Meet Janine, Project Manager Building 2 & pRED Innovation Center Basel at Roche | Roche

Hi, my name is…

…Janine, and I grew up near Stuttgart in Germany. I studied biotechnology in the Department of Process Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Bingen and graduated in 2010. I joined Roche in 2013 as a Qualification Engineer for Galenical Pharma Production. Two years ago I changed to “Project Engineering Building 2 & pRED Innovation Center Basel”. Together with my colleagues, I’m now responsible for the managing the two comprehensive projects: “Building 2” as a very special building (because it will be more than 200m high with a pretty small footprint) and the “pRED Innovation Center”, which will consist of four buildings for research and development, a Convention Center, and a new underground car park. Our project team visited different research centres all over the world so as to define the highest standards and make the building best in class with the latest technologies. For me, it is a unique opportunity to be involved in two of the largest investment projects at the Roche site. In my current role as a Project Manager, I can also combine my knowledge from the field of engineering with project management tasks.

My typical day at work is…

…rarely routine; our project teams have to be very agile and flexible every day. The main task is the general project management and matrix lead of the planning team. My close collaboration with the other project manager helps me to gain more experience with such large buildings and facilities. I organise workshops with the relevant stakeholders in order to consider all aspects and develop a proposal as well as the further decision-making course. Scope changes are presented to the steering committees, which decide how to proceed. Digital engineering is rapidly changing the way we work. One of my tasks is to support the adaption of our work processes to those new technologies, and to ensure efficiency, reliability and quality of the generated results. In order to check at an early stage whether assigned services are being provided in the desired form and sequence, expediting is crucial and also one of my quality assurance tasks. In a later phase of the project, I will support the team in checking commissioning, startup activities and the functionality of all installed systems.

The location I am working at is…

…Basel, the Roche headquarters. My office is located on the main site, close to the Rhine. It’s a pretty nice place to work: during lunchtime you can go for a walk or take a swim in the Rhine or in the Roche indoor pool. We currently have an unusual working environment due to the mass of construction activities on site. But it’s so exciting to observe and even drive the change every day, and to be a part of implementing such a huge strategic site development plan.

My work helps Roche to…

…generate new workspaces in a creative and productive environment, where employees can collaborate and communicate across all functions. With Building 2, a big part of our employees - who are currently working in rented offices in Basel - should be able to return to the site. In the new pRED Innovation Center all research functions will have opportunities for close collaboration.

Roche as an employer…

...offers many functions at one location: Research & Development, production and site services. Roche is also one of only a few companies that has its own engineering department. It is exciting to work with so many different interfaces. Every day, I’m proud to be part of a company that gives patients the chance of a hopefully longer and better life. It’s great to have flexible working hours and to know such a lot of people from different countries, representing a wide range of professions and cultures. My team colleagues are very diverse, too. Working together is a lot of fun and mutually beneficial.