Description
EPFL, the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, is one of the most dynamic university campuses in Europe and ranks among the top 20 worldwide in numerous academic rankings. EPFL has more than 6,500 staff members who bring to life the School’s three main missions: education, research and innovation. The EPFL campus offers an exceptional working environment at the heart of a community of over 17,000 people, including nearly 12,500 students and 4,000 researchers from more than 120 different nationalities.
Join the Vice-Presidency for Human Development (VPH) at EPFL and shape HR policies and practices in service of the VPH and the EPFL community.
The VPH Office is one of the domains of the Vice-Presidency for Human Development, serving all its domains and the Vice-Presidency itself. Our purpose? Combining creativity with structure is opening up possibilities. In a demanding institutional environment, we help navigate these frameworks while enabling ideas and projects to progress, thanks to our expertise in governance, communication, and project and change management.
To join its team, the VPH Office is looking for a Head of Policies and Practices to ensure a coherent, compliant and evolving framework. At the heart of the role, you structure and develop HR policies, practices and personnel management processes, ensuring their alignment with institutional directions, legal requirements and field needs. You support the VPH domains — particularly People Experience and People Operations — in developing relevant, efficient and meaningful practices for staff members.
Governance of HR policies and regulations
- Develop, structure and evolve HR policies, practices and regulations with the VPH domains and stakeholders.
- Ensure compliance with legal and administrative frameworks (Confederation, CEPF, EPFL) and maintain proactive regulatory monitoring.
Continuous process improvement
- Review and update HR regulations, directives and processes, intervening directly on documents and forms.
- Monitor indicators (KPIs) and identify optimisation levers to enhance efficiency, coherence and user experience.
Support for VPH domains
- Advise and support teams, especially People Experience, in developing and adopting HR practices and tools.
- Be a driving force in evolving the institutional HR framework.
Management of cross-functional projects
- Coordinate VPH operational and strategic projects: planning, deliverables, indicators and stakeholders.
- Facilitate working groups and represent the Policies & Practices function in institutional projects.
Communication and dissemination
- Ensure validation, dissemination and understanding of policies and practices among managers, domains and teams.
- Collaborate with communications for clear and accessible implementation of HR policy and practice changes.
- Proven experience (approx. 8 to 10 years) in human resources, including significant experience in HR project management and in designing or implementing HR policies and practices.
- Master’s degree. The Swiss Federal HR diploma, or a good knowledge of the Swiss HR framework and labour law, is an asset.
- Strong mastery of legal and regulatory frameworks in personnel management, and ability to translate them into operational practices.
- Analytical and structured mindset, results orientation and service focus.
- Excellent communication, facilitation and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to unite, build trustful relationships and evolve practices with pedagogy.
- Autonomy, organisational rigour and ease in managing multiple files simultaneously.
- Fluency in French and English.
- A position where you will have the opportunity to build, analyse and propose improvements to bring real added value
- A stimulating, dynamic and multicultural working environment within our Vice-Presidency for Human Development
- Attractive working conditions promoting balance, development and professional engagement.
Starting date: As soon as possible
Minimum workload: 80.00
Maximum workload: 100.00
Contract type: Permanent
Reference: 2314