R&D Business Insight and Digital Solution Lead

Roche•South San Francisco, CA

4d•$143,400 - $266,200

About The Position

As an R&D Business Insight and Digital Solution Lead, you are a technology consultant serving as a strategic thought leader and go-to expert for RDT. You will lead cross-functional teams on high-impact, complex products, anticipating changing business conditions and recommending strategic directions with enterprise-wide implications. Operating at the intersection of life science, enterprise architecture, and advanced analytics, you will bridge the gap between complex R&D strategies and cutting-edge IT/digital execution. You will shape product roadmaps, influence domain strategy using extensive industry knowledge, and masterfully mentor colleagues to foster a highly collaborative, safe, and innovative team environment.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Science, IT or Business.
8+ years of direct related experience, including 3+ years in life sciences/pharma or the assigned business function being supported.
Proven track record of leading extremely complex projects with enterprise-wide implications and anticipating changing business conditions.
Deep expertise in multiple Consultancy capabilities and a proficient level of business process domain knowledge across multiple domains.
Strong ability to scale Agile frameworks to align priorities across multiple squads or product teams.
Advanced capability in shaping product roadmaps and workforce strategies based on extensive industry knowledge and strategic trends.
Exceptional executive stakeholder management skills, with the charisma to captivate audiences and master strategic messaging.
Ability to navigate in ambiguous situations, be dynamic and ready to pivot to move the program forward.
Mastery in coaching and mentoring colleagues to solve problems and develop their skills within a safe and collaborative environment.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree is preferred.
Management consultancy experience is highly preferred.
Experience integrating models and agenticAI capabilities into business workflows is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

Lead cross-functional teams in a matrix organization, including peers from outside of your own function, to deliver high-impact and/or complex products.
Shape and influence strategy by translating complex business needs into clear product strategy, capabilities, and priorities.
Comfortable moving between strategic direction and hands-on delivery while maintaining focus on business outcomes.
Lead complex, multi-squad software, and data delivery programs from concept to operationalization, maintaining a balanced focus between strategic architecture and hands-on delivery.
Leverage deep pharmaceutical informatics and technology trends to anticipate evolving scientific needs, evaluating emerging capabilities, including enterprise AI, Agentic workflows, generative ML, and multimodal data platforms—for strategic fit and enterprise scalability.
Decide on important topics with a significant impact on the goals and objectives of the organization.
Take accountability of driving business outcomes in close partnership with stakeholders.
Create clarity and accountability around roles, priorities, decision making and expected outcomes and address bottlenecks holding the team back.
Foster psychological safety so people can disagree, surface risks, and question assumptions.
Shape and lead the right mix of blended teams of employees, vendors/consultants and experts who may not report directly to them.
Engage with senior stakeholders and executives, managing expectations and sponsorship.
Build alignment across business, data and technology teams without relying on formal authority.
Communicate effectively with both technical teams and senior business leaders and clearly articulate recommendations and trade-offs.
Comfortable giving high visibility presentations, clearly articulating recommendations, trade-offs and risks and influencing decision making.
Act as a go-to person for Leadership in RDT, determining the best course of action in new/innovative capabilities.
Provide consistent leadership and significant impact on complex and/or high-impact programs.
Influence strategy at the domain level by using extensive industry knowledge to shape product roadmaps and workforce strategies toward strategic trends.
Master coaching and mentoring to develop others' expertise and create a safe environment that empowers participants and enables great teamwork.
Lead extremely complex projects with enterprise-wide implications.
Anticipate changing conditions and business needs and recommend strategic directions to management to mitigate them.
Able to create structure and drive decisions in a complex dynamic environment with fragmented systems, distributed ownership, evolving requirements, and competing priorities.
Receive positive feedback, maintain a strong reputation, and is recognized by organizational leaders internally and externally due to impact, expertise, and collaboration capability.
Possess a proficient level of business process domain knowledge in multiple domains and has strong technical fluency to effectively lead and challenge architects, engineers, and data scientists.
Understand modern data platforms, APIs, analytics, and AI technologies and can evaluate solutions for scalability, maintainability, and strategic fit.
Experience integrating models and agenticAI capabilities into business workflows is a strong plus.