Innovation Catalyst

70%-100%, Zurich, fixed-term

At the ETH Student Project House (SPH) we inspire and empower students to cultivate a mindset of makers and innovators. We believe that by exploring their ideas and developing their own projects, students gain valuable hands-on experience and learn important skills for their future. This is why we’ve created an ecosystem where students (Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral students) are encouraged to explore, ideate, build prototypes, test and refine them.

Our interdisciplinary team of 30 people provides students who want to pursue extracurricular projects of various types and scales with a comprehensive range of support. On the one hand, we design and manage facilities like co-working, ideation, and event spaces as well as a makerspace that gives students access to the tools and equipment they need to prototype. On the other hand, we support project teams with coaching, funding, workshops, and a diverse expert network. We want to accompany students on their journey by inspiring them to get started, to seek diverse views, to explore the real need behind an idea, to work as a team, to think big, to fail, to pivot, and to keep overcoming obstacles they encounter on the way.  >> Check it out!

As we’re scaling up and extending our offer, we’re now looking for an Innovation Catalyst.

Project background

You’ll work in one of the most inspiring spaces at ETH Zürich, surrounded by 3D-printers, whiteboards, ideation equipment, self-designed furniture, and plants.

• We’re located at ETH Zentrum and at ETH Hönggerberg campus.
• We work in the same open space as our project teams and meet with everyone at eye level. The individuals we work with are from a diverse range of backgrounds and study disciplines, which is why we communicate in English. As the projects we support are extracurricular, most of the activities take place in the afternoon and in the evening.
• We take an agile approach to conceptualizing and delivering our offer and allocate our capacity flexibly to the most important tasks. Hereby, teamwork is one of our key values.
• You’ll be part of the Ideaspace subteam of six people that supports the projects that are registered at SPH. These projects are very diverse regarding topic, stage, intensity and goal. A majority of them have an entrepreneurial motivation, others focus for example on founding an NGO, joining a university competition, or exploring new technologies. Currently, we support more than 400 projects per year in the fields of innovation and personal growth.

Job description

In the role of an innovation catalyst, you are responsible for the following tasks:

• Coaching: You’ll coach student projects from diverse backgrounds. You’ll help them to reflect, ask insightful questions, and support them to pin down their next steps, without taking on a leadership role. 
• Conceptualize and manage Ideaspace offers:You’ll develop and manage a range of service offers for students. You’ll make sure that the corresponding processes run smoothly and bring clarity to all stakeholders (e.g. digital resources, workshop series, funding opportunities, core processes, ...). 
• Bring SPH-wide topics forward:You’ll take over the responsibility for topics of organization-wide relevance (e.g. sustainability, scalability, diversity, ...).

Your profile

We need your energy and drive to support our projects, scale, and develop our offer to the next level. 

• You have experience in starting and implementing your own projects (start-up, competition, innovation project, etc.). You’ve failed, learned from it, and tried again.
• You bring in methodological skills that are valuable to guide early-stage projects in the field of innovation.
• You have good project management skills and can make sure that our service offers and processes are streamlined, clear, and can be further scaled to meet the needs of 500+ project teams per year.
• You enjoy working with people and you’re passionate about supporting them to grow their maker and innovator mindset. You have great communication skills and are capable of holding several hours of meetings/coachings per day.
• You have at least 2 years work experience in the field of innovation, digital product design or development, coaching, your own startup, or similar. 
• Ideally, you have experience in coaching early-stage projects.
• We would be particularly interested if you have experience leading digital projects and ideally bring expertise in oneof the following areas: design of software product, UX/UI, software development, product ownership.

Your workplace

Your workplace

We offer

ETH Zurich is a family-friendly employer with excellent working conditions. You can look forward to an exciting working environment, cultural diversity and attractive offers and benefits.

chevron_right Working, teaching and research at ETH Zurich
We value diversity

In line with

our values

, ETH Zurich encourages an inclusive culture. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment in which the rights and dignity of all our staff and students are respected. Visit our

Equal Opportunities and Diversity website

to find out how we ensure a fair and open environment that allows everyone to grow and flourish.

Curious? So are we.

We’d love to get to know you! Please record a 1-2 min video clip introducing yourself and telling us what you want to bring to the team. We're not looking for perfect video production skills - just use your smartphone, be yourself, and don't worry about editing the clip. We want to meet the real you!

Upload the video on a platform of your choice (Dropbox, YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive, ...) and include the URL link in your cover letter.

We look forward to receiving your online application with the following documents:

• Cover letter, including the URL link to your video clip
• CV

Application Deadline: please apply before Monday, 29th of January 2024.

Please note that we can only accept applications submitted through the ETH online application portal. Applications via email or by post will not be considered.

Further information about the ETH Student Project House can be found on our website , on Instagram , and on LinkedIn .

About ETH Zürich

ETH Zurich is one of the world’s leading universities specialising in science and technology. We are renowned for our excellent education, cutting-edge fundamental research and direct transfer of new knowledge into society. Over 30,000 people from more than 120 countries find our university to be a place that promotes independent thinking and an environment that inspires excellence. Located in the heart of Europe, yet forging connections all over the world, we work together to develop solutions for the global challenges of today and tomorrow.