Sr Legal Counsel, Patents

Provide clear, pragmatic, and solution-oriented legal advice to enable business strategy while managing legal risk. Participate in complex problem resolution, providing expert legal advice on high-stakes issues and disputes. Ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations. Partner with business counterparts across the enterprise to help drive the delivery of effective legal services. Escalate complex issues to senior legal leadership where appropriate. Develop and execute patent filing, prosecution, and portfolio strategies across various technology domains. Own end-to-end patent prosecution matters in coordination with other in-house patent team members and outside counsel, including drafting/overseeing drafting of patent applications, responding to office actions, and managing foreign filings (e.g., PCT filings, nationalization decisions). Advise product, research, and engineering teams on patentability, and provide pragmatic, business-oriented counsel. Provide training and guidance to engineers, product teams, and other legal team members on IP best practices and invention disclosure processes; help build an innovation culture that balances protection and speed. Maintain up-to-date knowledge of relevant patent law developments and industry IP trends and apply them to business decisions and strategy. 8+ years relevant experience and a Juris doctorate degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience. J.D. from an accredited law school and admitted to practice in at least one U.S. jurisdiction. Admission to practice before the USPTO. Strong experience with U.S. and international patent prosecution, PCT practice, and global patent portfolio management. Proven ability to provide practical counsel to product/engineering teams. Demonstrated experience managing outside counsel. Excellent written and oral communication, drafting, and analytical skills. Able to explain complex legal concepts to technical and business audiences. Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment and handle multiple projects simultaneously. Experience in payments, financial services technology, cryptography, distributed systems, security, blockchain, or adjacent technologies. Experience advising on IP aspects of contract negotiations, including complex IP agreements (e.g. MSAs, licensing, cross-licenses, tech transfer, M&A/strategic investments) Prior in-house experience at an internet or fintech company.