General Manager Intellectual Property Asset Strategy

About the Role

Fonterra Te Mātāpuna invites you to imagine the future with us. We seek a General Manager to lead and shape our global intellectual property (IP) strategy. This senior leadership role, reporting to the Chief Growth and Strategy Officer, focuses on maximizing the value derived from Fonterra's IP and intangible assets through strong governance, protection, and commercialization.

You will collaborate across multiple departments—including science, marketing, legal, and strategy—to translate innovation into measurable value, overseeing the full life cycle of IP assets. Leading a dedicated specialist team, you will also be instrumental in embedding IP expertise and governance throughout the organization.

Key Duties

• Develop and implement a comprehensive global IP strategy aligned with Fonterra’s long-term growth goals.
• Ensure a clear connection between innovation activities and IP value creation.
• Drive sound, commercially focused decisions regarding the innovation portfolio.
• Manage the entire IP framework including creation, documentation, maintenance, and release.
• Collaborate with legal teams on patents, trademarks, copyrights, and design protections.
• Mitigate risks through robust governance and management of external agreements and third-party IP interactions.
• Identify and prioritize monetization opportunities like licensing, partnerships, and new ventures.
• Establish frameworks for IP valuation and commercial strategies.
• Lead strategic decisions about the optimization and investment in the IP portfolio.
• Build and nurture relationships with senior stakeholders to influence and challenge for better commercial and strategic outcomes.
• Foster IP knowledge and capability development across Fonterra.
• Provide leadership to the IP team, promoting a culture of collaboration, high performance, continuous development, and succession planning.

Candidate Profile

You are a strategically minded and commercially savvy leader with extensive expertise in intellectual property. You excel at converting innovative ideas into commercial value and comfortably manage complexities across technical and business domains. You have a proven history of influencing senior leaders and balancing long-term strategies with practical execution.

• Extensive experience in IP strategy, portfolio management, and risk management.
• Demonstrated success in IP commercialisation, including licensing and valuation.
• Proven leadership in strategy development and cross-functional execution.
• Strong ability to engage and build relationships with senior-level stakeholders.
• Effective team leadership with experience developing talent and succession planning.
• High commercial acumen and strategic thinking to manage complex and ambiguous situations.

Qualifications

• Tertiary degree in Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Preferably registered as a Patent Attorney.

Our Commitment & Culture

Fonterra values diversity, inclusion, and equity, fostering a workplace where all individuals can bring their authentic selves. Our core values—Good Together, Better Every Day, Every Drop Counts—drive our commitment to exceptional outcomes for farmers, customers, communities, and colleagues. We support our people with comprehensive benefits including fair pay, health and wellbeing programs, career development, flexible working options, recognition, and community involvement.

Inclusion and Application Information

We prioritize building a diverse and inclusive environment, welcoming applicants from all backgrounds and identities. Should you require accommodations during the recruitment process, we encourage you to reach out for support to ensure an equitable experience.

Applications close at midnight on 23 July.