Group Leader Clinical Bioinformatics
80%-100%, Basel, Permanent
The ETH Zurich technology platform NEXUS Personalized Health enables discovery and translational research for personalized health. We offer a broad range of expertise across Clinical Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Software Engineering, Systems Operations, and Screening & Lab Automation.
Embedded in this multi-disciplinary environment, the Clinical Bioinformatics group translates computational biology into clinically usable outcomes, working strategically across the boundary between biomedical research and clinical practice. Our work includes project-tailored analyses and integration of high-dimensional molecular data, spanning from whole-genome variant calling and decision support to single-cell sequencing analysis. We develop and extend robust analysis workflows and reusable components in close collaboration with academic institutions and hospitals.
Job Description
As the Group Leader of Clinical Bioinformatics, you will lead a team of bioinformatics analysts and software engineers. You will ensure that analyses and workflows are reproducible, scalable, and suitable for translational and clinical contexts. You will drive innovation by continuously evaluating emerging technologies and analytical methods, integrating advanced approaches into clinical and translational research. A crucial part of this role is securing, prioritizing, and strategically managing clinical and translational projects through active stakeholder engagement.
- Project Management: Structure and oversee projects end-to-end, ensuring clear scope definition, milestone planning, risk management, documentation standards, and processes aligned with translational and clinical quality requirements.
- Technical Leadership: Drive the development and extension of pipelines using Nextflow and Snakemake. Set standards for workflow engineering, testing, documentation, and long-term maintainability.
- Delivery Ownership: Take responsibility for timelines, quality, and stakeholder alignment across multiple projects with variable scope.
- Project Acquisition and Customer Management: Build relationships with researchers, clinicians, and partners, shape projects, and translate needs into clear deliverables and expectations.
- Clinical Reporting and Decision Support: Transform complex, multimodal, and large-scale results into clear outputs for physicians, including dashboards and web-based reporting for decision support.
- Clinician Partnership: Listen closely, clarify what is useful, and maintain a simple interface while your team handles technical complexity.
- Innovation and Scientific Advancement: Stay at the forefront of developments in bioinformatics, AI, and data-driven medicine. Evaluate emerging methods and technologies, translating promising approaches into robust, clinically applicable solutions.
- Cross-Team Collaboration: Work closely with the Software Engineering, Systems Operations, Biostatistics, and Screening & Lab Automation groups to deliver integrated solutions end-to-end.
- People Leadership: Recruit, mentor, and develop team members, fostering knowledge exchange and high standards.
- Resource Management: Plan capacity, prioritize work, and contribute to budgeting and reporting for the group.
Quick Self-Check
You will thrive in this role if...
- You enjoy owning projects end-to-end, from shaping the initial question with clinicians and partners to delivering robust, reusable solutions with clear outcomes.
- You like working across disciplines and building close collaborations with clinicians and cross-functional partners, rather than working in a silo.
- You are comfortable setting direction, making prioritization calls, and being accountable for timelines and quality.
- You enjoy building workflows that others rely on and continuously improving them to enhance reproducibility, scalability, and impact.
- You can turn complex, multimodal data into decision-support outputs that are clear, usable, and focused on what physicians need, without overwhelming them with technical details.
- You set a high bar for workflow engineering, testing, documentation, and Git-based collaboration, and you enjoy leading a team to achieve that standard together.
Profile
Non-Negotiables:
- Proven leadership experience in clinical bioinformatics, genomics, or translational research delivery.
- Hands-on experience developing and extending analysis pipelines and reusable components.
- Workflow management with Nextflow and/or Snakemake, with the ability to set team standards.
- Git version control as part of daily practice is a must.
- Strong clinician-facing communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Excellent communication skills in English.
Strongly Expected:
- Solid programming skills in Python or R and strong code quality habits (reviews, testing, documentation).
- Track record across data types from variant calling and expression analyses to single-cell sequencing analysis.
- Experience with quality control and reporting in genomics/transcriptomics.
Advantageous:
- Experience in statistics or software engineering practices beyond scripting.
- HPC usage and Bash proficiency.
- Knowledge of German.
Workplace
At NEXUS, we value knowledge exchange and teamwork, where every individual contributes their unique expertise. We foster a culture characterized by flat hierarchies and a can-do attitude. Our flexible working hours and family-friendly work models, along with training opportunities, create a broad and exciting field of work at the cutting edge of translational research.
We Value Diversity and Sustainability
In line with our values, ETH Zurich encourages an inclusive culture. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity, and nurture a working and learning environment in which the rights and dignity of all our staff and students are respected. Sustainability is a core value for us, and we are consistently working towards a climate-neutral future.
Curious? So Are We.
We invite you to apply online using the form below. Only applications matching the job profile will be considered.
For more information about NEXUS Personalized Health, please visit our website. Questions regarding the position can be directed to Dr. Daniel Stekhoven at stekhoven@nexus.ethz.ch and Dr. Franziska Singer at singer@nexus.ethz.ch (no applications).
About ETH Zürich
ETH Zurich is one of the world's leading universities specializing in science and technology. We are renowned for our excellent education, cutting-edge fundamental research, and the direct transfer of new knowledge into society. Over 30,000 individuals from more than 120 countries find our university to be a place that promotes independent thinking and inspires excellence. Located in the heart of Europe, yet forging connections all over the world, we work together to address the global challenges of today and tomorrow.