Senior Patent Counsel
Nutanix
Hungry, Humble, Honest, with Heart.
The Opportunity
Nutanix is seeking a skilled Senior Patent Counsel to join our legal team in our San Jose, CA office. This role is ideal for a person who can quickly learn complicated technology and then engage on the learned technology with engineers and other attorneys and patent professionals. Deep patent prosecution experience, strong interpersonal skills and a willingness to reach out and connect with engineers, engineering leadership, and product managers on the company’s products and roadmap are key to success in this role. Reporting to the Worldwide Head of IP, the person in this role will be responsible for developing and building the company’s patent portfolio, improving the company’s internal patent processes, and advancing the patent program objectives. This role will collaborate across R&D product teams to help identify, assess, and capture into the patent program the best of the new and exciting innovations developed every day at Nutanix, and then convert them into patent applications and ultimately into valuable, enforceable patents.
About the Team
The Nutanix Legal team is a global group of business-minded legal professionals committed to being a competitive advantage for the company. We partner closely with teams across the company to deliver practical, scalable legal solutions that support innovation and accelerate growth. Operating at the intersection of technology, risk management, and business enablement, we help shape strategic decisions while ensuring the company meets its legal and regulatory obligations. Our team is known for its agility, integrity, and collaborative spirit, and for embracing new ways of working that align with Nutanix’s bold, customer-obsessed culture. If you’re looking to join a legal team that’s deeply embedded in the business and plays a critical role in driving global impact, Nutanix Legal is the place to be.
Your Role
- As a key member of the Legal team, your primary responsibilities will include:
- Helping to develop the Company’s patent portfolio.
- Developing and improving the IP Team’s internal processes to identify and capture valuable innovations from the company’s R&D product teams.
- Working with the company’s Patent Engineer to assess invention disclosures and determine whether to file patent applications.
- Working with and reviewing the work of outside patent counsel who draft and prosecute the company’s patent applications.
- Working with outside patent service providers on granted patents for claim charting, potential enforcement, and determining whether to pay maintenance fees and annuities.
- Training R&D team members on patents and internal patent program processes.
- Working with Nutanix Finance Team and outside patent firms on the patent budget, patent spend, and forecasting
- Promoting the use of AI and implementing tools to improve patent program processes.
Over time, your role could expand to other patent and IP Department tasks, depending on your experience, aptitude and willingness to learn and take on additional responsibilities. The hiring decision, however, will focus on your technical knowledge and aptitude, patent prosecution and portfolio development experience, and communication and interpersonal skills.
What You Will Bring
- A minimum of 8–10 years of experience in patent prosecution and portfolio management.
- A CS or EE degree.
- A State or DC bar license and a USPTO bar registration.
- Experience in-house and/or at a patent prosecution law firm.
- A strong technical understanding of software, computer systems, storage, and virtualization.
- Work experience as a software engineer at a tech company would be a plus and could compensate for fewer years as a working attorney.
- Strong communication and networking skills, with an ability to develop trusting and cooperative working relationships with engineers.
- Tech-savvy and digitally fluent, with proficiency in applying AI tools in your work.
Work Arrangement
Hybrid: This role operates in a hybrid capacity, blending the benefits of remote work with the advantages of in-person collaboration. In locations where our workplace policy applies (i.e. San Jose, Durham, Mexico City, Bangalore, Pune, Hoofddorp, Belgrade, Barcelona, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo), employees are expected to work onsite a minimum of 3 days per week to foster collaboration, team alignment, and access to in-office resources. Workplace type may vary based on location and team requirements. Please speak with your recruiter for details. Additional team-specific guidance and norms will be provided by your manager.
The pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between USD $ 189,600 and USD $ 380,400 per year.
However, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package for this position may also include other elements, including a sign-on bonus, restricted stock units, and discretionary awards in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits (including 401(k) eligibility and various paid time off benefits, such as vacation, sick time, and parental leave), dependent on the position offered. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.
If hired, employee will be in an “at-will position” and the Company reserves the right to modify base salary (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, Company or individual department/team performance, and market factors. Our application deadline is 40 days from the date of posting. In good faith, the posting may be removed prior to this date if the position is filled or extended in good faith.
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