Job ID: 12589
Location: Houston, Texas
Category: HR
Employment Type: Direct Hire
Date Added: 10/16/2026
Job Description
Location: Houston, TX
Description
The Senior Intellectual Property Counsel is a senior, hands-on attorney within the Global Intellectual Property team, advising a global engineering and technology business on complex intellectual property matters. The position serves as a trusted legal advisor to business, technology, engineering, and commercial stakeholders throughout the intellectual property lifecycle.
This role independently leads substantive patent prosecution and IP legal counseling, evaluates freedom-to-operate and infringement risk, advises on IP-related transactions and collaborations, and supports disputes and governance. The successful candidate provides technically informed, commercially practical legal advice and oversees outside counsel while retaining accountability for legal strategy and outcomes.
Key Responsibilities
Patent Strategy, Procurement & Prosecution
- Independently manage patentability assessments, patent drafting and preparation, claim strategy, office action responses, and prosecution decisions.
- Advise on patent filing scope, jurisdictional considerations, alternative protection strategies, and alignment with technology and business objectives.
- Partner with IP Asset Managers, inventors, and technology leaders to develop effective patent protection strategies.
- Direct and oversee outside patent counsel while retaining substantive accountability for legal quality, strategy, and outcomes.
IP Legal Counseling & Risk Management
- Provide independent legal advice concerning patents, trade secrets, confidential information, ownership, enforceability, and third-party intellectual property rights.
- Lead legal freedom-to-operate and commercial-clearance assessments, including infringement analysis and practical risk-mitigation recommendations.
- Identify and assess material IP risks, develop defensible legal conclusions, and recommend commercially appropriate courses of action.
- Advise on safeguarding company confidential information and the receipt, handling, and use of third-party information.
IP Transactions, Diligence & Technology Collaborations
- Advise on IP provisions in commercial, procurement, technology, and operational agreements.
- Counsel stakeholders on IP ownership, licensing, confidentiality, permitted use rights, and allocation of IP risks.
- Lead IP legal diligence in acquisitions, partnerships, and strategic transactions.
- Structure and negotiate IP arrangements in joint development, technology collaborations, and strategic engagements.
- Coordinate with commercial counsel and business leaders to align IP positions with commercial objectives and corporate risk tolerance.
- Advise on potential infringement, IP disputes, enforcement strategy, and dispute resolution; coordinate with outside counsel as appropriate.
- Support development and implementation of IP policies, governance frameworks, and legal risk-management practices.
- Provide practical IP training and guidance to legal, technical, and business stakeholders.
- Improve IP legal processes and cross-functional collaboration.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from an accredited institution.
- Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school.
- Active registration as a Patent Attorney before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
- Active membership in good standing with at least one U.S. state bar.
- At least ten (10) years of substantive IP legal experience, including significant patent preparation and prosecution responsibilities and progressively complex IP counseling.
- Professional maturity and independent legal capability comparable to an experienced partner-track senior associate or partner-eligible attorney in a reputable IP law firm.
- Substantial experience drafting and prosecuting patents involving chemical, mechanical, and related technologies, including claim development and prosecution strategy.
- Demonstrated experience with IP contracts, ownership, licensing, confidentiality, freedom-to-operate, and infringement risk.
- Ability to independently analyze sophisticated legal issues, reach defensible conclusions, and deliver practical business-oriented advice.
Preferred Qualifications
- Significant foundational experience in a reputable IP law firm, preferably followed by in-house legal experience.
- Experience supporting global industrial, engineering, energy, process technology, or other technology-intensive businesses.
- Familiarity with chemical, process, industrial equipment, or multidisciplinary technologies.
- International patent portfolio management and coordination with foreign counsel.
- Experience in technology development agreements, strategic collaborations, licensing, M&A diligence, or complex IP disputes.
- Experience advising senior business and technology leaders on IP strategy and risk.
Role Specific Knowledge & Skills
- Independent legal judgment, professional accountability, and ownership of matters through resolution.
- Ability to balance legal risk, commercial objectives, technical considerations, and business decisions.
- Strong relationships and communication with inventors, engineers, commercial teams, legal colleagues, and senior leadership.
- Ability to manage competing priorities, statutory deadlines, and business-critical legal work while escalating material risks appropriately.
- Excellent written and verbal legal communication, sound ethics, discretion, and protection of confidential information.
