Join the NEXUS Personalized Health Team as Group Leader in Software Engineering
The ETH Zurich technology platform NEXUS Personalized Health is dedicated to advancing discovery and translational research for personalized health. We boast a diverse range of expertise in Clinical Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Software Engineering, Systems Operations, and Screening & Lab Automation.
Within this multi-disciplinary environment, the Software Engineering group is committed to developing data-centric software products that make biomedical and clinical data practically usable. Our team, which consists of five talented members, supports a wide portfolio that includes internal tools, research platforms, and applications developed collaboratively with clinical partners.
Your Role and Responsibilities
As the Group Leader for Software Engineering, you will be responsible for leading a team that designs and builds software products across various research and translational projects. Key responsibilities include:
- Project Management: Structure and oversee projects end-to-end, ensuring clear scope definition, milestone planning, risk management, and documentation standards that align with translational and clinical quality requirements.
- Technical Leadership: Set and enforce standards across architecture, code quality, testing, documentation, and long-term maintainability.
- Delivery Ownership: Lead and manage multiple concurrent projects, turning real needs into clear scopes, milestones, and outcomes, adapting as requirements evolve.
- Project Acquisition and Customer Management: Cultivate relationships with researchers, clinicians, and hospitals, transforming initial discussions into scoped proposals with defined trade-offs.
- Full-Stack and Data-Centric Systems: Guide solutions from database modeling to API design, including user-facing web applications and dashboards, utilizing technologies such as Postgres, Django REST Framework, and Vue.js.
- Internal Product Portfolio: Develop reusable building blocks and tools to strengthen NEXUS’s internal offerings.
- Security with Pragmatism: Drive solutions that balance openness and necessary restrictions, minimizing security friction while ensuring adequate protection.
- Handover Mindset: Ensure systems are constructed for seamless transition into real-world research and clinical applications, with clear ownership boundaries and documentation.
- Cross-Team Collaboration: Work together with Clinical Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Systems Operations, and Screening & Lab Automation to deliver integrated solutions.
- People Leadership: Recruit, mentor, and develop team members, fostering a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.
- Resource Management: Plan capacity, prioritize work, and contribute to group budgeting and reporting.
Are You a Great Fit?
You will thrive in this role if:
- You enjoy developing software applied in real clinical and research settings, where quality and impact matter.
- You take ownership of delivery outcomes and enjoy leading projects and people—beyond just implementing features.
- You are energized by managing a diverse portfolio of projects and stakeholders instead of working with a single stable product.
- You appreciate the consultative aspect of building relationships, scoping initiatives, and managing expectations effectively.
- You proactively consider security and compliance when working with sensitive data.
- You can navigate stakeholder delivery while maintaining project momentum without sacrificing quality.
- You enjoy creating reusable components and improving engineering standards pragmatically.
- You are comfortable with ambiguity and can transform incomplete requirements into staged, testable deliverables.
Qualifications
- Non-Negotiables:
- Proven leadership experience in software engineering.
- Experience managing delivery across multiple stakeholders and projects.
- Strong stakeholder management skills: trust-building, scoping, and expectation management.
- Experience designing and implementing end-to-end data-centric software solutions (databases, APIs, web applications).
- Strong Linux/Unix experience, including scripting (Bash, Python) and a practical automation mindset.
- Containerization experience (Docker or comparable).
- Excellent communication skills in English.
- Strongly Expected:
- A track record of establishing team-wide practices: code reviews, testing strategies, CI/CD, and release processes.
- Experience developing software for security-conscious environments with sound judgment.
- Advantageous:
- Data engineering experience (ETL/ELT design, validation, interoperability patterns).
- Experience working in hospital IT contexts or clinical workflows.
- Knowledge of German.
Why Work with Us?
At NEXUS, we value knowledge exchange and collaborative teamwork, recognizing the unique expertise each member brings. We maintain flat hierarchies and 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.
Contact Information
For more information about NEXUS Personalized Health, please visit our website. For inquiries regarding this position, reach out to Daniel Stekhoven at stekhoven@nexus.ethz.ch and David Meyer at meyer@nexus.ethz.ch (no applications).
For recruitment services, the GTC of ETH Zurich apply.