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 multidisciplinary environment, the Clinical Bioinformatics group translates computational biology into clinically usable outcomes, working across the boundary between biomedical research and clinical practice. Our work includes project-tailored analyses and integration of high-dimensional molecular data, ranging from whole-genome variant calling 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 for Clinical Bioinformatics, you will lead a team of bioinformatics analysts and software engineers. Your key responsibilities include ensuring that analyses and workflows are reproducible, scalable, and suited for translational and clinical contexts. You will drive innovation by continuously evaluating emerging technologies and integrating cutting-edge methods into clinical and translational research. A critical aspect of this role involves securing, prioritizing, and strategically managing clinical and translational projects through active stakeholder engagement.
- Project management: Structure and oversee projects from inception to completion, 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, setting standards for workflow engineering, testing, documentation, and long-term maintainability.
- Delivery ownership: Take responsibility for timelines, quality, and stakeholder alignment across multiple projects with varying scopes.
- 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: Closely listen to clinicians to clarify needs and keep the interface simple while your team handles technical complexities.
- Innovation and scientific advancement: Stay abreast of developments in bioinformatics, AI, and data-driven medicine; evaluate emerging methods and technologies; and translate 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 from beginning to end, collaborating with clinicians and partners to deliver robust, reusable solutions with tangible outcomes.
- You prefer working across disciplines, building close collaborations instead of operating in isolation.
- You are comfortable setting direction, making prioritization calls, and being accountable for timelines and quality.
- You like building workflows that others rely on and continuously improving them to enhance reproducibility, scalability, and impact.
- You can transform complex, multimodal data into clear, usable decision-support outputs that prioritize physician needs over technical details.
- You uphold high standards for workflow engineering, testing, documentation, and Git-based collaboration and take pleasure in guiding your team to meet those standards collectively.
Profile
Non-Negotiables:
- Proven leadership experience in clinical bioinformatics, genomics, or translational research delivery.
- Hands-on experience in developing and extending analysis pipelines and reusable components.
- Experience with workflow management using Nextflow and/or Snakemake, with the capability to set team standards.
- Proficient in Git version control as a daily practice.
- Strong communication skills with clinicians and stakeholders.
- Excellent proficiency in English.
Strongly Expected:
- Solid programming skills in Python or R, coupled with strong code quality habits (reviews, testing, documentation).
- A proven track record across various data types, including variant calling, expression analyses, and single-cell sequencing.
- Experience with quality control and reporting in genomics/transcriptomics.
Advantageous:
- Experience in statistics or software engineering practices beyond scripting.
- Familiarity with HPC usage and Bash.
- Knowledge of German.
Workplace
At NEXUS, we value knowledge exchange and teamwork, fostering an environment where everyone's expertise contributes to shared goals. We maintain flat hierarchies and a proactive attitude, offering flexible working hours and family-friendly working models, training opportunities, and a broad and stimulating field of work at the cutting edge of translational research.
We Value Diversity and Sustainability
ETH Zurich champions an inclusive culture that promotes equality of opportunity while valuing diversity. We are dedicated to creating a positive working and learning environment that respects the rights and dignity of all staff and students. Visit our Equal Opportunities and Diversity website for more information about our commitment to fostering a fair and open environment for all. Sustainability remains a core value for us as we strive towards a climate-neutral future.
Curious? So Are We!
If you're interested in this exciting opportunity, apply online using the form below. Please note that only applications matching the job profile will be considered.
For further information about NEXUS Personalized Health, please visit our website. For inquiries regarding the position, you may contact Dr. Daniel Stekhoven at stekhoven@nexus.ethz.ch and Dr. Franziska Singer at singer@nexus.ethz.ch (please note that application submissions via email will not be accepted).
About ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich ranks among the world's leading universities in science and technology. Renowned for our excellent education and cutting-edge research, we emphasize the transfer of new knowledge into practical applications. More than 30,000 individuals from over 120 countries find our institution a place that fosters independent thinking and inspires excellence. Based in the heart of Europe, we are dedicated to finding solutions to contemporary global challenges.