diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 44a5bbbc5cb..0a5f619a2e9 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -114,6 +114,7 @@
 - PR #6833 Use settings.xml if existing for internal build
 - PR #6835 Move template param to member var to improve compile of hash/groupby.cu
 - PR #6837 Avoid gather when copying strings view from start of strings column
+- PR #6859 Move align_ptr_for_type() from cuda.cuh to alignment.hpp
 
 ## Bug Fixes
 
diff --git a/conda/recipes/libcudf/meta.yaml b/conda/recipes/libcudf/meta.yaml
index c7aeb04c31b..12fedc066a6 100644
--- a/conda/recipes/libcudf/meta.yaml
+++ b/conda/recipes/libcudf/meta.yaml
@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ test:
     - test -f $PREFIX/include/cudf/detail/transform.hpp
     - test -f $PREFIX/include/cudf/detail/transpose.hpp
     - test -f $PREFIX/include/cudf/detail/unary.hpp
+    - test -f $PREFIX/include/cudf/detail/utilities/alignment.hpp
     - test -f $PREFIX/include/cudf/detail/utilities/integer_utils.hpp
     - test -f $PREFIX/include/cudf/detail/utilities/int_fastdiv.h
     - test -f $PREFIX/include/cudf/dictionary/detail/concatenate.hpp
diff --git a/cpp/include/cudf/column/column_device_view.cuh b/cpp/include/cudf/column/column_device_view.cuh
index 69517aa8d27..237242f5346 100644
--- a/cpp/include/cudf/column/column_device_view.cuh
+++ b/cpp/include/cudf/column/column_device_view.cuh
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 
 #include <algorithm>
 #include <cudf/column/column_view.hpp>
-#include <cudf/detail/utilities/cuda.cuh>
+#include <cudf/detail/utilities/alignment.hpp>
 #include <cudf/fixed_point/fixed_point.hpp>
 #include <cudf/lists/list_view.cuh>
 #include <cudf/strings/string_view.cuh>
diff --git a/cpp/include/cudf/detail/utilities/alignment.hpp b/cpp/include/cudf/detail/utilities/alignment.hpp
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e52032fe104
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cpp/include/cudf/detail/utilities/alignment.hpp
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) 2020, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+#pragma once
+
+#include <memory>
+
+namespace cudf {
+namespace detail {
+
+/**
+ * @brief Returns the aligned address for holding array of type T in pre-allocated memory.
+ *
+ * @tparam T The data type to align upon.
+ *
+ * @param destination pointer to pre-allocated contiguous storage to store type T.
+ * @return Pointer of type T, aligned to alignment of type T.
+ */
+template <typename T>
+T* align_ptr_for_type(void* destination)
+{
+  constexpr std::size_t bytes_needed{sizeof(T)};
+  constexpr std::size_t alignment{alignof(T)};
+
+  // pad the allocation for aligning the first pointer
+  auto padded_bytes_needed = bytes_needed + (alignment - 1);
+  // std::align captures last argument by reference and modifies it, but we don't want it modified
+  return reinterpret_cast<T*>(
+    std::align(alignment, bytes_needed, destination, padded_bytes_needed));
+}
+
+}  // namespace detail
+}  // namespace cudf
diff --git a/cpp/include/cudf/detail/utilities/cuda.cuh b/cpp/include/cudf/detail/utilities/cuda.cuh
index 141caa1fc8c..33c61414a1c 100644
--- a/cpp/include/cudf/detail/utilities/cuda.cuh
+++ b/cpp/include/cudf/detail/utilities/cuda.cuh
@@ -174,23 +174,5 @@ void device_single_thread(Functor functor, rmm::cuda_stream_view stream = rmm::c
   single_thread_kernel<<<1, 1, 0, stream.value()>>>(functor);
 }
 
-/**
- * @brief Returns the aligned address for holding array of type T in pre-allocated memory
- * @param destination pointer to pre-allocated contiguous storage to store type T.
- * @return Pointer of type T, aligned to alignment of type T.
- */
-template <typename T>
-T* align_ptr_for_type(void* destination)
-{
-  constexpr std::size_t bytes_needed{sizeof(T)};
-  constexpr std::size_t alignment{alignof(T)};
-
-  // pad the allocation for aligning the first pointer
-  auto padded_bytes_needed = bytes_needed + (alignment - 1);
-  // std::align captures last argument by reference and modifies it, but we don't want it modified
-  return reinterpret_cast<T*>(
-    std::align(alignment, bytes_needed, destination, padded_bytes_needed));
-}
-
 }  // namespace detail
 }  // namespace cudf