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Primary Duties & Responsibilities

Strategic Business Partnership

• Serve as embedded IP business partner to assign BUs; attend engineering, product, roadmap, and sales reviews on a recurring cadence.
• Develop deep technical fluency in supported product lines sufficient to contribute substantively in technical discussions.
• Partner with BU leaders on go-to-market strategy, competitive positioning, partnerships, and customer engagements where IP is a value driver or risk.
• Triage non-IP legal issues (commercial, employment, trade compliance, export, privacy, antitrust, trade secrets) and route to appropriate L&GA SMEs.

Strategic Patent Development & Portfolio Management

• Drive patent claim strategy designed to read on competitor products and roadmaps; lead competitive teardowns and reverse-engineering with engineering and outside vendors.
• Conduct infringement analyses and FTO analyses; set filing, continuation, and abandonment strategy aligned with business objectives.
• Identify monetization opportunities: SEP declarations and licensing, assertion campaigns, defensive cross-licensing, and divestiture candidates.
• Direct and supervise outside counsel on U.S. and foreign drafting, filing, and prosecution; manage budgets and quality; draft personally for strategically critical inventions.
• Lead invention harvesting; coach inventors; adopt AI tools across invention identification, prior art / FTO search, drafting, and portfolio analytics.

IP Risk, Disputes & Commercial Support

• Support patent litigation and pre-litigation matters with outside counsel; lead clearance and FTO for new products and acquisition targets.
• Support IP aspects of commercial agreements (NDAs, JDAs, supply agreements, licenses, M&A diligence) with the commercial legal team.

Education & Experience

• JD from an accredited U.S. law school; admission to at least one U.S. state bar; USPTO registration.
• Minimum 6 years of patent law experience; mix of law firm and in-house preferred.
• Technical degree (BS required; MS or PhD strongly preferred) in materials science, chemistry, chemical or electrical engineering, applied physics, or related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience in competitive claim drafting, FTO opinions, and patent monetization (SEP, licensing, or assertion); materials teardown experience a plus.

Skills

• Operates as a business partner - not a service provider - to product, engineering, and commercial leaders.
• Strategic mindset on patents as competitive and monetization instruments; technical fluency in the assigned domains.
• Strong outside counsel and project management across geographies; excellent communication with executives and non-legal stakeholders.
• Preferred experience in one or more of the following:

  • Advanced materials and manufacturing technologies, including crystal growth for compound semiconductor and optical materials, as well as related processing and fabrication methods.

    Thermal management and engineered material solutions, including high-performance ceramics, metal-matrix composites, thermal-interface and heat-spreading technologies, and materials used in laser, semiconductor capital equipment, aerospace and defense, and industrial applications.

    Semiconductor optoelectronics and photonic device technologies, including lasers, modulators, photodetectors, VCSELs, EMLs, DMLs, related wafer-level and epitaxial processes, packaging, and device integration.

    High-speed optical communications systems and architectures, including optical transceivers and AI/data center networking technologies (400G/800G/1.6T and beyond), co-packaged optics, linear-drive/pluggable optics, and related DSP and module-level electronics.

Working Conditions

• Frequent collaboration with engineering, product, and commercial teams in fast-paced, highly technical environments.
• Regular participation in technical reviews, roadmap discussions, and cross-functional business meetings.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, outside counsel, and complex IP matters across global business units.
• Occasional domestic and international travel may be required to support business and legal operations.

Physical Requirements

• Onsite/Hybrid Work
• Ability to work at a computer and participate in virtual and in-person meetings for extended periods of time.
• Ability to review, analyze, and manage detailed technical and legal documentation.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally, as needed, to support business and legal operations.

Safety Requirements

All employees are required to follow the site EHS procedures and Coherent Corp. Corporate EHS standards.

Quality and Environmental Responsibilities

Depending on location, this position may be responsible for the execution and maintenance of the ISO 9000, 9001, 14001 and/or other applicable standards that may apply to the relevant roles and responsibilities within the Quality Management System and Environmental Management System.

Culture Commitment

Ensure adherence to company's values (ICARE) in all aspects of your position at Coherent Corp.:

Integrity - Create an Environment of Trust

Collaboration - Innovate Through the Sharing of Ideas

Accountability - Own the Process and the Outcome

Respect - Recognize the Value in Everyone

Enthusiasm - Find a Sense of Purpose in Work

Coherent Corp. is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Coherent is a global leader in lasers, engineered materials and networking components. We are a vertically integrated manufacturing company that develops innovative products for diversified applications in the industrial, optical communications, military, life sciences, semiconductor equipment, and consumer markets. Coherent provides a comprehensive career development platform within an environment that challenges employees to perform at their best, while rewarding excellence and hard-work through a competitive compensation program. It's an exciting opportunity to work for a company that offers stability, longevity and growth. Come Join Us!
Note to recruiters and employment agencies: We will not pay for unsolicited resumes from recruiters and employment agencies unless we have a signed agreement and have required assistance, in writing, for a specific opening.