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

Global Patient Partnership Leader (GPPL) Rare Diseases

The Global Patient Partnership Leader (GPPL) is a pivotal role that resides in Roche's Product Development Medical Affairs (PDMA/Global Medical Affairs) department and serves across the full Pharma value chain (R&D through commercialisation). This role strategically leads global patient community engagement in specific disease area(s), ensuring the patient voice is central to all company plans. The role drives innovation and collaboration with patient organisations, influencing R&D, clinical trials, commercialisation and access strategies to improve patient outcomes.

The GPPL serves as a vital link between Roche and the patient community, serving as the primary relationship manager for global/multi-national patient organisations and facilitating meaningful partnerships across Roche functions.

This role will primarily focus on supporting program teams and patient communities in: Rare Diseases

The Opportunity

• Strategic Leadership and Integration: Lead global patient community engagement, aligning activities with company and disease area strategies and strategically integrating the patient perspective across the entire Roche value chain (from R&D and clinical trials to commercialization and market access). Serve as a strategic advisor and topic expert to internal leadership.

• Relationship Development and Management: Serve as the primary relationship manager and spokesperson to global patient communities, building trust-based partnerships with patient organisations and partners.

• Collaborative Planning and Execution: Develop and execute comprehensive global patient partnership plans with patient communities and internal stakeholders (global cross functions and country affiliates), ensuring effective and impactful implementation.

• Architecting and Facilitating Mutual Value and Engagement: Responsible for enabling meaningful opportunities of engagement between Roche and patient partners (such as global council meetings and advisory meetings, co-authored publications, and education/capacity-building programs).

• Communications Planning and Execution: Develop and implement communication strategies and content tailored for patient communities, ensuring clear and accessible language for various channels (such as advisory boards, presentations/webinars, community letters, and public speaking engagements).

• Driving Impact and Influence: Contribute to the evolution and elevation of the patient partnership function within Roche and across the pharmaceutical industry through disease-agnostic work projects and initiatives.

Who You Are?

• Professional Experience: Possess at least 10 years of experience in pharmaceutical or health sectors, including 5+ years specifically in patient advocacy/engagement.

• Strategic Relationship Building: Demonstrated skill in building meaningful strategic relationships with patient advocacy communities, evidenced by established networks with global and/or regional patient advocacy groups or key influencers.

• Patient-centric Integration: Proven success in integrating patient perspectives into clinical development, commercialization, and access programs, including translating information into insights into actionable strategies.

• Balancing Needs: Skilled in identifying and balancing business and patient needs to achieve mutual value.

• Communication and Representation: Superior communication (verbal and written), public speaking, analytical, and issue management skills, with the ability to serve as the company representative to patient communities. Passionate and skilled in editing and translating medical or scientific information into language understandable for lay audiences.

• Operational Expertise: Demonstrated ability to support multiple disease areas simultaneously, prioritize resources pragmatically, and operate effectively in a complex, cross-functional environment, influencing strategic decisions and driving alignment.

Additional information

• Applicants must have native or near-native fluency in professional business English (written and spoken)

• Job requires international travel (up to 25% at times) and schedule flexibility to serve global time zones

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.