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 collaborate 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 fields such as 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.
• Fluency in English; additional languages are an advantage.
• Demonstrates courage, collaboration, speed and continuous learning, translating ideas into measurable impact and creating shared value.