Roche Posted June 26, 2026

Data Architect

Madrid, Spain FULL_TIME
Information Technology

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

The Lead Data ArchitectClinical Imaging and AI Platforms will lead the design, governance, and evolution of enterprise imaging and multi-modal data ecosystems, ensuring alignment with GxP, SaMD, FAIR, and clinical data governance frameworks. This role serves as the strategic bridge between scientific, business, and technology organizations across Research, Product Development, RIS, and RDT, translating business priorities into scalable, secure, and interoperable data architectures.

The role is responsible for defining enterprise data architecture strategy and establishing standards for metadata, interoperability, lineage, and AI-ready data models. It will enable scalable analytics and AI/ML workflows for Research (REDs) and Product Development(PD) while driving modernization of imaging data platforms in partnership with engineering, informatics, and governance teams.

Job Responsibilities

Define and execute the enterprise data architecture strategy and roadmap for multi-modal imaging and research data within the Global Imaging Platform (GIP ).

Design scalable and interoperable data architectures supporting Radiology, Digital Pathology, AI/ML, clinical, and translational research workflows.

Establish and enforce standards for data modeling, metadata management, lineage, interoperability, cataloging, and governance across structured and unstructured datasets in close partnership with the Data managers and Study teams.

Lead the design and implementation of cloud-native data platforms, data lakes/lakehouses, and distributed analytics ecosystems supporting global R&D and clinical initiatives.

Partner with scientific, clinical, and technical stakeholders to translate business and research requirements into scalable, compliant, and reusable data solutions.

Act as the primary architecture lead for imaging and multi-modal data ecosystems, coordinating across gRED, pRED, PD, RDT, RIS, and enterprise IT functions.

Ensure alignment with GxP, FAIR standards, HIPAA/GDPR, security, privacy, and enterprise governance standards across all data architecture initiatives.

Drive enterprise-wide adoption of common data models, interoperability standards, APIs, and semantic frameworks to improve data accessibility and reusability.

Collaborate with engineering and platform teams to design robust data ingestion, transformation, storage, and access patterns optimized for AI/ML and advanced analytics, focussed on biomarker research and analysis of Imaging data.

Define architecture patterns for high-volume imaging and pathology data, including metadata indexing, streaming, archival, and federated access strategies.

Lead modernization efforts for legacy data environments towards scalable and efficient hybrid architectures.

Drive automation and standardization across data lifecycle management, data quality monitoring, observability, and governance workflows.

Oversee architecture reviews, technical governance, and cross-functional design decisions to ensure consistency, scalability, and operational excellence.

Identify and implement opportunities to improve scalability, cost optimization, performance, automation, and operational efficiency across enterprise data platforms.

Monitor emerging technologies and industry trends in data platforms, imaging data formats,  AI/ML ecosystems, digital pathology, interoperability, and data standards to guide innovation and future-state architecture.

Drive the evolution of AI-ready and semantically enriched data architectures that support advanced analytics, machine learning, and emerging generative AI use cases.

Promote AI-enabled automation and metadata-driven architectures to accelerate analytics, reproducibility, compliance, and operational efficiency.

Foster a culture of continuous improvement, technical excellence, collaboration, and knowledge sharing within Roche’s global data and imaging community.

Contribute to enterprise architecture review boards and governance councils to ensure alignment with long-term platform and data strategy.

​Qualifications:

Preferably has 8 - 10 years of industry experience in the relevant fields and supporting education in Technology.

Demonstrated experience defining technical direction, coaching junior architects and engineers, and successfully driving medium to large-scale enterprise data initiatives across complex organizations.

Proven track record contributing to enterprise architecture strategy for major data platforms, products, or services within regulated or highly governed environments.

Deep expertise in enterprise data architecture, distributed data systems, cloud-native platforms, and scalable analytics ecosystems.

Strong experience designing modern data platforms using technologies such as Snowflake , Databricks, AWS Datastores, Azure , GCP, or equivalent cloud ecosystems.

Expertise in data modeling methodologies, metadata management, master/reference data management, data lineage, and enterprise data governance frameworks.

Strong understanding of healthcare and life sciences interoperability standards such as DICOM, HL7/FHIR, OMOP, CDISC, SDTM or related frameworks.

Experience architecting AI/ML-ready data environments supporting advanced analytics, model training, reproducibility, and operational deployment.

Proficiency designing scalable ingestion and processing architectures for large-scale structured, and unstructured datasets, including imaging and digital pathology data.

Experience implementing reusable Infrastructure as Code (IaC) frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, and automated deployment patterns for cloud data platforms.

Ability to design observability, monitoring, data quality, and operational resilience frameworks across interconnected enterprise systems.

Strong background in security architecture, privacy controls, access management, and regulatory compliance in healthcare or life sciences environments.

Strong coaching and mentorship skills, including experience mentoring senior engineers, other architects, and platform teams while promoting architectural consistency and engineering quality.

Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, capable of translating complex technical concepts into business value and building partnerships across scientific, engineering, clinical, and executive stakeholders.

Practical experience working with regulatory, quality, and compliance teams to align enterprise data practices with Roche QMS and governance requirements.

Experience supporting globally distributed teams and driving alignment across multiple organizations, platforms, and strategic initiatives.

 

 

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
Not listed
Function
Information Technology
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Madrid, Spain
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Information Technology role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 1097 comparable Information Technology roles across 55 biopharma companies.

1097Comparable roles tracked
1035Currently active
55Companies hiring similar roles
29Countries represented

Salary context

143 of 1097 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.

This roleSubject Not listed on this posting
Lowest disclosed · Senior Data Security Engineer (Insider Risk Management – Engineering) · AbbVie $0/hr – $0/hr (≈ $0–$0/yr)
Highest disclosed · Senior Director, Targets and Mechanisms Solutions · Pfizer $230,900/yr – $384,800/yr
Peer group range $0 – $307,850 (median $165,900)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 1097 comparable roles

India507
United States241
Spain105
Poland72
Portugal32
China13

+ 23 more countries

Seniority mix

612 of 1097 peers have a known seniority level

Senior290
Manager135
Associate52
Principal50
Associate Director39
Director28
Senior Director13
Intern/Fellow/Postdoc4
Executive/VP1

Therapeutic area mix

1 of 1097 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology1

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.

40%similar
Roche Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
Same function Same country
40%similar
Roche Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain Senior
Same function Same country
40%similar
Novartis Barcelona Gran Vía, Spain
Same function Same country
40%similar
Novartis Barcelona Gran Vía, Spain Associate Director
Same function Same country
40%similar
Novartis Barcelona Gran Vía, Spain Associate Director
Same function Same country
40%similar
Novartis Barcelona Gran Vía, Spain Associate Director
Same function Same country

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.

40%
Lead Software Engineer (Rust)
Roche · Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain · Seniority not listed
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Associate Director Business Analysis (GCO)
Novartis · Barcelona Gran Vía, Spain · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Snr. Specialist, Platform Services - Data, Digital & IT
Novartis · Barcelona Gran Vía, Spain · Seniority not listed
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Associate Director, Solution Design Expert (Advanced Therapies)
Novartis · Barcelona Gran Vía, Spain · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area 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.