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Maxeon Solar Technologies is a global leader in solar innovation. Built from 35 years of boundary-pushing solar innovation, Maxeon designs, manufactures, and sells industry-leading SunPower branded solar products. Maxeon is Powering Positive Change TM every day with a brilliant, passionate and driven team of more than 5,000 people globally. We hold ourselves to a higher standard, striving for the highest integrity, safety, and quality. We thrive together as a global team, embracing our diverse backgrounds to make a positive impact on the world.

Join us in POWERING POSITIVE CHANGE™

Summary Of Role

We seek an experienced patent professional to help maximize value in our patent assets, from harvesting inventions from our engineers to developing patent strategies with external counsel. The ideal candidate will be able to be involved in all aspects of in-house intellectual property operations and issues. The successful candidate needs to be a registered patent attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and must be admitted to at least one state bar in the U.S. (preferably California).

Applicants must have permanent residence status in the U.S., U.S. citizenship, or granted status as a "protected individual" under the Immigration and Naturalization Act (8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)).

Essential Duties And Responsibilities

• Develops and maintains company intellectual property assets, especially patent applications and trade secrets
• Supports related projects, relationships, and processes, including IP litigation, transactional agreements, government grants, and various compliance and regulatory processes.
• Prepares legal opinions and analyses of patents. Reviews and drafts significant corporate legal documents.
• Evaluates the validity of competitors’ patents and the company’s freedom to operate.
• Responsible for pre-patent invention harvesting, documentation, filing review, providing legal advice to the company concerning the patent viability of its inventions and the advisability of filing patent applications covering the company’s inventions.
• Provides other general legal advice and represents the company in matters relating to IP law.
• A key contributor to the development and delivery of significant and impactful functional initiatives related to the management and administration of the IP portfolio.
  

Knowledge And Technical Skills

• Demonstrates advanced and/or broad functional expertise in IP law.
• Demonstrates advanced understanding of solar cell and solar panel manufacturing.
• Applies expertise to influence function-related company decisions and strategies with engineering, manufacturing, product, marketing and leadership groups.
• Can work independently to develop and implement robust systems and processes to manage the company’s patent portfolio, government grant reporting, patent remuneration, and patent litigation.
• Demonstrates advanced understanding of computer systems and databases, including Microsoft Excel, Microsoft SharePoint, and Anaqua (or a similar patent portfolio management system). Experience with Microsoft Power Automate (Flow) is valuable.
• Demonstrates excellent written communication and drafting skills in English.
  

Education And Experience Expectations

• Bachelor’s degree in a field related to solar cell and solar module manufacturing, such as physics, semiconductor fabrication, electrical engineering, materials science, etc.
• Candidates with an engineering or science degree in another field will be considered if they can demonstrate an advanced understanding of the technology and the initiative to learn state-of-the-art solar cell and solar panel manufacturing technology.
• 8+ years of cumulative related experience, preferably with a mix of engineering and legal experience. Prior in-house experience is valuable but not required. Substantial patent litigation experience is preferred.
• Advanced degrees in engineering or science are desirable.
  

Equal Employment Opportunity

The Company is an equal employment opportunity employer and makes employment decisions, including but not limited to, hiring, firing, promotion, demotion, training, and/or compensation, on the basis of merit. Employment decisions are based on an individual’s qualifications as they relate to the job under consideration. The Company’s policy prohibits unlawful discrimination based on sex (which includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions, the actual sex of the individual, or the gender identity or gender expression), race, color, religion, including religious dress practices and religious grooming practices, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, familial status, age, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, protected veteran or military status, or any other consideration made unlawful by national, federal, state or local laws, ordinances, or regulations. The Company is committed to complying with all applicable laws providing equal employment opportunities. This commitment applies to all persons involved in the operations of the Company and prohibits unlawful discrimination by any employee of the Company, including supervisors and co-workers.