Roche Posted August 10, 2026

Principal Scientist, Respiratory Discovery

Basel, Basel-City, Switzerland FULL_TIME
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research Respiratory Principal

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

In Roche’s Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development organisation (pRED), we make transformative medicines for patients in order to tackle some of the world’s toughest unmet healthcare needs. At pRED, we are united by our mission to transform science into medicines. Together, we create a culture defined by curiosity, responsibility, and humility, where our talented people are empowered and inspired to bring forward extraordinary life-changing innovation at speed.

pRED Cardiovascular, Metabolism, Immunology (CMI), located in Basel, Switzerland, focuses on the discovery and early development of innovative treatments for specific diseases that affect the lives of millions. In the Immunology Department, we are developing cutting-edge therapies to treat chronic inflammatory diseases, including novel treatment options for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The Opportunity

To complement the Immunology team in pRED CMI, we are seeking a visionary, highly motivated, experienced Scientist with a strong academic background in pulmonary research, a track record in drug target identification and validation and proven ability to effectively lead projects in a drug discovery setting.

As a Principal Scientist in pRED CMI, you will be a part of an international and multidisciplinary group of scientists and clinicians committed to delivering innovative solutions for COPD patients by combining cutting-edge approaches in biology, pharmacology and translational research.

Key Responsibilities:

Utilising patient data and translational models, you will lead innovative initiatives to gain a better understanding of COPD pathobiology in order to identify novel drug targets and generate therapeutic hypotheses that are experimentally testable, druggable and clinically developable.

In collaboration with a dedicated team of lab-based associates and post-doctoral scientists, you will direct, oversee and interpret complex preclinical experimental studies for the validation and characterisation of targets or therapeutic agents in COPD.

You will bring targets into the early drug discovery pipeline and lead multidisciplinary teams up to clinical candidate generation.

Working in multidisciplinary teams, you will diligently evaluate external opportunities and clearly communicate the findings to senior management

People management, including coaching and mentoring junior scientists and postdocs

Who You Are

You hold a PhD degree in Life Sciences (respiratory biology, cellular/ molecular biology, pharmacology, immunology - or a closely related field) and bring 5 to 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

You bring deep expertise in COPD disease biology, including chronic tissue remodelling, inflammation and/ or epithelial biology

You have significant scientific accomplishments and successful collaborations documented by publications in high-impact journals

You have a strong strategic thinking capacity, with the ability to balance multiple priorities in a fast-paced, matrixed organisation.

You have a good understanding of general pharmacological properties of therapeutic modalities such as small molecules and antibodies.

You can effectively communicate scientific data and concepts to colleagues, teams and senior management.

At Roche, we aim high to deliver life-changing healthcare solutions. If you’re ready to make a meaningful impact on patients and healthcare systems worldwide, this is the place for you.

 

 

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
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research
Therapeutic area
Respiratory
Location
Basel, Basel-City, Switzerland
Employment type
FULL_TIME

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 193 comparable Principal Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 31 biopharma companies.

193Comparable roles tracked
172Currently active
31Companies hiring similar roles
12Countries represented

Salary context

65 of 193 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
Peer group range $105,700 – $322,000 (median $165,300)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 193 comparable roles

United States159
India9
United Kingdom5
Canada4
China's Mainland3
China3

+ 6 more countries

Seniority mix

193 of 193 peers have a known seniority level

Senior111
Principal56
Director26

Therapeutic area mix

28 of 193 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology16
Immunology5
Cardiovascular / CVRM5
Neuroscience1
Vaccines & Infectious Disease1

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.

50%similar
Roche Basel, Basel-City, Switzerland Senior
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
45%similar
AstraZeneca Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
Lilly San Francisco, California, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority

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.

50%
Senior DMPK-PD Project Leader
Roche · Basel, Basel-City, Switzerland · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
45%
Advisor/Senior Advisor - Discovery Immunology
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
45%
Principal Associate, In vitro ADME/DDI
Roche · Shanghai, Shanghai, China's Mainland · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
45%
Principal Research Scientist I, Process Chemistry (Biocatalysis)
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Principal
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.