IP & Innovation Technical Specialist
Mountain View, CA$184k - $273kfull-timePosted 1mo ago
About the role
Technical-legal liaison role embedded with X’s Early Pipeline teams to evaluate, de-risk, and shape early moonshots, translating engineering breakthroughs into robust IP strategies and patent pipelines.
Responsibilities
- Partner directly with Early Pipeline teams to assess viability of incoming moonshot pitches and help define project scope and technical parameters.
- Lead patent-informed innovation harvesting sessions across early and mature project teams, translating core engineering innovations into differentiators and a defined patent pipeline aligned with product roadmaps.
- Perform IP landscaping and white space analysis to identify strategic focus areas using patents, non-patent literature, and public discourse; guide decisions on market entry or asset transfer.
- Support the IP Counsel in designing and executing a global IP strategy aligned with commercial goals; review internal and external patent assets to assess scope and identify gaps.
- Serve as a proactive liaison between engineering, product, and legal teams; institute regular patent roundtables and deliver technology-led IP trainings.
- Synthesize complex early-stage concepts into Invention Disclosure Forms (IDFs); manage lifecycle of disclosures and coordinate with Outside Counsel for drafting/prosecution.
- Conduct initial FTO screenings, prior art analysis, and landscape screenings to support foundational risk assessments in frontier technologies.
- Collaborate with core software teams to develop AI-led Moonshot discovery tooling; build prompt repositories and SOPs for white space identification.
Qualifications
- Technical undergraduate degree in a rigorous engineering or scientific discipline (e.g., Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Aerospace, Life Sciences, or Materials Science).
- Admitted to practice before the USPTO as a Patent Agent or Patent Attorney, with an active USPTO registration number.
- 5+ years of experience in patent preparation, prosecution, and IP landscaping, ideally within a top-tier law firm or high-growth deep-tech corporate environment.
- Hands-on experience building, scaling, and managing patent portfolios for early-stage deep tech startups, university tech-transfer offices, or novel corporate R&D spin-outs.
- Exceptional broad technical literacy with ability to pivot between domains and assess IP potential across frontiers.
- Elite communication skills to translate technical breakthroughs for PhD-level researchers and engineers, maintaining cross-functional relationships.
- Ability to make structured decisions with incomplete information and thrive autonomously in a fast-paced startup environment.
- AI tech-forward mindset to leverage AI and generative prompting for smarter work processes and white space discovery.
Skills
Required:Patent preparation and prosecutionIP landscaping and white space analysisInvention Disclosure Form (IDF) draftingFTO screening
Benefits
- bonus
- equity
- benefits
Last updated Oct 22, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
About Google X
Welcome to X, Alphabet's Moonshot Factory. We create radical technologies to help solve some of the world’s hardest problems.
Welcome to X, Alphabet's Moonshot Factory. We create radical technologies to help solve some of the world’s hardest problems.
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