Alliance Manager

Alliance Manager, external innovation & partnerships

Coloplast R&D | Chronic Care | Humlebæk, Denmark

Are you motivated by turning external research and early innovation into development ready solutions within a global MedTech company? Do you thrive at the intersection of science, partnerships, and corporate decision making - where prioritisation, structure, and delivery matter?

Coloplast is seeking an Alliance Manager to strengthen and professionalize our external innovation and partnership activities, with a primary focus on universities, Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs), and early stage innovation ecosystems. In this role, you will play a key part in ensuring that promising external ideas, and technologies are assessed, matured, and, where applicable, translated into Coloplast’s R&D pipeline within Ostomy Care, Continence Care, and Bowel Care. The goal is to improve the lives of people living with intimate health needs.

Why this role matters
At Coloplast R&D, we are committed to long term growth by expanding our products, technologies, and capabilities to serve more users worldwide. External collaboration is a critical enabler of this ambition, but only when partnerships are well governed, strategically aligned, and translated into concrete development outcomes.

For Coloplast, serving users means turning innovation into reliable, scalable solutions that can be trusted in everyday life. External partnerships only create value when they ultimately lead to products and technologies that improve user outcomes – not when they remain promising research.

As Alliance Manager, you will be based at our corporate headquarters in Humlebæk, Denmark, and be part of a strategic R&D function responsible for roadmaps, scouting, and early development (scoping). You will act as Coloplast’s accountable alliance owner for selected partnerships, ensuring that collaborations are structured for impact and integrated into our internal decision processes.

This role operates firmly within a corporate R&D environment, where not all promising research will move forward, and where clarity, business-viability, and decision speed are essential.

A cross disciplinary role bridging research and industrial R&D
Alliance management at Coloplast requires both scientific credibility and the ability to operate effectively in an industrial R&D setting. You will work closely with colleagues across R&D, IP, Legal, and Commercial functions to ensure that external collaborations are evaluated rigorously, governed appropriately, and positioned for development and scale.

Director of R&D Roadmaps, Scouting & Scoping, Rikke Decara, explains:
“Strong alliances are not built by chance. They require curiosity, trust, and structure – combined with the ability to translate scientific potential into something the organisation can act on. The most successful alliance managers are connectors: equally comfortable engaging with academic researchers, tech transfer professionals, and internal decision makers.”

You will thrive in this role if you enjoy working across organisational boundaries and turning complex external relationships into clear, value creating collaborations.

Key responsibilities
As Alliance Manager, you will:
1.    Build and manage strategic relationships with universities, Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs), and research organisations, serving as Coloplast’s primary interface
2.    Identify, assess, and mature collaboration opportunities emerging from academic research, applied science, and early innovation environments
3.    Support technology transfer processes, including invention disclosures, early technical and IP assessments, and alignment on development pathways
4.    Structure and manage research and innovation collaborations, ensuring clarity on scope, governance, milestones, decision points, and mutual value creation
5.    Coordinate internal stakeholders to evaluate scientific merit, technical feasibility, development readiness, and strategic fit of external opportunities
6.    Represent Coloplast externally at relevant conferences, university events, and innovation forums

Success in this role is defined by a high quality, well governed alliance portfolio that consistently feeds credible, development ready opportunities into Coloplast’s R&D pipeline – and ultimately into solutions that make a meaningful difference for users.

Your background
We expect you to bring:
1.    A strong scientific or technical background, combined with experience operating in an industrial or corporate R&D environment (e.g. MedTech, Life Sciences, or adjacent industries)
2.    Demonstrated experience working with universities, TTOs, or public–private research environments, with accountability for progressing – or stopping – opportunities based on development and business criteria
3.    Solid understanding of early stage technology maturation and commercialization pathways
4.    Experience navigating complex stakeholder landscapes and aligning scientific ambition with organisational priorities and constraints
5.    Familiarity with the MedTech or life sciences regulatory environment (FDA / EU MDR) is an advantage

Fluency in written and spoken English is required; Danish is not necessary.

Practicalities
•    Expected travel: 10–20 days per year, primarily for university engagement, conferences, and partner meetings
•    Location: Onsite at Coloplast HQ in Humlebæk, North Zealand, Denmark

Pursuing an ambitious growth agenda, Coloplast develops and markets products and services that make life easier for people with intimate healthcare needs. Employing about 16.000 people and with products available in more than 143 countries, we are one of the world´s leading medical device companies. We are constantly growing our business and always looking for new ways to move forward – we explore, learn and look for new ways of doing things.

Coloplast is committed to being an inclusive organization, where people bring their differences to work each day, fulfil their potential and have a strong sense of belonging because – and not despite – of their differences. We therefore encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of gender, age, race, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious belief or physical ability.

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