Student Internship in Lab Automation (Pharma Research & Early Development)

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.

Strategy, Portfolio & Operations (SPO) is a unified function that serves as the strategic and operational backbone enabling pRED's strategy from lab to clinic. Operating under a dynamic Chapter Model, SPO centralises specialised skills across critical areas including Sites & Lab Services, Program & Project Management, Strategy, Clinical Operations, External Operations, Capability Development, Core Lab Technology Platforms (360 Labs) and Asset Team Leadership. SPO’s mission is to drive enterprise value creation by delivering operational excellence and accelerating portfolio productivity. As a trusted partner, SPO fosters a culture of collaboration and accountability to ensure pRED transitions assets smoothly from early research to late-stage development.

360 Labs Chapter at a Glance

The primary mission of the 360 Labs Chapter within SPO is to provide greater access and support for the use of cutting-edge biomedical research technologies by scientists across our discovery portfolio. 360 Labs delivers core scientific technologies, expertise and enabling activities, as well as facilitating knowledge sharing in close collaboration with our therapeutic areas and functions. Our ambition is to bring to life a thriving workplace environment, where your collaborative mindset is as valued as your professional expertise. Our goal is to act as a highly integrated ecosystem, supporting research and development, working collaboratively, and focused on fostering excellence and sustainability. Together, these efforts will serve to increase the speed, enhance the robustness and improve the sustainability of our exploratory research and early discovery activities.

The Opportunity

With the help of two experienced lab automation scientists, you will gain deep insights into automating sample preparation workflows for various applications in genomics, proteomics and flow cytometry. Your work will include programming & validation of the user interface, the robotic pipetting workflow and the automated generation of reports. To enable successful automation in an open-access facility, you will focus on developing solutions which are user-friendly and robust. You will understand lab automation platform architecture, design and programming as well as the importance of providing an intuitive user experience. Depending on your interest & ability you will be able to contribute to the automation platform design & engineering (CAD, 3D printing) if required.

Your Role and Responsibilities

• Develop and implement quality control assays for our various liquid handlers to ensure accuracy and overall performance.
• Plan, perform and document experiments to validate and benchmark automated workflows. 
• Present and discuss your work with stakeholders. Train and support users.

Who you are

• You are currently enrolled in bachelor or master studies in biology/biotechnology or related discipline, or finished a master degree within 12 months prior to the start date of the internship.
• You have prior programming experience (Python, Matlab, R or similar) which you are motivated to extend in the field of automation.
• You have an affinity to work with & understand technical equipment and are excited by cutting edge technologies like automated liquid handlers.

In addition to your scientific expertise and critical technical skills we are looking for candidates who are:

• Customer-focused with a drive for growth and a questioning mindset. Skilled in creative problem-solving, organization, and implementing innovative ideas efficiently in a fast-paced research context; 
• Excellent communicators with a high fluency in English, a desire to continuously build a personal network and the ability to thrive in a dynamic, inclusive environment which gives you full accountability for your own contributions and development.

Additional information

Please upload your CV and add a section that highlights your relevant skill set (2-3 sentences), followed up by a few examples from your CV (bullet points) to support them.

Start: Ideally in January 2027 or upon your availability for a period of preferably 12 months. Please indicate your ideal starting date on your application.
If you are a Non-Swiss/Non-EU-EFTA candidate, your university has to certify that the internship is a mandatory part of your degree, for the entire duration of the internship.

Ready to take the next step? We'd love to hear from you. Apply now to explore this exciting opportunity!

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.