Director of Operations for IBIS (Initiative for Biofertilizer Innovation and Science) - DTU Bioengineering

Are you ready to shape the future of sustainable agriculture?

DTU Bioengineering is seeking a strategic and execution-driven Director of Operations for the Initiative for Biofertilizer Innovation and Science (IBIS) — a five-year, international research initiative dedicated to advancing microbial biofertilizers for global agriculture to make it broadly accessible.

IBIS is an ambitious open-science initiative supported by 210 million DKK in funding from the Gates Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The initiative brings together leading research partners across Europe, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa to build a comprehensive Biosolutions Development Pipeline spanning discovery, characterization, fermentation, formulation, and large-scale field validation to speed up the discovery, maturation and launch of solutions across the partner geography. 

DTU coordinates the consortium and hosts the laboratory-based high-throughput and robotics-driven discovery and characterization phases of the pipeline, while large scale fermentation, field implementation and regional validation are carried out with international partners in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

To ensure the success of this complex, multi-partner initiative, we are now looking for a Director of Operations who will play a central leadership role in translating IBIS’ scientific vision into efficient, coordinated execution that will transform the field to ensure future sustainable food production and security. 

The job
As Director of Operations, you will be responsible for the overall operational management of IBIS, ensuring alignment between scientific and development activities, partner coordination, stakeholder management, and fulfillment of strategic milestones. You will further be working closely with the IBIS Director, Vice-Director and the global leadership team to formulate the consortiums strategy and be responsible for translating it to reality by coordinating the day-to-day activities of faculty and multiple teams at DTU, and across multiple international collaborators, to build and run a high-performing, mission-driven organization.

Key responsibilities include:

• Leading day-to-day operations across the IBIS consortium
• Facilitating communication across scientific, technical, and administrative teams at DTU 
• Ensuring effective coordination between DTU and international partners to ensure IBIS reaches its full potential and deliver real-world change
• Overseeing reporting, and compliance with the two foundations’ requirements, and build a trust-based relationship with the foundation’s representatives. 
• Driving planning, milestone tracking, and risk management across the Biofertilizer Development Pipeline, and affiliated research activities 
• Supporting implementation of standardized protocols, data governance, and documentation practices within IBIS, and towards external stakeholders
• Engaging with public and private stakeholders to support the open innovation in science funding setup, and to ensure relevant value creation via IBIS
• Supporting the development of scalable operational structures to sustain IBIS beyond the initial five-year period

Our expectations of you
We are seeking a candidate with strong operational leadership experience in complex research, innovation, or international development environments from academia or the private sector. You have demonstrated experience managing multi-stakeholder research programs within the bio-agricultural area, strong project governance skills, and the ability to build structure without compromising scientific agility. You further have experience from working in both academia, ideally group leader level, and in the private sector, ideally BioAg product development, to ensure you understand the incentive structure in academia and the private sector. Experience working with philanthropic foundations or large research consortia is an clear advantage.

You are structured, strategic, and execution-oriented — and motivated by contributing to solutions that can improve agricultural productivity and sustainability globally.

What we offer in return
We offer a highly interesting job in an international atmosphere with the focus on research, teaching, and innovation for the benefit of the surrounding community. The IBIS initiative combines foundational science with applied research with a clear path to real-world impact – securing sustainable food production. We place emphasis on a high level of professionalism among our staff, so skills development is an integral part of our organization. In the area of technical and natural sciences, DTU is one of the leading research and education institutions in Europe.

Salary and appointment terms
The appointment will be based on the collective agreement with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC). 

The position is a full-time position. Starting date is June 1, 2026 (or according to mutual agreement).

The workplace is DTU Lyngby Campus, Denmark. 

Application and contact
Please submit your online application no later than Thursday, 19 March 2026. Open the “Apply now” link, fill out the form and attach your motivated application, CV and exam certificates. 

If you would like additional information about the position, please contact Director of IBIS, Professor Rasmus John Normand Frandsen, on 22511435, or by mail rasf@dtu.dk. 

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

All interested candidates irrespective of age, gender, disability, race, religion or ethnic background are encouraged to apply. As DTU works with research in critical technology, which is subject to special rules for security and export control, open-source background checks may be conducted on qualified candidates for the position.

DTU Bioengineering 
The Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (DTU Bioengineering) is an international leader in the areas of biotechnology and biomedicine. Our engineering approach to all aspects of biotechnology and biomedicine positions us as a valuable player with unique competences in a growing bio-based economy and with health systems transforming towards personalized medicine. We have a clear focus on the needs in the life science- and biotech industries and point towards innovation, new businesses, and scientific services for the benefit of society. The department has extensive collaborations with national and international research units and industry. DTU Bioengineering has approx. 400 employees, of which 2/3 are scientific staff. The department is located at DTU Lyngby Campus.

Technology for people
DTU develops technology for people. With our international elite research and study programmes, we are helping to create a better world and to solve the global challenges formulated in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Hans Christian Ørsted founded DTU in 1829 with a clear mission to develop and create value using science and engineering to benefit society. That mission lives on today. DTU has 13,500 students and 6,000 employees. We work in an international atmosphere and have an inclusive, evolving, and informal working environment. DTU has campuses in all parts of Denmark and in Greenland, and we collaborate with the best universities around the world.