Senior Legal Counsel, Patents

About the Role

We are seeking a Senior Patent Counsel to help shape and scale our patent development program as we continue to innovate rapidly. We’re looking for someone with deep technical experience, particularly in hardware patent prosecution and strategy, who is detail-oriented, highly organized, and thrives in a fast paced environment. You’ll partner closely with world-class engineers and product leaders, ensuring our most important hardware innovations are protected and aligned with business priorities.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

• Lead patent portfolio development for hardware and related activities, including proactive invention identification, application preparation, and prosecution.

• Partner closely with engineering, product, and design teams to identify strategic hardware innovations and craft high-value patent filings.

• Manage outside counsel activities related to both hardware and software patent prosecution.

• Develop and execute patent strategy for hardware systems, aligning IP protection with business and technical priorities.

• Help scale patent development processes to support rapid growth.

We’re looking for someone with:

• 7+ years of patent prosecution experience, with significant expertise in hardware technologies (e.g., circuits, processors, sensors, mechanical systems, or AI hardware).

• BS or graduate degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or related hardware-focused field (advanced degree preferred).

• JD and admitted to a state bar.

• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office registration.

• Proven ability to develop patent strategy for hardware platforms, from invention harvesting to portfolio shaping.

• Strong technical background; AI or software experience a plus.

• Experience drafting and prosecuting both hardware and software patent applications.

• Experience counseling engineering teams and cross-functional partners on IP strategy.

• Ability to identify broader IP issues, such as licensing or trade secrets, for appropriate escalation or counseling.

• Detail-oriented, with exceptional organizational and project management skills.

• Excellent writing and communication skills.

• Prior in-house experience managing a patent portfolio is a plus.

• Nice to have: Experience with IP licensing, open source, or other complementary IP disciplines.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.