Manager Intellectual Property Rechargeable Battery Materials

About Umicore

Reducing harmful vehicle emissions. Giving new life to used metals. Powering the cars of the future. As a global materials and technology group, we apply our specialist knowledge to offer materials and solutions that are essential to everyday life. We aim to be a clear world leader in materials for clean mobility and recycling and have turned our sustainability approach into an even greater competitive advantage. With ambitions like this, imagine what you could do?

About New Business Incubator

Umicore’s commitment to creating a sustainable future relies on innovation in all areas of business. As we keep pushing our boundaries and strive to set new industry standards, embracing advanced technologies has never been more essential. By finding these technologies we can navigate challenges and enhance our capabilities. By sharing different ideas, we can develop new business units or establish new divisions within our organisation. This is where contribution and collaboration are the drivers of real change. Where individual thought is identified, incubated and nurtured for growth in years to come. There is still so much potential waiting to be unearthed. Which is where you come in.

What you will be doing

With innovation at the heart of our business, there is a need for an experienced and professional IP team to protect and manage Umicore’s intellectual property rights. Umicore’s Intellectual Property Department employs IP Managers, not just patent attorneys. There is a distinction behind the title used to define Umicore’s IP team – to provide a clear message that the business units are supported by experienced and skilled IP Managers who are given the freedom and autonomy to advise their internal clients on the management of their Intellectual Property rights.

The IP department is flat in organization, empowering its IP Managers to engage fully with their clients, almost akin to running a business. You will immerse yourself into these businesses to learn their technologies and commercial objectives. Your role will include educating inventors, acquiring IP rights from invention through to grant, defending Umicore’s IP rights as well as analysing freedom-to-operate studies and opposing to IP rights belonging to third parties. Directing multidisciplinary IP steering committees as the central governance body for all IP related decisions is also prevalent in your role.
Umicore recognizes the value of IP and the contribution you provide. In return, you will receive some of the most structured career development and professional support available within the industry, values which Umicore believe ensure career longevity.

In your role as IP Manager you will report to the Director of Intellectual Property. Your main office location will be Olen, which is located in the Antwerp Metropolitan area (BE) with occasional travelling within Belgium (Brussels), and to Germany and Asia.

Who we are looking for

• You are a Qualified European and/ or national patent attorney, or you are already in the process to acquire such qualification. What matters most though is your eagerness to learn: you commit to passing the EQE over time, we commit to providing the appropriate internal & external training and time needed for this. 
• Currently you might be working in private practice, seeking new challenges in an industrial environment?
• Your technical background will be a Master’s or PhD degree in either material science or chemistry.
• Experience with rechargeable battery materials and their application is definitely a plus for this position.
• Fluency in English is essential as you engage with multiple nationalities across the globe.
• Needless to say that you are a team player – IP in Umicore is real teamwork involving colleagues from various disciplines.
• Your communication abilities will be part of your strength as you will be engaged with different people: one day having detailed discussions with engineers and project managers, the next day sitting in a steering committee with business and R&D teams; then again advising on broader IP issues to legal teams involved in joint development agreements.
• You have excellent negotiation skills to coordinate the decision making process in IP matters.
• Authenticity, open-mindedness, respect and integrity are not just words for you, but part of your very DNA.

What we offer

We aim to lead the way. Not just for our customers, but for our employees too. That is why we strive to create a collaborative environment in which we can all succeed, and a culture through which we can all share ideas, develop our expertise and advance our careers. We engage in building an inclusive work culture that offers equal opportunities for all employees irrespective of their diverse backgrounds. As you would expect from a world-leading organisation, we will also reward your contribution with a competitive salary and benefits. With all this and more, imagine what you could do?

If our pioneering approach can make us a leader in sustainability, IMAGINE WHAT YOU COULD DO?