Squad Lead - Rare Diseases

Roche; Toronto; On-site; CAD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Roche is seeking a Squad Lead for Rare Diseases, preferably based in greater Toronto, to develop disease-area strategies and mobilize a cross-disciplinary team. You will drive execution with an enterprise mindset, ensuring patient-centric outcomes while aligning with global expectations.

You will collaborate with international teams, mentor leaders, and uphold high standards of compliance and ethics. Strong business acumen and 15+ years in pharma are valued for this senior role.

Qualifications

• University degree in a scientific, medical, or business field.
• Experience in Rare Diseases or across different Disease Areas is desired.
• Senior leader with experience leading large and complex franchises.

Responsibilities

• Demonstrates inspirational leadership and drives a high-performance culture.
• Develops impactful disease-area strategies and aligns with enterprise priorities.
• Leads cross-functional teams to execute complex priorities.
• Develops key external relationships and maintains field presence.
• Mentors teams and manages performance with strong communication.
• Partners with global teams to localize global strategy.
• Ensures compliance, ethics, and patient-centered actions.

Skills

VACC leadership

Strategic thinking

Execution excellence

Stakeholder management

Coaching & mentoring

Enterprise mindset

Global collaboration

Compliance & ethics

Team leadership

Education

University degree (scientific/medical/business)

Job description

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

Squad Lead - Rare Diseases (Non-Malignant Hematology and Neuro-Muscular Disease Areas)

Location: We are preferably looking for candidates based in greater Toronto.

A healthier future. It’s what drives us to innovate. To continuously advance science and ensure everyone has access to the healthcare they need today and in the future. That’s what makes us Roche.

As a Squad Lead (Franchise Head), you embody courageous and authentic leadership, consistently driven by a deep commitment to patient and customer centricity. You hold the crucial accountability for developing and delivering on the therapeutic or disease area ambitions, while maintaining an overarching enterprise mindset. You are responsible for shaping the Disease Area strategy, effectively mobilizing a diverse, cross-disciplinary team, and cultivating an environment that champions exceptional execution excellence and speed. You foster a high-performance team that is in service of achieving both squad ambitions and our vision.

We are seeking an outstanding senior leader with exceptional patient and customer centricity, strong business acumen and proven track record of demonstrable impact. Experience in Rare Diseases or across different Disease Areas is desired, as is a history of successfully launching new products and a strong ability to collaborate effectively on an international environment, both externally and internally. We are looking for a senior leader who has experience to make an impact locally and ambition and mobility to grow into roles across the enterprise globally.

Roche Squads are end-to-end accountable for the creation and delivery of compelling value propositions to our patients, customers, and the business at large. This accountability encompasses both the strategy development, execution and comprehensive oversight of all related work.

The Opportunity:

• Leadership: Demonstrates inspirational VACC (Visionary, Architect, Catalyst, Coach) leadership, fosters empowerment and accountability and drives a high-performance culture. Displays confidence and clarity in communication. Effectively conveys key messages, masters the art of influencing cross-functional and cross-market stakeholders, and has the ability to manage complex discussions with confidence

• Strategic Development & Systems Thinking: Excels in developing impactful strategies, connects the dots across functions. Able to handle multiple large and complex DA priorities with clarity and structure.

• Execution Excellence: Consistently sets and executes on ambitious goals, creating impact within their market and teams.

• Significant external focus: You are the face of the disease area nationally. You develop and nurture key customer and stakeholder relationships, with significant presence in the field

• Coaching and mentoring to ensure individuals and teams are developing and growing in line with the needs of the organization and their passion

• Enterprise Mindset: Ensuring Squad strategies, planning and execution (including investment) are aligned to both squad AND enterprise portfolio priorities In collaboration with other Squad Leads, ensuring effective overall prioritization of all squad priorities, in line with Organizational resourcing capacity

• Global collaboration: Closely collaborate with Global Pharma Strategy (GPS), Pharma International (PI) and other global team to ensure localization of global strategy

• Accountable for the performance of the squad and creating the right conditions to achieve outcomes (impact retros, ensuring that feedback is being provided to all team members)

• Acting as a guardian for high standards of compliance, ethics and safety; putting patients at the centre of all actions by consistent business behavior that complies with applicable laws, industry codes and Roche’s Code of Conduct.

Who you are:

• You hold an University degree in a scientific, medical, or business field

• Experience in Rare Diseases or across different Disease Areas is desired

• Senior Leader with experience leading large and complex franchises as Franchise Head or Business Unit head highly desired

• You possess over 15+ years of which 7+ years of leadership experience within the highly competitive pharmaceutical/biotechnology sector, demonstrating progress in roles, expertise in commercial strategies and customer engagement

• A leader who is mobile to grow into enterprise roles across the globe

• You demonstrate collaborative, people-centered leadership, influencing, and an entrepreneurial mindset

• You consistently demonstrate strong business acumen, communication, and negotiation skills, leading to exceptional execution and impressive speed. Your innovative approach is characterized by rapid experimentation

• You have proven ability to mentor, coach, and empower teams, and to have crucial conversations with courage and skill

• You strength in leading with ambiguity and possess experience in working with and leading a cross-functional team with diverse competencies, skills and functional expertise

• In this position, you will be partnering with customers across Canada, therefore a proficient level of English is required and French may be required depending on geographical location.

Preferred:

• You hold an advanced degree (eg. Ph.D, MSc, MD, PharmD)

• You have direct people management experience and the ability to lead effectively in ambiguous situations

• You excel at building and maintaining strong collaborative relationships and networks, both internally (locally and globally) and externally

• Minimum 25% travel

Relocation benefits are not available for this position.

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.