Director, Intellectual Property

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Provide leadership, mentoring, development, and priorities to IP staff under direct supervision to ensure customer groups are supported in all matters involving intellectual property management.
• Review invention disclosures and guide patenting decisions.
• Work with outside counsel in preparation, filing and prosecution of patent applications.
• Investigate product development status and commercialization plans to develop patent filing strategies.
• Lead and supervise the IP support of new product development by with right to use analysis.
• Investigate patent utilization, commercial offensive and defensive value to help make patent annuity/maintenance fee decisions
• Lead patentability, right to use and state of the art patent analyses.
• Lead and/or support third party business development M&A due diligence and integration as needed.
• Initiate/Lead continuous improvement of the IP department's systems and procedures to ensure effective/ efficient operations.
• Support IP litigation team with aspects of patent assertions and defenses as needed.

Work location and travel

• This position is posted as hybrid. Any location in proximity to Kalamazoo, MI office is preferred.
• Travel percentage up to 25%

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree required in Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering/Science, or equivalent technical degree.

Qualifications and Experience

• 10+ years experience managing intellectual property matters.
• 5+ years of experience managing direct reports preferred.
• 5+ years of experience in the medical device, medtech, or related industry that is highly regulated.
• Registration before the USPTO is strongly preferred.
• Experience and demonstrated expertise leading and managing all aspects of intellectual property including invention disclosures, IP harvesting, patent landscape, patent prosecution & preparation, right-to-use studies, and IP training.
• Demonstrated ability to work with the business to develop and execute on strategies aligned with the business initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to lead process improvements across a range of responsibilities.
• Demonstrated leadership skills, ability to think strategically, communicate effectively, and influence others within and external to the Global Intellectual Property department.
• Exceptional responsibility, accountability, initiative, and demonstrated ability to make difficult decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently, collaboratively, and inclusively.
• Demonstrates and drives a commitment to integrity and accountability.
• Maintains highly sensitive and confidential information.

Health benefits include: Medical and prescription drug insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, critical illness insurance, accident insurance, hospital indemnity insurance, personalized healthcare support, wellbeing program and tobacco cessation program. Financial benefits include: Health Savings Account (HSA), Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), 401(k) plan, Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP), basic life and AD&D insurance, and short-term disability insurance. Stryker offers innovative products and services in MedSurg, Neurotechnology, Orthopaedics and Spine that help improve patient and healthcare outcomes. Alongside its customers around the world, Stryker impacts more than 150 million patients annually. Depending on customer requirements employees and new hires in sales and field roles that require access to customer accounts as a function of the job may be required to obtain various vaccinations as an essential function of their role.