Patent Counsel/Senior Patent Agent

Flagship Pioneering is a bioplatform innovation company that invents and builds platform companies that change the world. We bring together the greatest scientific minds with entrepreneurial company builders and assemble the capital to allow them to take courageous leaps. Those big leaps in human health and sustainability exponentially accelerate scientific progress in areas ranging from cancer detection and treatment to nature-positive agriculture.   

 What sets Flagship apart is our ability to advance biotechnology by uniting life science innovation, company creation, and capital investment under one roof in a way that is largely without precedent. Our scientific founders, entrepreneurial leaders, and professional capital managers are each aligned around an institutionalized process that enables us to innovate and transform for the benefit of people and planet.   

Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity’s most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture.  

Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE’s “Change the World” list, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies, and has been twice named to Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. 

JOB DESCRIPTION

Flagship Pioneering is seeking a savvy, creative, hands-on, Patent Counsel or senior Patent Agent who will work closely with cross-functional teams of Flagship portfolio companies and the Flagship IP team to help develop and execute a comprehensive and global IP strategy.  The successful candidate has a passion for science, an ease with multiple and varied life science technologies, excellent patent portfolio development skills, and a demonstrated ability to think strategically.  This is an extremely interactive role that requires the ability to mine and identify inventions, guide and educate scientific teams, and communicate succinctly and clearly with both scientific and management teams.  

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: 

• Help build, manage, and execute a global IP strategy for two or more Flagship portfolio companies, including invention mining, patent preparation and prosecution, efficient management of outside counsel, third party patent monitoring, and IP education.
• Provide counsel to, and operationally support, business, corporate and BD efforts of one or more Flagship portfolio companies with due diligence, competitive intelligence, R&D contracting issues, and IP in-licensing efforts, as needed.
• Provide general and directed IP education to company scientists and management.
• Work with science and management teams of portfolio companies to spot issues and work with Flagship legal team to enable effective and efficient resolutions.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Required: Advanced degree (Ph.D. in a life sciences field; JD preferred).
• Required: 6+ years of IP experience (patent drafting, prosecution, opinion work, due diligence, strategic development, counseling), including at least 4 years in private law practice 
• Required: Registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
• Required: Sophisticated knowledge of patent law and procedure, including international and foreign patent prosecution procedure.
• IP transactional and/or litigation experience a plus.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS:

• Flexible, personable team-player, comfortable in a fast-paced, small company environment, able to think “out-of-the-box,” and proactively counsel clients on IP strategy to contribute to the R&D teams above and beyond assigned projects.
• Proven ability to set and meet ambitious deadlines, handle numerous multifaceted legal issues and see projects through to conclusion.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, and demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with both scientists and management.
• Ability to distill complexity and to communicate decisively with sound judgment.

Why Join Flagship Pioneering?

This is a rare opportunity to play a critical role in shaping groundbreaking collaborations that drive scientific innovation. As Senior Counsel, Legal, you will operate at the intersection of business, law, and cutting-edge biotechnology, helping to build and support transformational partnerships that advance human health.

At Flagship, we recognize there is no perfect candidate. If you have some of the experience listed above