Senior Scientific Manager in health data science and life science innovation

Do you want to contribute to improving people’s health by supporting the innovation ecosystem and breakthrough innovations? And do you recognize the importance of strong digital governance to position the Nordics and Europe at the forefront of research and innovation within Life Science?  

The Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) Innovation team is seeking a Senior Scientific Manager with a scientific background in life science and with expertise in medical informatics and/or health data science.  

Innovation is one of the Foundation's strategic areas, creating value chains to transform academic innovations into real-world solutions benefiting patients and society. Our grant-awarding activities within innovation focus on building the early innovation ecosystem, and includes initiatives within education, acceleration, scale-up infrastructure, industry-academia collaboration and early investments. Some of our key innovation initiatives are the BioInnovation Institute Foundation, BetaHealth, and Gefion.  

About the job 
As a Senior Scientific Manager, you will be responsible for developing and executing on the Foundation’s international strategic ambitions within health data science. The aim of these ambitions is to improve access to and the management of scientific data, ensuring the positioning of the Nordics and Europe at the forefront of research and innovation. A key focus will be to identify barriers between academia and innovation/industry, between technology providers and end users, identify solutions that break down these barriers and implement these in new innovation initiatives in Denmark, the Nordics or Europe. 
You will join a lean, dedicated, and ambitious team in the Foundation’s Innovation department. Our project-centric approach fosters strong and synergistic collaboration across all the Foundation’s scientific areas, as well as with key external partners including universities, research centres, other foundations, governmental bodies, and companies. 

Your key responsibilities will include, but not be limited to: 

• Strategy development and execution: Responsible for scoping, development and implementation of the Foundations international strategy within health data science, with a particular focus on strengthening infrastructure and governance of health data in the Nordics and Europe.   

• Development of highly impactful initiatives: Develop, implement, and follow up on strand-alone grants within innovation strengthening the Nordic/European life science ecosystem. Engage with universities, clinics, industry stakeholders, governmental bodies, and others to identify key research questions related to health challenges. 

• Provide expert knowledge on health data science, registry data, healthcare applications, and policies on a national and international level.  

• Drive, coordinate, and follow-up on project progress, target achievement, and impact assessments, through engagement with grant recipients, collaboration partners, committee members, and other stakeholders. 

• Formulate reports, documents, and other written materials, including contributing to publications on our programme activities.  

About you 

As a colleague, you are ambitious, proactive, and have a structured approach to problem-solving. You are confident and able to manage several complex projects simultaneously. You can work independently, make decisions, and proactively solve challenges. 

Your communication skills are excellent, both written and verbal, especially in English. You possess strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build good relationships both internally and externally. Finally, you are curious and have the desire to make a positive impact on society. 

Professional Qualifications  

• Strong scientific background in Health Science (Ph.D. level). 

• Extensive experience in medical informatics and/or health data science.  

• Expertise with digital infrastructures (i.e. EHR, HPC, cloud and/or GPUs) and/or governance of health data (policies, procedures and frameworks) is considered a plus.  

• Experience with innovation within academic, clinical, start-up, or industry settings, i.e. experience with translating technologies to end users, is considered an advantage as well as a broad understanding of networks within the Nordic and European innovation ecosystem.   

• Excellent ability to understand, analyse, and communicate research results, projects, and evaluations. 

• Previous experience from working with digital infrastructures and data governance, as well as regulatory frameworks in the Nordics/Europe will be valuable. Moreover, it is an advantage if you have experience from the Danish, Nordic and/or European life science innovation ecosystem, i.e. translation of academic research and/or acceleration of start-ups. 

Application and Information 
We encourage you to send your application as soon as possible and no later than 15 October 2025.  

For more information, please contact Senior Scientific Lead, Karin Hultman, at [email protected]. 

To apply, please send your CV, cover letter, university transcripts, and any other relevant documents by clicking on the “Apply now” button. 

About the Novo Nordisk Foundation 

Established in Denmark in 1924, the Novo Nordisk Foundation is an enterprise foundation with philanthropic objectives. The vision of the Foundation is to improve people’s health and the sustainability of society and the planet. The Foundation’s mission is to progress research and innovation in the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic and infectious diseases as well as to advance knowledge and solutions to support a green transformation of society. In the coming years, the Foundation will broaden its scope and increase its grants for scientific, humanitarian, and social purposes, including solving the climate crisis and developing tomorrow’s food production. As a consequence, we are a growing organisation, which means new job openings and exciting opportunities for employees to be part of forming the future of the Foundation.