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
Job description
As a Custom Software Developer, you act as a seasoned expert who takes ownership of tasks and drives quality. You will challenge the status quo, foster collaboration and mentorship, and design complex software solutions utilizing strong full-stack expertise. By possessing a deep understanding of the broader technical landscape, you will improve the entire software delivery process, proactively addressing technical debt and architectural challenges while aligning your efforts with global organizational strategies.
Description of the area
The Engineering Excellence & Experience team, part of Roche's RDT organization, owns and evolves the engineering tooling landscape that supports software development across Roche. We are responsible for the platforms that thousands of colleagues rely on every day to plan, build, test and release software - including the Atlassian suite (Jira, Confluence), codebeamer, OpenPDM and AllureTestOps - in a global and highly regulated (GxP) environment.
Our mission is to make it easy for engineering teams to do their best work: we run these platforms reliably at enterprise scale, we simplify and standardize how they are used, and we continuously improve the developer experience through automation and AI-enabled solutions. The team also drives strategic initiatives such as the migration of Jira from Data Center to Cloud and the rationalization of the wider engineering tooling portfolio.
You will join a distributed, international team that combines deep hands-on platform engineering with close partnership with business stakeholders, Product Owners and software compliance colleagues.
Job Responsibilities
Scope / Content Leadership: Takes ownership of tasks and topics that are in the "grey zone" (no defined owner), successfully driving small to medium (S/M) initiatives.
Core Engineering Domains: Provide deep hands-on expertise across at least one (or more) of the essential technical domains: Java Fullstack development, DevOps, IaC or Application and Application Infrastructure support.
Atlassian Platform Administration: Act as a full Administrator for the Atlassian Suite in the Cloud and On-Prem (Jira, Confluence, etc.), overseeing platform stability, configurations, custom workflows, and integrations.
L2/L3 Technical Escalation: Handle escalated tickets/issues that previous support tiers cannot resolve, driving complex troubleshooting to resolution.
AI & Automation Integration: Leverage Python and AI/GenAI-capable tools (MCP/automation scripts) to streamline workflows, optimize ticket resolution, and automate repetitive platform operations and user experience for the tools in scope (Jira, codebeamer, Confluence, OpenPDM, AllureTestOps).
User Consultation & Translation (Atlassian Ecosystem): Actively engage with end-users to gather, analyze, and translate incoming feature requests into structured, actionable implementation plans for POs and tool owners.
Full-Spectrum Technical Support: Provide end-to-end technical ownership, ranging from deep-level troubleshooting (analyzing server logs, audit logs, system performance) to hands-on custom coding and script-level changes.
Product Change Management: Act as the primary change agent responsible for introducing, testing, and rolling out updates and improvements directly to the Atlassian product suite.
Data Center to Cloud Migration: Play a pivotal role in the upcoming enterprise migration from Jira Data Center (on-premise) to Jira Cloud, ensuring data integrity, compliance, and seamless operational transition.
Championing Best Practices: Serve as a subject matter expert and "champion" for quality standards, teaching and driving adoption of standardized workflows and validation practices across teams.
Accountability / Problem Solving: Challenges the status quo and is highly skillful in navigating group dynamics and diversified settings. Fosters good collaboration, knowledge sharing, and peer support within the team.
Stakeholder Management: Prioritizes and communicates with stakeholders effectively. Maintains a bigger picture view and understands how various technical components fit into the overall strategy and goals.
Impact / Strategy: Aligns development plans with the global strategy. Gets involved in initiatives and tasks reaching outside of regular project scope, and actively shares knowledge and good practices within the team and the product/site scope.
Complexity / Product Size: Operates at the "Product/Site" level.
Business / Technical ability: Possesses a deep understanding of the broader technical landscape beyond the specific component being worked on. Formulates and implements technical strategies aligned with organizational objectives, investing time and energy into initiatives that boost creativity and innovation while keeping the highest engineering quality.
Qualifications
Education / Experience
Proven track record in an Engineer or DevOps/Platform Specialist role, with solid hands-on delivery experience.
Proven track record managing enterprise-scale Atlassian installations (Jira, Confluence, ELM tools) supporting tens of thousands of active users.
Strong experience in handling escalated support (L2/L3) for enterprise digital tools/platforms.
Experience working with both internal teams and external vendors/contractors.
Experience acting as a liaison between business end-users, software compliance teams, and Product Owners.
Proven experience successfully driving small to medium (S/M) initiatives (Project/Squad/Product).
Hands-on experience with Data Center to Cloud migrations for Atlassian/enterprise tools is a plus.
Technical Skills
Essential Technical Core: Strong proficiency in at least one of the following: Java Fullstack development, DevOps practices (CI/CD, IaC), or SaaS platform administration.
Atlassian Administration: Hands-on Cloud and on-prem Administrator experience across the Atlassian ecosystem (Jira Cloud, Confluence, plugins, and API integrations), including advanced site administration, permission schemes, workflow configuration, and marketplace app management.
AI & Automation: Proficient in Python for automation, scripting, and integrating AI-driven / AI-capable capabilities into workflows and support processes.
Deep Technical Mastery: Strong capability across the full support spectrum, from reading log files and performing system audits to writing code/scripts for Atlassian customization and API integrations.
Experience building internal Python web apps (e.g., Streamlit) consuming Jira API endpoints to optimize team workflows, sprint tracking, ideas, dashboards, etc.
Experience with deployment pipelines using ArgoCD and Helm to provision, sync, and scale enterprise Kubernetes pod instances with automated rollbacks.
Experience integrating Pytest and InSpec into CI/CD pipelines to enable continuous testing, driving automated unit/integration testing alongside infrastructure-as-code compliance checks.
Solid expertise in one or more technology areas and the ability to select and apply appropriate technologies to solve complex problems.
Strong understanding of software operations, including performance tuning and scalability.
Good knowledge of available software development tooling in the market, suggesting adoption to the current Roche toolset, and continuously improving developer productivity and experience within the product/site scope.
Working knowledge of regulated and compliance market best practices, ensuring that software solutions comply with security standards in coordination with appropriate Roche experts.
Ability to design and improve the entire software delivery process, from code to production, applying and promoting best practices within the product/site scope.
Good understanding of cybersecurity and the implementation of secure software development practices.
Ability to identify and proactively address complex technical debt, performance bottlenecks, and architectural challenges.
Solid understanding of software quality management and metrics.
Additional Qualifications
Applies and promotes high standards for code quality, testing, security, and operational excellence within their team.
Contributes to the continuous improvement of current software validation, regulatory processes, and software quality management practices.
Strong ability to plan and estimate the work needed to accomplish small to medium (S/M) tasks.
Customer-Centric Mindset: Exceptional communication and consultation skills to articulate complex technical requirements clearly to non-technical stakeholders and tool owners.
GxP & Validation: Exposure to or understanding of GxP validation, regulatory compliance, and software quality management in a regulated environment - will be an advantage.
English advanced level is a must. Any other language will be welcomed.
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.
