NGS & Agentic AI Engineering Support Internship

About the role

Roche Diagnostics R&D teams in Cape Town are seeking a recent graduate for a 12-month internship in the Sequencing Assay & Reagent Development function. The intern applies biological understanding to build and evaluate practical AI tools that help scientists develop reagents and assays, while supporting data-driven decisions.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and refine Python pipelines and LLM agent workflows that analyse technical specifications, scientific literature and SOPs for assay design.
• Build automated verification checks so AI outputs match real biological evidence, correct citations and assay data attribution.
• Evaluate scientific documents, NGS assay criteria and reagent performance requirements with computational and bioinformatics tools.
• Design structured prompts and automated tests to check AI tool performance against real scientific examples.
• Partner with assay scientists to turn their lab and design workflows into practical AI utilities.
• Document code architecture, test results and failure cases, keep lab records, analyse data and write clear reports.

Required profile

• Recent Honours or Master's degree (within 2 years) in Molecular Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Biochemistry, Computational Biology or Bioinformatics, with experience applying AI or machine learning.
• Foundational knowledge of molecular biology and assay principles such as PCR/qPCR, nucleic acid chemistry or sequencing.
• Proven ability to write Python for data processing, automation or tool development.
• Hands-on experience or active projects with AI tools, LLM APIs or prompt development.
• Desirable: NGS library preparation, reagent chemistry or enzyme kinetics experience; sequence alignment or bioinformatics database exposure; LLM evaluation or agent framework exposure.

Required skills

• Python programming
• AI and LLM tools, including prompt development
• Bioinformatics tools and data analysis

What we offer

• Training alongside experienced bioinformatics scientists in product development and AI engineering.
• Cross-functional R&D insight on how computational tools support wet-lab sequencing.
• Mentorship from senior scientists and specialists.
• A career pathway combining molecular biology skills with AI tool development.

Applicants submit their CV, academic transcript and a short cover letter through the application process.