Forestry Mission Lead - Earth Observation, Forest Decision Support and Intelligence

ETH Zurich seeks a Senior Forestry Mission Lead to direct the GeoLab Forestry Mission in Root, Switzerland. The role focuses on translating forest challenges into actionable research and technology solutions.

The successful candidate will lead the GeoLab Forestry Mission, reporting to the Managing Director of ETH Swiss GeoLab. This position involves collaborating with internal teams and external partners to address key issues in forest health, resilience, and sustainable management, ensuring that scientific advancements directly benefit Swiss forestry practices and policy.

Responsibilities

• Develop a comprehensive strategy for the Forestry Mission that tackles major opportunities in forest health, biodiversity, carbon management, and ecosystem services.
• Pinpoint operational gaps where ETH Swiss GeoLab can provide unique value to Swiss forestry and policy frameworks.
• Build relationships with forest owners, managers, government bodies, research institutions, insurers, and industry partners to understand their needs.
• Analyze the economic drivers, incentives, and constraints affecting forest management and silviculture.
• Convert forestry challenges into specific requirements for research, data products, and technical solutions.
• Evaluate the user value, operational relevance, economic viability, and scalability of proposed initiatives.
• Set measurable outcomes, roadmaps, and success criteria aligned with Swiss forestry needs and GeoLab’s overall strategy, while tracking progress.
• Oversee the mission budget, define priorities and milestones, and provide transparent financial and performance reporting to leadership.
• Collaborate with the Geo-Intelligence team and external partners to conduct pilots, field validation, and integrate solutions into forestry workflows.
• Assess evidence and performance to recommend continuing, redirecting, scaling, pausing, or terminating activities.
• Mobilize ETH groups, research institutions, technology companies, and public agencies as implementation partners.
• Represent ETH Swiss GeoLab within Swiss forestry, scientific, policy, and innovation communities.
• Communicate mission goals, progress, and lessons learned at workshops, conferences, and field events.
• Guide and train students, researchers, and external contributors, facilitating knowledge transfer into practical forestry applications.

Requirements

• Master’s or PhD in forestry, forest science, natural resource management, environmental sciences, geoinformatics, remote sensing, or a related field.
• Several years of experience in applied research, program delivery, or operational implementation in forest management, monitoring, advisory services, public administration, consulting, or technology development.
• Deep expertise in forest management, planning, ecosystems, and the information needs of practitioners and authorities.
• Strong understanding of Earth observation, geospatial data, and data-driven methods for forestry applications, including their opportunities and limitations.
• Proven ability to identify critical operational problems and translate them into actionable initiatives.
• Track record of successful collaboration in diverse teams and enthusiasm for applying research for societal benefit.
• Experience in mission, program, or applied R&D portfolio design.
• Strong project, portfolio, and budget management skills, including the use of transparent reporting and tracking tools.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills across practitioners, public authorities, academia, industry, and expert communities.
• Ability to work across disciplinary and organizational boundaries and lead through influence.
• Strong judgment under uncertainty and willingness to challenge established approaches constructively.
• Excellent communication, listening, and presentation skills across different formats and audiences.
• Excellent written and spoken English and German.

Nice to have

• PhD degree.
• Experience preferably in Switzerland.
• French language skills.

About the company

ETH Zurich is a world-leading university specializing in science and technology, renowned for excellent education, cutting-edge fundamental research, and the direct transfer of new knowledge into society. It promotes independent thinking and an environment that inspires excellence, encouraging collaboration to develop solutions for global challenges.

• Leading university in science and technology.
• Focus on cutting-edge fundamental research and knowledge transfer.
• Promotes independent thinking and excellence.
• Collaborative approach to solving global challenges.