Patent Counsel – Nutrition & Health

About the role

As a Patent Counsel – Nutrition & Health at Société des Produits Nestlé S.A., your mission is to enable and protect science‑driven innovation in Medical Nutrition through pragmatic legal services and business‑focused intellectual property protection. You’ll make a difference by collaborating closely with scientists, project leaders, R&D management, business stakeholders and legal colleagues across Vevey, Konolfingen and global R&D locations.

Key responsibilities

• Partner with Medical Nutrition teams to identify, protect and leverage innovations that improve outcomes for patients and consumers.
• Develop intellectual property strategies that support category priorities, business objectives and long‑term innovation leadership.
• Build robust protection plans for strategic projects across the full innovation lifecycle.
• Manage patent drafting, filing and prosecution activities worldwide to create value and protect Nestlé’s competitive advantage.
• Deliver patentability, freedom‑to‑operate and competitor‑intelligence insights that help teams make confident innovation decisions.
• Contribute to partnerships, licensing, due diligence, oppositions and litigation matters where IP expertise is critical.

Required profile

• Strong patent expertise with the ability to create practical protection strategies for science‑driven innovation.
• Advanced scientific knowledge in food science, nutrition, biochemistry, biotechnology, life sciences, chemistry, pharmaceuticals or health sciences.
• Strategic judgement to manage patent portfolios across multiple jurisdictions, focusing on value creation, risk management and cost efficiency.
• Effective collaboration with multidisciplinary teams, external patent firms and senior stakeholders in an international environment.
• Fluent communication in English; additional languages are an advantage.
• Demonstrated courage, collaboration, speed and continuous learning, translating ideas into measurable impact and shared value.