Senior Director, Intellectual Property Counsel

Overview

This senior leadership role within the organization’s Law Department is responsible for developing and executing the company’s comprehensive intellectual property strategy across patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and related IP assets.

The Senior Director, Intellectual Property Counsel serves as a primary IP legal advisor to executive leadership and partners across product, engineering, and go-to-market teams. The position operates cross-functionally to protect, develop, monetize, and enforce the company’s intellectual property portfolio, while managing a small team of IP professionals and outside counsel.

Responsibilities

Patent Strategy & Portfolio Development

• Drive and execute the corporate patent strategy in support of defense, enforcement, and monetization goals, in regular cadence with the Patent Strategy Committee (CTO, CPO, CAO).
• Oversee invention recognition, mining, collection, review, and selection activities; provide senior strategic leadership for these processes.
• Provide strategic guidance and oversight for global patent filing, prosecution, and maintenance activities, directing and closely supervising outside patent counsel.
• Drive patent maintenance, divestiture, and monetization programs in furtherance of the corporate patent strategy.
• Support enforcement and defense preparedness through portfolio technology categorization and market-mapping analytics.

AI-Enabled Legal Practice

• Lead adoption of AI-powered legal tools and workflows across the IP function, including AI-assisted patent drafting and prosecution support; agentic prior art and freedom-to-operate research; LLM-assisted claim charting and portfolio analytics; and AI-enhanced contract review and licensing intelligence.
• Develop and enforce protocols for responsible use of generative and agentic AI tools within the IP team, consistent with attorney ethical obligations regarding competence, confidentiality, and candor, and aligned with guidance from applicable bar associations and the ABA.
• Evaluate, select, and oversee IP-specific AI platforms (including AI-assisted patent drafting tools, agentic patent search, and AI-powered docketing and analytics) and ensure the team is trained to use them effectively and safely.
• Establish governance standards and review workflows to ensure AI-generated legal work product meets quality, accuracy, and ethical standards before use or submission.

IP Strategy in Support of AI Business

• Serve as the primary IP legal partner to the CTO, CPO, and AI leadership team, aligning IP strategy with the AI product roadmap, including protection of innovations across the autonomous AI platform and related knowledge frameworks.
• Develop and execute patent strategy for AI and agentic systems innovations, including data integration, multi-agent orchestration, model governance, RAG pipeline architectures, and industry-specific AI knowledge models.

NPE Risk Management

• Own and manage the company’s patent risk management relationship with third-party organizations.
• Drive participation in licenses to NPE portfolios.
• Conduct frequent NPE risk assessment and mitigation analyses.

Trademark & Brand Protection

• Provide counseling and education to marketing and executive teams on branding, naming, usage, protection, and comparative marketing strategies and practices.
• Conduct and oversee trademark clearance studies and opinions for new product and brand names; limit outside counsel involvement to medium- and higher-risk activities.
• Drive global trademark registration activity and portfolio maintenance, directing and closely supervising outside trademark counsel.

Copyright Protection & Counseling

• Drive trade secret protection strategy and practices.
• Manage copyright registration for flagship software products.
• Provide guidance and counseling on all copyright-related needs.

IP Transactions & Licensing

• Lead and support IP-centric transactions with technology and go-to-market partners and with customers.
• Support Product and GTM teams in using, licensing, and delivering IP assets to customers and partners, including industry data models, newly developed agents and consulting tools, product-support tools, and tools leveraging open-source and third-party code.
• Support IP-centric partnership and customer transactions.
• Develop and manage policies for use and release of open-source material; counsel on open-source licensing and compliance.

IP Litigation & Dispute Support

• Provide subject matter expertise on IP-related disputes and litigation matters.
• Serve as the first line of defense in trademark and non-software copyright disputes.

IP Technology Systems

• Oversee and administer effective use and maintenance of IP program technology tools, including patent and trademark docketing systems, invention management platforms, and patent procurement and dispute analytics tools.

IP Education, Policy & Governance

• Develop and maintain IP-related stakeholder education programs and policies across the enterprise.
• Lead IP due diligence in M&A and technology transactions.
• Lead IP support for SEC and public filings and disclosures.

Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Provide strategic leadership for the business at senior leadership levels.
• Present complex legal and technical concepts clearly and persuasively to executive leadership and non-legal audiences.
• Manage outside counsel relationships and budgets across patent, trademark, and other IP matters, ensuring cost-effective and high-quality legal support.

Requirements

• Juris Doctor (J.D.) from an accredited law school; active bar membership in at least one U.S. jurisdiction required.
• USPTO registration (admitted to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office) strongly preferred.
• Minimum of 15 years of intellectual property law experience, including meaningful in-house experience at a technology company; a combination of law firm and in-house experience is preferred.
• Demonstrated experience managing global patent and trademark portfolios, outside counsel relationships, and NPE/PAE risk.
• Technical background in computer science, software engineering, data analytics, or a related field is a strong plus.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of U.S. patent law and practice, with significant experience in patent prosecution, portfolio strategy, NPE defense, and IP monetization.
• Demonstrated fluency in the IP landscape for artificial intelligence, including patent strategies for ML, generative AI, and agentic AI systems; trade secret protection for training data and model weights; copyright issues in AI-generated works; and IP risk management in AI technology transactions.
• Broad IP expertise spanning patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, open-source licensing, and IP aspects of commercial and M&A transactions.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute IP strategies aligned with business objectives in a technology company environment.
• Experience managing and directing outside counsel across multiple jurisdictions and disciplines, with a focus on quality and cost control.
• Ability to work effectively at the VP+ level and communicate complex IP concepts to non-legal audiences including engineers, product managers, and executives.
• Strong commercial instincts and business judgment; ability to triage a heavy workflow and prioritize in alignment with business strategy.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including demonstrated ability to draft and negotiate IP-related agreements, licensing arrangements, and technology transactions.
• Experience with IP program technology tools such as CPI and PatSnap, or comparable docketing and analytics platforms.
• Self-starter with strong organizational skills; ability to manage multiple complex matters simultaneously with minimal supervision.
• High ethical standards and the ability to handle sensitive matters with discretion and sound judgment.

Compensation & Benefits

• Not specified in the provided description.

Location

• Not specified in the provided description.

Equal Opportunity

The employer is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and does not discriminate based upon race, color, ancestry, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related conditions), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender identity or expression, military and veteran status, or any other legally protected status.