Director / Senior Director, Intellectual Property, Life Sciences

The role

You will own global patent strategy for therapeutic programs and direct outside counsel on drafting and prosecution. You will also serve as the IP lead on collaborations, licensing, and financings.

What you will do

• Own global patent strategy for therapeutic programs
• Direct outside counsel on drafting and prosecution
• Design claim architecture that protects programs
• Lead patentability, validity, and freedom-to-operate analyses
• Serve as IP lead on collaboration, option, license, and services agreements
• Run IP due diligence for financings and partner transactions
• Advise on inbound licenses for third-party software, data, models, and research tools
• Mentor junior legal team members
• Build and manage the life sciences IP function

Required qualifications

• J.D. and active bar admission, with USPTO registration
• 12+ years of substantive patent experience in the life sciences, in a law firm, in-house, or a combination
• Technical degree in chemistry, biochemistry, molecular or cellular biology, immunology, or a closely related field
• Demonstrated ownership of global patent portfolios for biopharmaceutical products, with direct responsibility for claim strategy
• Experience across a range of therapeutic modalities
• Track record producing patentability, validity, and FTO assessments that supported real business decisions
• Experience advising on IP aspects of collaborations, licensing, acquisitions, or financings, including diligence and negotiating provisions

Nice to have

• Experience with option-based or milestone-based collaboration structures
• Experience maintaining portfolio positions across related programs and partners
• Familiarity with structure-based similarity and analog definitions as used in contracts
• Experience with PTAB post-grant proceedings or district court and ITC litigation support
• Exposure to AI or computational drug discovery, including related inventorship questions

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Employer-paid life and disability insurance
• Flexible time off with generous company wide holidays
• Paid parental leave
• Educational assistance program
• Commuter benefits, including bike share memberships for office based employees
• Company subsidized lunch program

About the company

Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence™ to solve humankind's greatest challenges. The company builds systems that can learn for themselves, combining advanced AI models with proprietary AI Science Factory™ instruments.