Senior Counsel, IP

About the role

SandboxAQ is a high-growth company delivering AI solutions that address some of the world's greatest challenges. The company’s Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) power advances in life sciences, financial services, navigation, cybersecurity, and other sectors. We are a global team that is tech-focused and includes experts in AI, chemistry, cybersecurity, physics, mathematics, medicine, engineering, and other specialties. The company emerged from Alphabet Inc. as an independent, growth capital-backed company in 2022, funded by leading investors and supported by a braintrust of industry leaders. At SandboxAQ, we’ve cultivated an environment that encourages creativity, collaboration, and impact. By investing deeply in our people, we’re building a thriving, global workforce poised to tackle the world's epic challenges. Join us to advance your career in pursuit of an inspiring mission, in a community of like-minded people who value entrepreneurialism, ownership, and transformative impact.

Responsibilities

• Own our patent portfolio end to end, including invention harvesting, filing strategy, prosecution management, and lifecycle decisions on continuations, abandonments, and annuities.
• Partner directly with scientists and engineers — including PhD physicists, chemists, and ML researchers — to identify patentable work early, run invention disclosure and review, and create an efficient and high-value end-to-end cycle with inventors.
• Direct and hold accountable outside patent firms and foreign associates on quality, cost, and timeliness.
• Run freedom-to-operate and clearance analyses to inform and shape product strategy and launches, and serve as the IP voice in commercial, collaboration, and corporate transactions.
• Build and maintain our broader IP program, including our trade secret program and trademark clearance, prosecution, and enforcement across our product brands, while working cross-functionally to craft legal strategies that fuel growth while mitigating risk.

Requirements

• Juris Doctor (J.D.) or equivalent law degree, with admission to practice in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
• 7+ years of substantive intellectual property law experience, with significant depth and expertise in patent law.
• Strong technical fluency, with the ability to engage credibly and effectively with PhD-level physicists, chemists, machine learning researchers, and other technical experts.
• Strategic and agile, with the ability to thrive in fast-paced, high-growth environments where smart, rapid decision-making is essential.
• Collaborative and high EQ, with the ability to build relationships across diverse teams and translate complex legal concepts into actionable business strategies.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Experience with AI/ML, life sciences, or computational chemistry subject matter, including Section 101 eligibility strategy for software and algorithmic inventions.
• Experience or interest in building an IP program from an early stage rather than inheriting a mature one.
• A combination of in-house and Big Law experience is strongly preferred.
• USPTO registration / patent bar admission is preferred.
• An undergraduate or graduate degree in a STEM field — physics, chemistry, computer science, electrical engineering, or similar — is strongly valued.

Why Join Us?

• We offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package designed to support your health, financial well-being, and life outside of work.
• Career Defining Work: Your work will directly accelerate the discovery of better drugs and better materials, advance human health, and enable safer and more sustainable technologies by helping customers put AI Simulation capabilities into real world use.
• Compensation: Competitive base salary, performance-based incentives or bonuses (where applicable), and equity participation.
• Benefits: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents with generous employer premium contributions, retirement savings with company matching, paid parental leave, and inclusive family-building benefits.
• Work-Life Balance: Fully remote, Flexible paid time off, company-wide seasonal breaks, and support for flexible work arrangements that enable sustainable performance.
• Learning and Growth: Opportunities for continuous learning and growth through on-the-job development, cross-functional collaboration, and access to internal learning and development programs.

Compensation Range

$182.4K - $342K