Senior Project Manager / Senior Project Manageress

Join the Sustainability in Business Lab (sus.lab) at ETH Zurich

Help us empower leaders in industry, policy, and society to tackle systemic sustainability challenges and facilitate the transition to a net-zero and circular economy. We are seeking a Senior Project Manager to lead two projects, each at a 40-50% engagement level.

Position Overview

As a Senior Project Manager, you will take charge of two key roles:

• KTT Expert, ACHIEVE Consortium: This role focuses on serving as the Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT) Expert within the ACHIEVE consortium, part of the SWEET funding program by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE). Your mission will be to support Switzerland’s transition to net zero by collaborating with stakeholders to co-develop scientifically grounded roadmaps.
• Additional sus.lab Project(s): The remaining engagement will be allocated to pioneering industry-related projects tailored to your expertise. These projects will be driven by your skills and experience, potentially including initiatives like DemoUpCARMA or the rPET report.

Key Responsibilities

KTT Expert, ACHIEVE Consortium:

• Overall Project Management: Lead the project management team to ensure strategic alignment, timely milestones, deliverables submission, and resource optimization.
• Stakeholder Engagement & Co-Creation: Organize and implement stakeholder engagement formats, conduct stakeholder mapping, and document the knowledge exchange between researchers and stakeholders.
• Communication & Dissemination: Oversee the creation and distribution of communication materials targeting stakeholders, including policy briefs and social media content.
• Monitoring & Impact Tracking: Monitor stakeholder adoption and integration of project outputs and related developments.

Additional sus.lab Project(s):

• Lead and manage innovative industry-related projects.
• Collaborate with project partners to develop and publish project deliverables.
• Supervise project budgets and teams.
• Identify and secure new projects centered on decarbonization and circular economy initiatives.

Qualifications

We are looking for a candidate who meets the following criteria:

• A Master’s degree or higher in sustainability, environmental policy, engineering, environmental science, business, or a related field.
• 3-4 years of experience in sustainability consulting, policy analysis, transdisciplinary research, or a related field.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to communicate at all levels.
• Strong analytical, communication, and organizational abilities.
• Proficiency in English and at least one Swiss national language (German, French, or Italian) at C1 level, both written and spoken.
• Residence in Switzerland and ability to work in Zurich (remote work is not an option).
• Availability to start by March 2026 at the latest.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ability to design and facilitate participatory workshops.
• Experience translating technical content into accessible formats.
• Familiarity with climate policy and decarbonization pathways.
• A network or engagement with Swiss policy, industry, or civil society organizations.

About Sus.lab

The Sustainability in Business Lab is a vibrant “think-and-do-tank” comprising dedicated individuals with diverse backgrounds in engineering, science, management consulting, and entrepreneurship. Embedded within the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics at ETH Zurich, we foster an entrepreneurial research environment bridging the latest academic findings with real-world applications.

The contract for this position is initially limited to one year in line with ETH guidelines, with the intention of establishing a multi-year employment relationship.

Application Process

If you are passionate about shaping Switzerland’s transition to net zero, we invite you to apply online using the form below. Please submit the following documents:

• Your CV, including the final overall grades of your degrees.

Only applications matching the job profile will be considered.

For further details about our sus.lab, please visit our website. For inquiries regarding the position, please contact Oliver Akeret at oakeret@ethz.ch (no applications, please).

IMPORTANT: If you are interested in an academic career as a Postdoctoral or Senior Researcher in this area, please let us know, as we may have opportunities available within the Group for Sustainability and Technology (SusTec) or the Group for Circular Economy.