CHRO – Integration and Culture — Clinical Data Organisation

The mandate

A specialist clinical-data organisation in Zurich supports the design, conduct and interpretation of complex therapeutic studies. Its reputation was built by senior statisticians and data scientists who worked directly with clinical leaders. Growth introduced separate biometrics, data-engineering, real-world-evidence and delivery units, each with its own priorities. Study teams now wait for scarce experts, senior scientists are pulled into routine escalation, and several promising internal methods have not moved into validated production use.

The board has authorised a research-productivity reset rather than a headcount-led cost programme. The intention is to concentrate expertise on fewer, better-defined priorities; restore end-to-end accountability for trial data; and create careers in which distinguished technical contributors can progress without becoming reluctant people managers. A small continental European acquisition must also be integrated, but its privacy engineering and decentralised-trial capabilities are to be protected, not absorbed by default.

The CHRO – Integration and Culture will work with the Chief Executive, Chief Scientific Officer and delivery leadership to reshape how expertise is deployed. The mandate includes organisation design, leadership selection, capacity and skills planning, reward, performance, succession and the cultural contract between scientific independence and client commitments. The executive must understand that utilisation alone is an inadequate productivity measure when reproducibility, regulatory traceability and intellectual contribution determine value.

The organisation has approximately 175 employees and material specialist partners across Switzerland and the European Union. Zurich is the principal base, with hybrid work permitted within a model designed around study needs and secure data access. The CHRO will be expected to spend substantial time with technical teams and will report to the Chief Executive or designated executive sponsor.

Why this seat is open

This is a planned succession. The existing people director built dependable employment operations during the company’s early growth but does not wish to lead the cross-border redesign now required. They will remain through an agreed transition. The enlarged CHRO remit has been defined because the board views expertise allocation and leadership behaviour as constraints on strategy, not as issues to be solved by process administration.

What you will own

• Design an operating model that gives named leaders end-to-end responsibility for study data while maintaining independent statistical challenge, privacy controls and reusable technology standards.
• Build a capacity plan for approximately 175 employees, mapping demand and proficiency in biostatistics, statistical programming, clinical data management, data engineering, privacy and product validation.
• Lead selection and transition for senior roles created, changed or removed by the redesign; establish decision rights before altering reporting lines.
• Integrate the acquired European team through a deliberate capability plan, retaining its privacy engineering and decentralised-study expertise and resolving duplicated commercial or support accountabilities.
• Create dual career paths and reward criteria for technical experts and people leaders, with promotion evidence tied to scientific contribution, validated reuse, delivery quality and talent development.
• Replace aggregate utilisation targets with a balanced workforce scorecard covering committed capacity, rework, cycle time, audit readiness and expert bottlenecks.
• Strengthen succession for principal statisticians, data-platform leaders and client-facing programme heads, reducing dependency on a handful of informal problem solvers.
• Govern cross-border employment, hybrid work and secure access expectations in Switzerland and the EU, working with legal and information-security leaders where data obligations shape job design.

The first 12 months

• Days 1–90: Map how work actually enters, moves and stalls across study teams. Identify the ten most consequential expert bottlenecks, validate capability and attrition risk, and agree operating-model principles with scientific and delivery leaders. Stabilise roles affected by the unfinished centralisation and set clear interim priorities.
• Months 4–9: Appoint accountable study-data and capability leaders, implement resource forums with transparent trade-offs, and launch technical and managerial career tracks. Complete the acquisition integration decisions and move privacy engineering into the target model without breaking client commitments. Train leaders to distinguish constructive scientific challenge from avoidable delay.
• Months 10–12: Demonstrate shorter staffing and review cycles on selected studies, fewer unplanned escalations to principal experts and improved reuse of validated methods. Complete succession coverage for critical roles, embed the new performance and reward criteria, and present the board with a two-year build-versus-partner capability plan.

What the board will measure

• Reduction in median time required to staff priority studies with appropriately qualified statistical and data expertise.
• A measurable fall in rework caused by unclear ownership, late scientific review or inconsistent data standards, without an increase in quality findings.
• Retention of identified principal experts and acquired privacy engineers through the redesign, with individual risk and succession actions documented.
• Validated reuse of methods or data components across studies, accompanied by clear ownership and regulatory traceability.
• At least one ready-now or development successor for every role designated critical, and no unowned single-person dependency.
• Employee evidence that decision rights and career criteria are understood, tested against delivery data rather than relying only on engagement scores.

The person

You are a CHRO, head of people, organisation effectiveness leader or senior HR business leader in a clinical research, biotechnology, health-data, diagnostics or regulated technology organisation. Across 22–28 years, you have redesigned an expert-led operating model and can show how the change improved throughput or quality. You have supported at least 150 employees across more than one jurisdiction and led a people or transformation team of at least 15.

Your strongest work sits at the intersection of organisation and knowledge. You know how to model the capacity of scarce specialists, build credible expert careers, and challenge leaders who treat every priority as exceptional. You have undertaken leadership selection where scientific reputation, people leadership and delivery accountability pointed to different candidates, and can describe the evidence and governance used.

Relevant adjacent sectors include contract research, clinical technology, regulated analytics, laboratory informatics and precision medicine. Experience integrating a small capability acquisition into a larger platform is expected. Familiarity with Swiss employment practice and EU cross-border arrangements is valuable, as is exposure to privacy or information-security constraints that genuinely influence where and how work is performed.

The executive must be able to work regularly from Zurich. The company supports purposeful hybrid work, but this role cannot diagnose the operating culture entirely through surveys and video calls. English is the working language; additional European language capability is useful but will not outweigh evidence of sound organisation judgement.

Compensation and terms

The anticipated base salary is CHF 340,000–470,000, supplemented by annual incentive and long-term participation. Measures will emphasise study capacity, critical-talent continuity, operating-model adoption and leadership depth. This is a permanent appointment with executive-committee membership and board exposure. Relocation and substantiated forfeited compensation can be considered within final terms.

Confidentiality

The client, acquisition and affected leaders are confidential. Identifying information and workforce materials will be shared only after fit has been established and the necessary agreement executed. Candidates are asked not to contact possible employees, clients or advisers in an attempt to identify the organisation.

Each response must contain no more than 49 words.