Head of Geospatial AI - Foundation Models and Geo-Intelligence Platform

100%, Zurich, fixed-term

ETH Zurich is establishing the ETH Swiss Geo Lab, a new interdisciplinary unit of ETH Zürich I Space. ETH Space will soon become one of few strategic centres of ETH Zurich, and encompasses overall five units.

The Geo Lab is focused on Earth observation and its applications. The Geo Lab uses satellite, airborne, ground-based and in-situ observations. To these diverse data sets it applies AI-driven analysis methods and high-performance computing to develop solutions for specific societal and economic challenges.

Located at the D4 Business Village in Root, close to Lucerne, ETH Swiss Geo Lab works at the interface of research, technology development and practical application. In its first phase, the Geo Lab is focusing on few selected high-impact application areas where Earth observation, geodata and AI-based analytics can create tangible value for Switzerland, in areas such as natural hazards, agriculture, and forestry.

The ETH Swiss Geo Lab is led by Prof. Dr Verena Griess and Prof. Dr Thomas Zurbuchen, with Dr Felix Seidel as Managing Director, responsible for the day-to-day operations of this exciting activity. The Geo Lab will grow into a project-based hub of around 100 experts over the coming years and will collaborate closely with other ETH units, the Swiss national centre for supercomputing (CSCS), Swiss research institutions, public-sector stakeholders, agricultural organisations, industry partners, start-ups and international stakeholders.

This position is offered as a fixed-term appointment for an initial period of two years, with the possibility of extension.

• On behalf of the Geo Lab leadership team, define and implement ETH Swiss Geo Lab’s geospatial AI and technical strategy
• Based on broad inputs, establish the target architecture for multimodal foundation models, agentic systems, geospatial data pipelines, compute environments and the shared Geo-Intelligence Platform
• Adopt or set technical standards, priorities, interfaces and development principles aligned with Geo Lab strategy and mission requirements
• Drive and lead the design, development, evaluation and operationalisation of multimodal geospatial foundation models and related agentic capabilities
• Encourage, enable or direct prototyping, benchmarking, validation and integration activities
• Ensure that technical work produces reliable, reusable and operationally relevant capabilities rather than isolated research demonstrators
• Own and be empowered to adapt the technical roadmap and delivery of the shared Geo-Intelligence Platform, including data access, processing pipelines, model-training environments, deployment capabilities and integration with HPC and cloud infrastructure
• Coordinate with CSCS, ETH units, innovation leaders and technology providers to ensure scalability, security, efficiency and maintainability
• Work with the Natural Hazards, Agriculture, Forestry and future Mission Leads to translate mission requirements into technical capabilities and delivery plans
• Assess feasibility, define technical milestones, allocate technical resources and resolve trade-offs between mission-specific development and reusable platform components
• Redirect technical work when evidence, performance or mission priorities require it
• Lead or support technical collaborations with ETH groups, research institutions, CSCS, hyperscalers, companies, start-ups and open-source communities
• Structure joint development activities, evaluate external capabilities and mobilise partners where they can accelerate delivery or provide distinctive expertise

In summary, you have a track record of innovative thought-leadership and a track record in brining others along with you on a journey for which the goal may not be 100% clear at the beginning. You are a voracious learner and are able to translate ambitious scientific and operational needs into robust, scalable and reusable technical solutions.

• A Master’s or PhD degree in computer science, machine learning, geo-informatics, engineering, remote sensing or a related field
• Several years of experience leading…