Sabine Süsstrunk is a full professor at EPFL where she leads the Image and Visual Representation Lab (IVRL). From 2015 to 2020, she also served as the first director of the Digital Humanities Institute (DHI) and the Digital Humanities Section (SoDH) at the EPFL's College of the Humanities (CdH). Her research areas include computer photography, computational imaging, machine learning, and image quality and aesthetics.

From 2014 to 2018, Süsstrunk was president of the EPFL-WISH Foundation (Women in Science and Humanities Foundation), which she co-founded. In 2018, she moved to the board of trustees. The foundation promotes research by women at EPFL and awards the annual Erna Hamburger Prize to recognize exemplary women in science.

Süsstrunk has chaired or served on committees for many international conferences, and has been honored as a Fellow by both the IEEE and IS&T. On August 12, 2020, the Federal Council appointed Sabine Süsstrunk as President of the Swiss Science Council (SWR), which advises the Federal Council on all matters of research and innovation policy. Süsstrunk assumed this role in January 2021.