Group Leader Systems Operations

Overview

The ETH Zurich technology platform NEXUS Personalized Health is dedicated to fostering innovation and research in the field of personalized health. The platform encompasses a wide array of expertise in Clinical Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Software Engineering, Systems Operations, and Screening & Lab Automation.

Key Responsibilities

• Team Leadership: Inspire, mentor, and develop a diverse team with varying professional experiences and methodologies.
• Operational Ownership: Ensure the reliable functioning of internal and partner-facing systems, covering deployments, environments, access patterns, and daily stability.
• Transition and Lifecycle Management: Oversee handovers from development to controlled testing phases, ensuring clear acceptance criteria, comprehensive documentation, and defined ownership boundaries.
• Regulated and Structured Execution: Manage tasks requiring regulatory compliance, certification adherence, validated processes, and thorough documentation, especially within clinical study environments.
• Stakeholder and Expectation Management: Anticipate stakeholder expectations, proactively address conflicts, and bridge gaps between technical realities and user needs to foster understanding.
• Service Delivery and Prioritization: Manage intake, triage, and prioritization of multiple demands, balancing urgency, risk, and value with transparent decision-making.
• Reliability Practices: Develop actionable standards for monitoring, backups, change management, and access control, ensuring ownership and predictability without on-call requirements.
• Cross-Team Collaboration: Partner effectively with Software Engineering, Clinical Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, and Screening & Lab Automation for cohesive end-to-end delivery.
• Process Improvement: Streamline and standardize processes where beneficial, while minimizing bureaucracy.
• Resource Management: Strategically plan capacity, priorities, and reporting for the expanding portfolio of operational commitments.

Candidate Profile

You will excel in this environment if you:

• Thrive in stabilizing and improving systems over time, rather than solely creating new solutions.
• Provide clarity and reliability within complex stakeholder settings.
• Navigate and resolve challenging discussions, conflicts, and escalations professionally.
• Proactively clarify and enforce ownership when necessary.
• Possess a unique blend of technical expertise and interpersonal skills.
• Embrace leadership responsibilities for both personnel and service outcomes.
• Develop operational processes that alleviate friction without creating unnecessary complexity.
• Engage effectively with diverse profiles, ranging from engineers to clinical operators and non-technical stakeholders.

Essential Qualifications

• Demonstrated leadership experience in operations, platform engineering, site reliability, clinical operations, or similar roles with delivery accountability.
• Strong stakeholder management skills: aligning expectations, negotiating trade-offs, and constructively resolving disputes.
• Experience maintaining systems or operational processes in environments prioritizing reliability, documentation, and access control.
• Ability to convey technical information to users without overwhelming them with unnecessary technical details.
• A solid technical foundation to engage with engineers on deployment, environments, automation, and reliability of systems.
• Excellent communication skills in English.

Highly Desirable

• Experience defining operating models, handover procedures, and service boundaries between diverse teams.
• Familiarity with structured documentation and traceability as required by context.

Additional Considerations

• Experience in healthcare, clinical research, or hospital settings.
• Knowledge of security-focused deployments and pragmatic risk management strategies.
• Proficiency in German.

Work Environment

NEXUS emphasizes collaborative knowledge sharing and teamwork, valuing each member's unique expertise. We maintain flat hierarchies and a proactive approach to tasks. Our work culture includes flexible hours, family-friendly models, and training opportunities, positioning you in an exciting field at the forefront of translational research.