Head of Forward-Deployed Data Engineering, India Center

Roche Holding AG; Hyderabad; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 8,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Roche Holding AG in Hyderabad is seeking a senior leader to define and drive the Applied AI Engineering strategy at the India Center. You will build and scale a world-class engineering organization that delivers secure, compliant agentic solutions and accelerates business value through AI innovation.

You will partner with senior AI and Data Platform leaders to ensure alignment with global data and AI strategies, while delivering high-impact AI products and scalable platforms.

Qualifications

• 10-15+ years in software engineering with AI/ML leadership.
• Proven track record scaling large engineering orgs.
• Expert in cloud architecture, distributed systems, and SDLC automation.
• Experience with agentic AI projects.
• Shipping product experience.

Responsibilities

• Define long-term technical roadmap for Applied AI engineering.
• Establish global engineering standards, governance frameworks and architectural principles.
• Lead recruitment and professional development of Technical Team Leads and engineers.
• Oversee internal AI platform development and AI SDLC tooling.
• Manage department engineering budget and vendor relationships; align capacity with business opportunities.
• Collaborate with senior leadership to ensure value delivery and cross-functional alignment.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to embed agentic capabilities into broader demand management processes.

Skills

AI leadership

Cloud architecture

SDLC automation

Executive communication

Strategic thinking

Job description

Chez Roche, vous pouvez être vous-même et être apprécié pour les qualités uniques que vous apportez. Notre culture encourage l'expression personnelle, le dialogue ouvert et les connexions authentiques, où vous êtes valorisé, accepté et respecté pour ce que vous êtes, vous permettant de prospérer tant personnellement que professionnellement. Voici comment nous visons à prévenir, arrêter et guérir les maladies et à garantir à chacun l'accès aux soins de santé aujourd'hui et pour les générations à venir. Rejoignez Roche, où chaque voix compte.

La position

The Head of RDT Applied AI Engineering, India Center is accountable for defining and executing the engineering strategy, agentic toolkit development, and organizational scaling for the Applied AI department. You will oversee multiple engineering squads, led by Technical Team Leads, focused on building robust, scalable agentic engineering solutions and toolkits. You work closely with your peer in Applied AI, the Head of Applied AI Solutions, to ensure your team's delivery fits the business problem, demonstrates value (proof-of-value) and enables the realization of high-value business outcomes through AI innovation.

You will serve as a Strategic Business Partner for Applied AI Engineering to the Pharma Medicines, Pharma R&D, Diagnostics and EPIE Leadership Teams.

Your primary objective is to co-create, define, and drive the new Hyderabad location and teams to deliver the unified global Data & AI strategy. You will build a world-class engineering organization that delivers sustainable, secure, and compliant agentic engineering at scale, accelerating the transformation of our business through advanced automation.

Description of the area

The Applied AI Engineering function is the foundational accelerator for agentic engineering across our Software Development and AI initiatives. We focus on industrializing AI through the development of an agentic engineering practices, and the integration of AI-driven tools into the software development lifecycle. We accelerate closing the gap between proof-of-concept and production-grade services.

This leadership role focuses on the structural and strategic health of the engineering discipline, fostering a culture of excellence, high-performance, and continuous technical evolution within our multidisciplinary squads.

Job Responsibilities

• Engineering Strategy & Governance
  Define the long-term technical roadmap for Applied AI engineering. Establish global engineering standards, governance frameworks, and architectural principles to ensure applicability and scalability across all AI services.
  Partner with the AI and Data Platform Leads to influence and ensure that AI and Data Platform capabilities are evolving with the frontier engineering demands.

• Organizational Design & Scaling
  Design and build high-performing engineering squads. Lead the recruitment and professional development of Technical Team Leads and engineers. Implement organizational structures that optimize for speed, quality, and cross-functional alignment with business consulting teams.

• Platform Development & AI SDLC
  Champion the implementation of Agentic SDLC and modern AI/ML engineering practices. Oversee the development of internal AI platforms that provide reusable components, automated testing, and seamless deployment paths for AI models and applications.

• Strategic Leadership & Financial Oversight
  Manage the department's engineering budget, including infrastructure costs and vendor relationships. Collaborate with senior leadership to align engineering capacity with the highest-priority business opportunities. Act as a primary technical advisor to executive stakeholders.

• Cross-Functional Partnership
  Work in close partnership with the Head of Applied AI Use Case Consulting and Head of Applied AI Solutions to ensure agentic capabilities are integrated into the overall functions demand management process. Ensure that proof of value and delivered solutions meet the business value requirements defined by your peers.
  As part of the forward deployed engineering squads, ensure that data as well as AI solution engineering is embedded.

Qualifications

Education / Experience

• 10-15+ years of experience in software engineering and technical leadership, with a strong emphasis on AI/ML and platform engineering and agentic engineering.

• Proven track record of building and scaling large-scale engineering organizations and managing multidisciplinary technical managers.

• Expert-level understanding of cloud architecture, distributed systems, and modern SDLC automation

• Agentic AI project experience (must)

• Shipping product (must)

Leadership & Strategic Skills

• Strategic thinker with the ability to translate business goals into complex engineering structures and accelerator strategies.

• Leadership & Talent: Proven ability to lead and influence senior leaders, empowering a global team, emphasizing accountability and talent management. Must foster a culture defined by psychological safety and a strong sense of ownership.

• Exceptional executive communication skills, capable of influencing senior leadership and aligning global stakeholders.

• Cross functional influencing/ matrix leadership

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Qui nous sommes

Un avenir plus sain nous pousse à innover. Ensemble, plus de 100 000 employés à travers le monde sont dédiés à faire progresser la science et à garantir à chacun l'accès aux soins de santé aujourd'hui et pour les générations à venir. Nos efforts aboutissent à plus de 26 millions de personnes traitées avec nos médicaments et plus de 30 milliards de tests réalisés avec nos produits de Diagnostique. Nous nous encourageons mutuellement à explorer de nouvelles possibilités, à favoriser la créativité et à conserver nos grandes ambitions, afin de fournir des solutions de santé qui changent des vies et ont un impact mondial.

Construisons ensemble un avenir plus sain.

Roche est un employeur offrant l'équité en matière d'emploi.