ETH Zurich NEXUS Personalized Health - Group Leader Clinical Bioinformatics
The ETH Zurich technology platform NEXUS Personalized Health fosters discovery and translational research focused on personalized health. Our interdisciplinary expertise encompasses Clinical Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Software Engineering, Systems Operations, and Screening & Lab Automation.
Within this collaborative environment, the Clinical Bioinformatics group bridges the gap between computational biology and practical clinical outcomes. We specialize in project-focused analyses and the integration of high-dimensional molecular data, ranging from whole-genome variant calling and decision support to single-cell sequencing analysis. Our team develops and refines robust analysis workflows and reusable components, working closely with academic institutions and hospitals.
Position Overview
As the Group Leader for Clinical Bioinformatics, you will guide a team of bioinformatics analysts and software engineers to ensure that our analyses and workflows are reproducible, scalable, and applicable in both translational and clinical contexts. Your role will encompass:
- Project Management: Structure and oversee projects end-to-end, ensuring clear scope definition, milestone planning, risk management, and adherence to documentation standards aligning 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: Assume responsibility for timelines, quality, and stakeholder alignment across multiple projects with varying scopes.
- Project Acquisition and Customer Management: Cultivate relationships with researchers, clinicians, and partners to 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: Actively listen and clarify useful solutions while your team manages the technical complexities.
- Innovation and Scientific Advancement: Stay abreast of developments in bioinformatics, AI, and data-driven medicine, evaluating emerging methods and translating them into clinically applicable solutions.
- Cross-team Collaboration: Work closely with the Software Engineering, Systems Operations, Biostatistics, and Screening & Lab Automation groups to deliver end-to-end integrated solutions.
- People Leadership: Recruit, mentor, and develop team members, fostering knowledge exchange and high standards.
- Resource Management: Plan capacity, prioritize tasks, and contribute to budgeting and reporting for the group.
Ideal Candidate Profile
You will thrive in this role if you:
- Enjoy owning projects from inception to delivery, collaborating with clinicians and partners to create robust, reusable solutions with clear outcomes.
- Value interdisciplinary collaboration and building relationships with clinicians and partners rather than working in isolation.
- Are comfortable taking the lead, making prioritization decisions, and being accountable for timelines and quality.
- Take pride in developing workflows that others rely on while continuously improving their reproducibility and scalability.
- Have the ability to transform complex, multimodal data into accessible decision-support outputs tailored to physicians' needs.
- Set high standards for workflow engineering, testing, documentation, and collaboration via Git, and enjoy guiding a team to meet those standards.
Qualifications
Non-Negotiables:
- Demonstrated leadership experience in clinical bioinformatics, genomics, or translational research delivery.
- Hands-on experience in developing and extending analysis pipelines and reusable components.
- Proficiency in workflow management with Nextflow and/or Snakemake, with the ability to establish team standards.
- Daily practice with Git version control.
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills with a focus on clinician interaction.
- Excellent proficiency in English.
Strongly Expected:
- Solid programming skills in Python or R, with strong code quality habits (reviews, testing, documentation).
- A proven track record with data types ranging 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.
- Familiarity with HPC usage and Bash.
- Proficiency in German.
What We Offer
At NEXUS, we foster a collaborative environment where knowledge exchange is vital, and every team member contributes their expertise. We maintain flat hierarchies and promote a can-do attitude, offering flexible working hours, family-friendly models, training opportunities, and an exciting field of work at the forefront of translational research.
Apply online using the form below. Please note that only applications matching the job profile will be considered.