Chief Physician in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Aarhus University Hospital

Do you want to lead the professional and strategic development of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Aarhus University Hospital? Can you lead a department that unites patient assessment, research, and preventive efforts with significance for both working life and public health?

We are seeking a chief physician who, together with the department's clinical chair-professor, will lead and further develop Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Aarhus University Hospital (AUH). As part of the department leadership, you share responsibility for the department's overall operation and development and will jointly set the professional and strategic direction. As chief physician, you have a particular responsibility for financial management and personnel leadership within the organization you agree upon in the department leadership.

Occupational and Environmental Medicine is a field in motion. New issues within the work and environment area and increased focus on prevention create opportunities to bring the department's knowledge into even greater use for patients and society. Here you will have a central role together with the clinical chair-professor to translate these opportunities into concrete initiatives.

Job description

As chief physician you will, together with the clinical chair-professor, be responsible for setting the direction for the department's professional and strategic development. You will strengthen the interaction between clinic and research so that new knowledge contributes to clinical practice, and experiences from the clinic and surrounding society contribute to new research initiatives.

As chief physician you have a particular responsibility to ensure that the department's resources are used in the best possible way. This includes financial management and prioritization to secure stable frameworks for the department's tasks. You will also manage the personnel leadership of the department's clinical staff and secretaries and create favorable conditions for professional development, collaboration and well-being. The tasks are carried out with a view to the department leadership's joint responsibility and in close coordination with the clinical chair-professor.

The health reform's focus on prevention and coherent efforts provides new opportunities to apply the department's knowledge. Therefore, it will also be a central task to strengthen the department's role in preventive work and develop collaborations with workplaces and actors in the labor market as well as with municipalities, general practice, hospitals and other authorities.

As chief physician you will also be part of AUH's strategic leadership circle. Here it is expected that you actively contribute to the overall development of the hospital and participate in collaborations across specialties, departments and professional areas.

Qualifications

It is a requirement that you are a specialist in occupational medicine. In addition, we expect you to have a strong professional profile, preferably with active research activity, as well as interest in and experience with the interaction between clinic, research and development.

We would like you to have leadership experience, preferably from a formal leadership position. You are engaged in leadership and have experience working in organizational contexts where professional, operational and strategic perspectives must be combined. You can navigate political decision-making processes and have an understanding of the department's role in the overall health service.

In your leadership we place particular weight on

• having strategic vision and the ability to translate ambitions into priorities
• building trust, delegating responsibility and giving employees room to succeed
• being accessible and listening, but also able to stand up for difficult decisions
• working systematically and following decisions through
• communicating clearly
• being able to gather different professional disciplines around common goals
• balancing consideration for employees' well-being and the department's overall tasks.

You do not need to be a clinical specialist in all areas. On the contrary, you must be able to set a clear direction, pose the relevant questions and give space for others to bring their professional expertise into play. We value professional integrity, curiosity and a secure ethical compass.

About AUH

AUH is an internationally recognized and highly specialized university hospital with strong professional environments and close collaboration with Aarhus University as well as national and international partners. With more than 12,000 employees, we are one of the country’s largest and most complex healthcare organizations – and at the same time an organization with significant innovation potential and a clearly focused leadership focus on shaping the future of healthcare.

About Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Occupational and Environmental Medicine is a specialized university department that works with diagnostics and prevention of work- and environment-related diseases. The department receives around 800 referrals annually and advises patients, companies, authorities and other health professionals on occupational- and environmental-medical issues. At the same time, we see an increasing need for virtual contact and new ways of meeting patients.

We are approximately 27 staff, including five specialists, and we encompass medical, psychological, research and administrative competencies. This creates a strong multidisciplinary environment where clinic, research and prevention support each other. We collaborate closely with a number of clinical specialties, including respiratory and dermatology, as well as with general practice, municipalities, authorities and labor-market actors.

The coming years we see particular potential to strengthen the department's environmental medical profile and bring work- and environmental medical knowledge into preventive efforts earlier. It will be a central leadership task for the upcoming chief physician.

Employment terms and start

As department head at AUH you report to the health and hospital leadership and are part of the hospital's overall leadership structure. You can read about the formal leadership responsibility in the AUH Leadership Model and job description for leaders in Region Midtjylland .

Salary and employment conditions follow the applicable collective agreement. The employment is conditional on satisfactory authorization and a child-care certificate. Before recruitment, a written medical assessment of competencies within the seven medical roles is conducted. Competencies are documented in a form that is part of the electronic application portal.

The position is intended to be filled on 1 February 2027 or by agreement. The application deadline is 1 November. First interview on 12 November and second interview on 26 November. Between interviews a personality profile will be prepared, and a case may be included at the second interview.

If you have questions about the position, please contact Nursing Director Mette Bærentsen at [email protected] / 5129 0175 or Clinical Chair-Professor at Occupational and Environmental Medicine Henrik Kolstad at [email protected] / 29610359.

The position is in principle a full-time role.

As Region Midtjylland continually implements savings and reorganizations, employees in redeployment who apply for the position will have preference.

Region Midtjylland is under an EU directive on salary transparency, which came into force on 7 June 2026, and is obliged to inform you of the starting salary or a salary interval for a position before offering employment.

Here you will find Region Midtjylland's salary catalog for most professional groups and positions found in Region Midtjylland: Transparency before employment - Medarbejder.rm.dk