Vacant job

Karolinska Institutet Innovation is an independent organization wholly owned by Karolinska Institutet, with the mission to transform world-leading research into real-world businesses and societal benefits. Their office is located in the heart of Hagastaden on Campus Solna, one of Europe's fastest-growing Life Science clusters, with close ties to Karolinska University Hospital, SciLifeLab, and a broad network of investors and industry partners.

They work across the entire innovation chain: from identifying and validating early ideas in their Innovation Lab, to building and strengthening companies in their Incubator, to connecting startups with capital and the right partners. KI Innovation is not a passive support structure but a proactive actor working closely with researchers and founders to transform promising science into attractive, investable, and sustainable businesses.

The organization is currently recruiting for two roles: Business Advisor – Life Science and Senior Business Advisor – Medtech (see separate ads for more information).

About the role

As a Business Advisor, you work closely with researchers, entrepreneurs, and early-stage startups on their journey from idea to sustainable business. In practice, this means you will meet researchers and founders at a very early stage where you are responsible for making an initial assessment of uniqueness and market potential to ensure viability, ownership, patents, etc. You are an operational force in the early phase, helping the team structure their thinking, understand their market, and take the next concrete steps.

You work with established methodologies and concrete tools within customer discovery, market analysis, risk assessment, and business modeling, contributing to companies actually starting to work on their business, not just their technology. The role is varied, self-directed, and requires the ability to juggle many balls in the air simultaneously. You are responsible for your own early-stage cases and work in close collaboration with the team's other business advisors, reporting to the CEO. Your colleagues have a broad range of experience as well as complementary specialist knowledge. The work pace is sometimes high, there are many projects, and there is a fantastic feeling of contributing to real value creation.

Your responsibilities:

• Coach and support researchers, entrepreneurs, and projects in the early phase.

• Contribute to the evaluation of ideas, projects, and companies.

• Follow up on progress and help identify the next steps in development.

• Actively contribute to and support business development work within customer insights, business models, and markets.

• Participate in and lead workshops, programs, and educational initiatives.

About the profile

This role suits you if you have at least a couple of years of experience from the private Life Science sector, preferably in business development or product development, and hold an academic degree in a relevant field. You thrive at the intersection of science and business and are driven by seeing ideas take shape as profitable ventures.

You are action-oriented and accustomed to handling multiple parallel assignments. You don't need to have all the answers, but you are curious and eager to learn, which helps you find the answers needed to move forward. You are flexible, meet people where they are, and adapt to what each situation requires. The most important thing is that you take ownership of your tasks and drive them forward. You are never alone; you have colleagues to bounce ideas off and a manager who is accessible, but you are expected to be self-directed and find your way forward even when encountering obstacles.

Qualifications:

• At least 5 years of relevant work experience from the private Life Science sector, e.g., in business development and/or product development (R&D).

• Academic degree in Life Science, preferably with research experience.

• Ability to quickly grasp new technologies and business situations.

• Self-directed, action-oriented, and accustomed to handling parallel assignments.

• Fluent in Swedish and English, both spoken and written.

Preferred qualifications:

• Technical or scientific expertise in diagnostics, medtech, healthtech, or labtech.

• Experience in international business or international collaboration.

• Knowledge of intellectual property rights, patents, and the patent system.

• Regulatory competence within Life Science.

• Competence in AI and data-driven solutions.

• Experience from a startup environment.

• PhD in Life Science.

Why KI Innovation?

Here you meet one of the world's strongest research environments and get to put it into practice. The organization is flat with short decision-making paths and a high degree of independence. Each business advisor works with their own portfolio responsibility but collaborates closely with colleagues, sharing tools, frameworks, and experiences.

The culture at KI Innovation is open and down-to-earth. Here, people help each other, and it is perfectly fine not to have all the answers. At the same time, the pace is fast, and people are genuinely engaged in what they do. It is an unusual combination of deep academic knowledge and practical business experience, and this blend is evident in everyday life. Here you make a real difference, one company at a time.

Application

Does this role sound like you? Send your CV and a short description of why you are interested in this opportunity. Interviews will be conducted in August.

For questions about the role or the process, you are welcome to contact Sandra Bydell Sveder at [email protected] or +46 73 199 96 88.