Assistant Chief IP Counsel

Eaton’s legal organization is hiring a dynamic Assistant Chief IP Counsel. Primary locations are Beachwood, Ohio at the company's US HQ and/or in Moon Township, Pennsylvania at the Electrical Sector NA HQ . Will also consider remote work with travel.

What you’ll do:

Job Summary

Eaton is seeking an experienced and strategic intellectual property leader to serve as Assistant Chief IP Counsel within the Innovation and Technology Legal team. Reporting to the Vice President & Chief Counsel, Innovation and Technology, this role serves as a senior legal advisor to technology leadership, business executives, and cross-functional stakeholders on intellectual property strategy, portfolio management, technology transactions, innovation protection, commercialization, and risk management.

The Assistant Chief IP Counsel plays a key leadership role in developing and executing Eaton’s global intellectual property strategy, enabling protection of intellectual property assets, driving exploitation strategies to advance Eaton’s business objectives. This position is responsible for providing strategic counsel across patents, trade secrets, software, AI-enabled technologies, copyrights, trademarks, data rights, licensing, technology collaborations, open-source software, and innovation ecosystems.

The successful candidate will combine deep intellectual property expertise with strong business acumen and executive presence, helping to translate complex legal and technology issues into practical business solutions that support innovation, growth, competitiveness, and enterprise value creation.

Job Responsibilities:

Intellectual Property Strategy & Leadership

• Partner with senior business, engineering, and technology leaders to develop and execute a global intellectual property strategy aligned with Eaton’s innovation and business objectives.
• Drive the identification, protection, development, maintenance, exploitation, and optimization of Eaton’s intellectual property portfolio worldwide.
• Advise executive leadership on emerging intellectual property risks, opportunities, competitive positioning, and innovation trends.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to the Chief Legal Officer and senior legal leadership team, Chief Technology Officer, business presidents, and senior business leadership and engineering leadership, regarding intellectual property and technology-related legal matters.
• Develop and implement governance frameworks, operating procedures, and key performance metrics for intellectual property management and innovation support.

Portfolio Development & Innovation Support

• Lead strategic patent portfolio development activities across multiple technology domains, including electrical systems, industrial technologies, software, automation, digital solutions, AI-enabled systems, cybersecurity, and connected products.
• Guide invention harvesting, patentability assessments, portfolio prioritization, whitespace analyses, competitive intelligence, and innovation protection strategies.
• Drive enterprise-wide intellectual property portfolio optimization efforts, ensuring investment is focused on high-value technologies and business priorities.
• Provide strategic counseling regarding trade secret protection, know-how management, proprietary information management, and confidential information programs.

Freedom-to-Operate & Risk Management

• Provide strategic advice regarding freedom-to-operate assessments, infringement risks, competitive patent landscapes, and product development initiatives.
• Develop and execute risk mitigation strategies that support innovation while minimizing exposure to third-party intellectual property claims.
• Oversee infringement investigations, validity analyses, opposition proceedings, post-grant challenges, and intellectual property dispute management.
• Advise on intellectual property implications arising from emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, digital products, cloud solutions, data-driven technologies, and software-enabled offerings.

Technology Transactions & Commercialization

• Lead and support complex technology transactions.
• Structure and negotiate intellectual property provisions in commercial, supply chain, engineering, and strategic partnership agreements.
• Support innovation commercialization initiatives by developing practical and scalable intellectual property frameworks.

Mergers, Acquisitions & Strategic Transactions

• Lead intellectual property due diligence activities for acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, minority investments, and strategic transactions.
• Assess intellectual property assets, liabilities, ownership, licensing structures, and freedom-to-operate considerations.
• Advise transaction teams on intellectual property valuation, integration planning, and post-transaction risk management.

Global Intellectual Property Operations

• Lead and collaborate with globally distributed intellectual property professionals, outside counsel, and service providers.
• Manage outside counsel performance, budgeting, staffing, and portfolio efficiency initiatives.
• Drive continuous improvement efforts within intellectual property operations through standardization, automation, analytics, and process optimization.
• Ensure compliance with applicable intellectual property laws, regulations, and evolving legal requirements across jurisdictions.

Education & Stakeholder Engagement

• Build strong relationships across Eaton’s businesses and corporate functions.
• Develop and deliver executive, engineering, and business-focused training on intellectual property, trade secrets, innovation protection, artificial intelligence, software development, and related topics.
• Foster a culture of innovation, intellectual property awareness, and responsible technology development throughout the organization.

Eaton's technology journey: As Eaton accelerates its technology journey from digital enablement to AI-enabled enterprise transformation, the Assistant Chief IP Counsel plays a critical role in ensuring innovation is protected, scalable, and aligned with business strategy. This role partners closely with various leaders and innovators to harvest, identify, and protect high-value innovations, manage intellectual property risk, enable responsible adoption of emerging technologies, and help convert technical breakthroughs into sustainable competitive advantage. By combining legal, technical, and strategic expertise, the Assistant Chief IP Counsel helps ensure Eaton's investments in innovation, data, software, AI, and connected technologies create long-term value while safeguarding the company's intellectual assets and freedom to operate.

Qualifications:

Education level required

• Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school.

• Active license to practice law in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
• Undergraduate degree in engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, physics, chemistry, or other technical discipline.

Years and area of experience required

• Minimum of 15 years of experience in intellectual property law, including significant experience supporting innovation-intensive businesses.

Technical knowledge

• Registered U.S. Patent Attorney or equivalent patent qualification in a major jurisdiction.
• Experience managing patent portfolios, technology transactions, licensing, and intellectual property risk matters.
• Experience leading complex intellectual property issues within a multinational organization, major law firm, or combination thereof.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in engineering, science, technology, business, or intellectual property law.

• Experience supporting industrial, electrical, software, automation, digital, cybersecurity, AI, or connected-product businesses.
• Experience working as an IP attorney at a law firm and an industrial company preferred.
• Significant experience with patent portfolio management, freedom-to-operate analysis, licensing and monetization, trade secret programs, open-source software, AI governance, and IP due diligence.
• Demonstrated success leading global teams and managing outside counsel relationships.

Skills:

Soft skills

The successful candidate will demonstrate:

Think Big

• Develops enterprise-wide intellectual property strategies that create long-term competitive advantage.
• Anticipates emerging technology, legal, and market developments.

Act Boldly

• Makes informed decisions in ambiguous and rapidly evolving environments.
• Challenges conventional thinking and advances innovative solutions.

Win Together

• Builds trusted relationships across legal, engineering, R&D, product, technology, cybersecurity, and business teams.
• Influences without authority and drives alignment among diverse stakeholders.

Business Acumen

• Understands how intellectual property drives enterprise value, revenue growth, innovation, and market differentiation.
• Balances legal risk with commercial objectives.

Executive Presence

• Effectively communicates with executive leadership, boards, senior management, and technical audiences.
• Delivers clear, practical, and business-focused recommendations.

Additional Information:

All positions may require participation in video and in-person interviews as part of the hiring process. All candidates will be evaluated based on job-related competencies, and all candidates’ privacy rights and data security will be protected in accordance with applicable laws.

At Eaton, we strive to provide compensation and benefits that attract, engage, and retain the best talent. This includes competitive pay and a variety of benefit programs for eligible employees. The expected annual salary range for this role is $203000 - $297000 a year. This role is also eligible for a variable incentive program. Please note the salary information shown above is a general guideline only. Salaries are based upon candidate skills, experience, and qualifications, as well as market and business considerations.

We are committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities for all job applicants and employees. Employment decisions are based upon job-related reasons regardless of an applicant's race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, marital status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other status protected by law.

Eaton believes in second chance employment. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction history will be considered regardless of their arrest or conviction history, consistent with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the California Fair Chance Act and other local laws.

You do not need to disclose your conviction history or participate in a background check until a conditional job offer is made to you. After making a conditional offer and running a background check, if Eaton is concerned about conviction that is directly related to the job, you will be given the chance to explain the circumstances surrounding the conviction, provide mitigating evidence, or challenge the accuracy of the background report.

To request a disability-related reasonable accommodation to assist you in your job search, application, or interview process, please call us at 1-800-836-6345 to discuss your specific need. Only accommodation requests will be accepted by this phone number.

We know that good benefit programs are important to employees and their families. Eaton provides various Health and Welfare benefits as well as Retirement benefits, and several programs that provide for paid and unpaid time away from work. Click here for more detail: Eaton Benefits Overview. Please note that specific programs and options available to an employee may depend on eligibility factors such as geographic location, date of hire, and the applicability of collective bargaining agreements.