Chef·fe de Service pour les Opérations et l'Infrastructure IT — EPFL

Full description

Context and Mission

At the interface of state-of-the-art research excellence, teaching, and major challenges such as the advent of AI or the management of sensitive data, the service for Operations and IT Infrastructure (ITOP) of EPFL's Information Systems (DSI) field is piloting the operation, maintenance and evolution of EPFL's cross-cutting critical IT infrastructure. As head of this service, you manage an average annual budget of about 8 MCHF and lead a team of 60 ETPs.

Your teams cover the entire value chain related to the Institute's IT operations and infrastructures, ranging from desk service to the deepest layers of infrastructure, including data centers. You lead them and ensure that the services provided are robust, resilient and responsive to the needs of students, faculty and doctoral staff alike.

The position is both strategic and operational. Under the direct supervision of the IOC, you help to define and implement the School's IT strategy, in a collegial manner with the other Chiefs of Service of the DSI, and in close cooperation with the other Vice-Presidents and the Faculties. In parallel, you build and maintain a strong partnership with key stakeholders in the Swiss Higher Education ecosystem (Swiss Universities, Swiss Higher Education) and strategic providers.

Main tasks and responsibilities

• Manage the service in all its dimensions: portfolio of projects and services, human and financial resources, quality, governance and reporting.
• Ensure robust, resilient and efficient infrastructure operations: availability, performance and capacity analyses, hardware and software maintenance, and value for money.
• Ensure the security and continuity of the information system: reliability, data protection, continuity plans, backup and backup. In a crisis situation, you control alert processes and communication according to the criticality of events.
• Lead and develop teams with your unit managers in a successful way: recruitment, objectives, evaluation, competence building, and continuous alignment of competency mapping with the evolution of the IS.
• Negotiate and manage supplier relationships: contracts, partnerships, internal and external service level agreements (OLA).
• To be the primary contact point for trades — laboratories, institutes, faculties, central services — to align services with their actual current and future needs.

Profile sought

• Master's or PhD in computer science, engineering or equivalent, MBA or further training in business/governance management, a major asset.
• Minimum 15 years of professional experience, including at least 10 years of proven experience in team management, with managerial relays, in the IT infrastructure area.
• Language levels: French (C1 minimum), English (C1 minimum), German (an asset).
• Excellent spirit of synthesis, popularization, excellent editorial level in English and French.
• Excellence in tender achievements, proven and indispensable Swiss legal and contractual knowledge.
• Experience confirmed in budgeting and budget management.
• Experiences confirmed in conducting and delivering complex IT projects.
• Political capacity to bring decentralized interests together while ensuring overall institutional coherence.
• High sensitivity to cybersecurity and data protection, as well as business continuity in exposed environments.

Personal and social skills

• Service-oriented solutions and clients, in search of dialogue while maintaining and defending their