PhD in Biostatistics (Basel, 3 years)

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

This role is based in the Product Development Data Sciences department which is dedicated to providing world-class trial designs as well as statistical insights both from clinical trial and real-world data. We partner closely with experts from different functions within our company, academics, and Health Authorities to innovate and bring more safe and effective drugs to patients faster and at a lower cost to society. This role is part of our Biostatistics platform within Data Sciences.

The opportunity

• Conduct PhD research within the INVENTS project, (https://invents-he.eu/) a collaborative initiative focused on developing innovative trial designs, models and simulations for clinical development in rare and paediatric diseases.

• Split your time between Roche in Basel and the PhD program at Université Paris Cité, fully participating in both environments.

• Evaluate methods to generate and use synthetic data. Synthetic data is data generated from a model that represents the key features of real patient data while maintaining the privacy of the patients.

• Use causal networks to estimate the similarities between studies and other data sources. These other sources will help enrich smaller datasets and improve statistical robustness and predictions. Causal networks will also be used to assess the feasibility of generating artificial data in practice for a rare/paediatric condition, where data is extremely scarce.

• Apply methods such as target trial emulations, virtual arms, external control arms and/or enriched arms to different real-world data sources and/or artificial data in the context of rare and paediatric diseases.

• Have a meaningful impact on real-world healthcare challenges by using these innovative methods on 20 studies with thousands of patients evaluating tocilizumab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and related paediatric and rare diseases.

• Engage fully as a member of Roche Data Sciences, with access to seminars, trainings, and the chance to gain hands-on experience as a study statistician.
  
  

Who you are

• You hold (or are completing) a Master’s degree in (bio-)statistics or a related field.

• Your PhD will be conducted in partnership with Université Paris Cité. You must meet the formal requirements to study there. The expected academic supervisor Prof. Sarah Zohar will be part of the interview process and can advise you on the requirements.

• You are self-motivated, capable of working independently, and open to guidance and collaboration.

• You communicate effectively across disciplines; fluency in English (written and spoken) is required. French language skills may be helpful, but not required.

• You have a strong foundation in (bio-)statistics, ideally with knowledge of clinical trial methodology.

• Experience with longitudinal data analysis and programming in R or Python is preferred.

Application documents – a pragmatic approach:

We kindly ask you to provide a brief explanation of what interests you about this position, a current CV, and your official educational certificates/proof of qualifications. No additional documents are required at this stage. Please note that no further documents can be added after the application has been submitted.

Apply now - we look forward to hearing from 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.