Who we are

The AO is a medically-guided, not-for-profit organization, a global network of surgeons, and the world's leading education, innovation, and research organization specializing in the surgical treatment of trauma and musculoskeletal disorders. Today we have a global network of over 520,000 health care professionals. Each year we offer over 870 educational events around the world, supported by nearly 8,000 faculty and attended by over 82,600 participants. We have around 20,000 surgeon members working in the fields of trauma, spine, craniomaxillofacial, veterinary, and reconstructive surgery.

The AO is home to people from all over the world, from different backgrounds, with diverse talents and specialist areas. What binds us together is our passion for excellence, our dedication to our mission of improving patient care, and our understanding that we are stronger together: we are one AO.

Visit our About the AO page to find out more about AO's mission, our organizational structure and governance, and how the AO is transforming surgery and changing lives.

  • Our vision

    The AO strives to be a diverse and inclusive organization with equitable access, and opportunity for advancement within the AO organization at all levels, regions, clinical divisions, and units.

    The AO aims to implement dedicated programs, policies, and organizational structures that reflect a diverse and inclusive global community of health care professionals including mentoring to make us the most productive, innovative, and sustainable learning community for the benefit of our patients.

  • Empowering people

    At the AO, we aim to empower people and we recognize that our employees are key to our success. The AO aspires to employ qualified, motivated and performance-oriented staff in all positions and to create an environment that attracts, fosters, and retains them. Working with its employees to ensure they have opportunities to grow in their roles, the AO offers employees support with continued education and attending language courses in English and German.

  • Working conditions

    We are committed to providing our employees with good working conditions, a safe and healthy work environment, that support a good balance of professional and private life consistent with our ambition. This includes flexible working arrangements, including home office, a generous package of social benefits, including holiday, pension provision, daily sickness benefits insurance and excellent global accident insurance.

  • Values

    Since its founding, the AO has built a culture based on values of trust, mutual respect, and dialogue. Learning is an important part of AO culture: We actively promote our employees' development and support internal and external training for all employees. Learn more about AO Corporate Social Responsibility here.

The AO application process

Thank you for your interest in AO career opportunities. Our application process is detailed below.

We publish all our open positions on our job portal, mostly in English. If you cannot find a suitable job, you can arrange to receive e-mail notifications (jobmail) when certain types of positions become available. Please note that you will need to create a profile in order to receive these notifications.

For organizational reasons, we can only accept applications that are submitted via our recruiting tool in response to a specific, current job opening. We do not consider proactive applications or those sent by via e-mail or post.

To apply for an open positions, you must create an application account, which features your general contact details. You can apply for multiple positions simultaneously and adjust the individual application documents, such as your curriculum vitae and reference letters, as required. Please note that any personal information and documents you provide will be stored in the system for a maximum of 180 days from your last log-in. You can delete your profile, including any applications and personal data, at any time.

As soon as we receive your application, we will send you a confirmation e-mail; please be sure to check your spam folder. The responsible recruiter will review your documents as soon as possible. Normally the selection process (review of the applications, interviews, gathering references, and contract proposal) takes four to eight weeks. Please note that some application processes may take several months.

As a rule, a first successful interview is followed by a second interview. As part of the application process, we will ask you to take part in an online assessment to help us more thoroughly compare our expectations with your requirements. The 20- to 90-minute online assessment can be completed from home.

If we are unable to consider your application during the application process, you will be informed by e-mail or telephone. It is still perfectly possible that we find your application and skill set interesting. In this case, we will offer to retain your application documents. As previously mentioned, you can delete your profile anytime should you change your mind.

Please note that if a position is no longer available on our job portal, no further applications will be accepted.

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Get in touch

Should you have any questions regarding an open position, please do not hesitate to contact us at hr.recruiting@aofoundation.org.

Business hours:
Monday through Friday 
8:00 - 17:00