Vice President - Intellectual Property Counsel (Patents and Open-Source)

About this role

VP Intellectual Property Counsel (Patents, Trade Secrets, Open-Source)

Job Description:

Your team

Elevate your career by joining the world's largest asset manager! Thrive in an environment that fosters positive relationships and recognizes outstanding performance! We know you want to feel valued every single day and be recognized for your contribution. At BlackRock, we strive to empower our employees and effectively engage your involvement in our success. With over USD $11.6 trillion in AUM, we have an outstanding responsibility: our technology and services empower millions of investors to save for retirement, pay for college, buy a home, and improve their financial well-being. BlackRock is one of the largest, most sophisticated global investment management firms and a leading provider of financial technology solutions to clients worldwide, including its class-leading Aladdin® investment management platform for institutional investors, and Aladdin Wealth and Advisor Center analytics platforms for financial advisors. Our Digital Enterprise Legal team provides legal support to BlackRock’s revenue-generating technology business lines and financial advisor and institutional client engagement and education platforms; supports BlackRock’s data, technology, and markets infrastructure; and enables innovation by managing the company’s intellectual property strategy and assets.

Your role and impact

The IP Legal team within BlackRock’s Digital Enterprise Legal team is seeking an experienced, business-minded patent attorney to join our team. You will partner closely with our product engineering and business teams globally in a fast-paced, cutting-edge environment to strategically protect BlackRock’s growing intellectual property assets. You will help protect our innovations by counseling teams on patents, trade secrets, publications, and open-source software licensing. You will ensure that BlackRock’s patent strategy aligns with its business objectives by learning our businesses, counseling engineers, harvesting inventions, and partnering with external counsel to prosecute patents. You will be based in Mumbai, India or Mexico City, Mexico.

Your responsibilities

• Helping to drive and develop BlackRock’s patent strategy based on the company’s strategic goals and competitive position.
• Working closely with BlackRock’s engineers and product teams to identify and harvest inventions capable of IP protection, and working with external counsel and other service providers to file, prosecute, and maintain patents.
• Cultivating an IP-aware culture by counseling and educating internal partners on intellectual property issues, including patents, trade secrets, clean room development, and open source software licensing issues.
• Working with external counsel to analyze and respond to third-party patent demands and licensing opportunities.
• Conducting freedom-to-operate analyses to assess potential patent risks associated with product development and commercialization, including patent landscape analyses, evaluating claim scope and validity, and advising on risk mitigation strategies.
• Actively contributing to BlackRock’s overall IP strategy, including by refining our patent and trade secret-related policies and procedures.
• Staying abreast of and communicating patent and trade secret legal developments that could impact BlackRock’s business.
• Advising on IP aspects of commercial agreements, including joint development agreements and technology transfers.
• Working cross-functionally with security and engineering teams to advise on open source software and open source AI/LLM use, licensing, and compliance strategies, including developing efficient processes to enable compliant open source use in BlackRock’s products at scale.
• Providing clean room development guidance to ensure the protection and integrity of BlackRock products, including establishing protocols and conducting reviews to prevent unauthorized use of third-party IP.

You have…

• At least 7 to 10 years of patent prosecution experience in a top-tier law firm or in-house legal department.
• Admission to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Bar and membership in good standing in at least one U.S. state bar.
• Experience in strategically building patent portfolios, including harvesting inventions, counseling engineers and business teams, and prosecuting patents.
• Degree or equivalent experience in a technical field, preferably in Engineering, Computer Science, or Computer Engineering.
• Experience in fintech, AI, machine learning, data processing, and/or software patents.
• Strong knowledge of open source licenses and related legal issues.
• Experience in the asset management industry or related financial industry is a plus, though not required.
• Ability to work across time zones to support BlackRock innovators globally, including around 25% of working hours for meetings with US-based inventors and US-based external counsel.
• Initiative, attention to detail, and a collaborative working style.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to effectively and concisely communicate complex legal issues to a non-legal audience orally and in writing, and to be a dedicated business partner to internal stakeholders.
• Strong organizational skills and an ability to manage multiple competing, and often evolving, priorities and deadlines.

Our benefits
To help you stay energized, engaged and inspired, we offer a wide range of benefits including a strong retirement plan, tuition reimbursement, comprehensive healthcare, support for working parents and Flexible Time Off (FTO) so you can relax, recharge and be there for the people you care about.

Our hybrid work model

BlackRock’s hybrid work model is designed to enable a culture of collaboration and apprenticeship that enriches the experience of our employees, while supporting flexibility for all. Employees are currently required to work at least 4 days in the office per week, with the flexibility to work from home 1 day a week. Some business groups may require more time in the office due to their roles and responsibilities. We remain focused on increasing the impactful moments that arise when we work together in person – aligned with our commitment to performance and innovation. As a new joiner, you can count on this hybrid model to accelerate your learning and onboarding experience here at BlackRock.

About BlackRock

At BlackRock, we are all connected by one mission: to help more and more people experience financial well-being.  Our clients, and the people they serve, are saving for retirement, paying for their children’s educations, buying homes and starting businesses. Their investments also help to strengthen the global economy: support businesses small and large; finance infrastructure projects that connect and power cities; and facilitate innovations that drive progress.

This mission would not be possible without our smartest investment – the one we make in our employees. It’s why we’re dedicated to creating an environment where our colleagues feel welcomed, valued and supported with networks, benefits and development opportunities to help them thrive.

For additional information on BlackRock, please visit @blackrock | Twitter: @blackrock | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/blackrock

BlackRock is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.  We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to age, disability, family status, gender identity, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation and other protected attributes at law.