Lausanneruns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
Higher education & research
EPFL, University of Lausanne, IMD, CHUV
EPFL is one of Europe's leading technical universities and sits with UNIL on a single lakeside campus in Écublens and Dorigny — around 30,000 students and staff, and the anchor of the whole regional economy.
International sport
International Olympic Committee, Court of Arbitration for Sport, dozens of international federations
Lausanne is the Olympic Capital and hosts the IOC, the Olympic Museum and the Court of Arbitration for Sport, plus a cluster of international federations — a small, closed and unusually credential-driven job market.
Life sciences & medtech
CHUV, Ludwig Institute, Debiopharm, Sophia Genetics, ADC Therapeutics, Nestlé Research
The CHUV university hospital and the EPFL life-sciences school have produced a dense biotech and health-data cluster in the Innovation Park on the campus edge.
Technology & engineering
Logitech, Bobst, Nexthink, Kandou, EPFL spin-offs
Logitech was founded near here and keeps a headquarters on the EPFL campus. The Innovation Park hosts several hundred startups and corporate research units alongside it.
Food, consumer & headquarters
Nestlé (Vevey), Philip Morris International, Nespresso, Bobst
The Lake Geneva arc from Lausanne to Vevey concentrates an unusual number of multinational headquarters, drawn originally by cantonal tax arrangements and now by the labour pool.
Justice & public institutions
Federal Supreme Court, cantonal administration, Court of Arbitration for Sport
Switzerland's highest court sits in Lausanne rather than Bern, which gives the city a legal profession out of proportion to its size.
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