or strategic operations, ideally within a global pharmaceutical or highly regulated environment.
Proven Track Record: Demonstrated success in leading large-scale, cross-functional initiatives from concept to sustainable implementation.
Strategic Architecture: Expert-level knowledge of program management methodologies (Agile, Waterfall) with the ability to adapt them to a corporate strategy @context.
Stakeholder Influence: Proven track record managing stakeholders you can navigate complex matrix environments and influence senior leaders without direct authority.
Clarity of Thought: Exceptional ability to synthesize vast amounts of information into simple, coherent frameworks and roadmaps.
Leadership: Experience leading project teams and a passion for mentoring more junior colleagues (like the BPO Business Managers).
Education: University degree in Business, Science, or Engineering; PMP, Prince2, or equivalent certification is highly desirable. MBA desirable.
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.
