Patent Agent / Patent Engineer (Robotics)

Job Description

The Job:

Tutor Intelligence is a robotics research and deployment company, innovating across the full robotics stack– hardware, software systems, applications, machine learning, and more.

We generate patentable inventions faster than we can keep up with, and we are hiring our first in-house patent engineer to own the portfolio.

The Company:

We believe general-purpose, generally-intelligent robots will be built in our lifetimes. Robots will work in our factories, move our goods, walk on our streets and eventually be in our homes. To build that future, research and deployment must work in lockstep: real-world operation must make the technology better and better technology must make deployment easier. We’re looking for the thinkers, builders, and researchers who want to be part of that loop.

As an AI robotics company that deploys its inventions directly into the facilities that need them, on state-of-the-art hardware, every line of code written at Tutor has a direct impact on the global, physical economy.

Our Culture:

We believe that something truly special can happen when talented, motivated people work together; at Tutor, every member of our team is empowered to have real impact in everything that they do. We’re characterized by both technical excellence and next-level collaboration and respect.

Responsibilities:

• Knowing what to file: You stay close to what engineering is building, work out which of it is worth patenting, and get it filed in time.
• The filings: You write our patent applications: claims, specification, figures. Outside counsel reviews and prosecutes them.
• The portfolio: Deadlines, fees, counsel spend, and where every matter stands. You keep it in order and flag what needs a decision.
• Outside IP questions: Diligence, customers, partners. You know the portfolio well enough to answer.
• Strategy with founders and leadership: You identify what we need to know in order to make sound decisions about what, when, and how we file, and you make those choices with us.

Pre-Requisites:

A JD is unnecessary, and applicants need not be registered patent agents, though applicants with either or both of these qualifications are more than welcome.

The strongest candidates are engineers first: current on the cutting edge of robotics and physical AI, credible in a technical review with our researchers, experienced in both patent drafting and working with counsel, and able to operate with autonomy and conviction in this role.

• 2+ years drafting patent applications in robotics, mechatronics, controls, computer vision, or machine learning, with a body of applications you personally drafted
• BS or MS in mechanical engineering, EE, CS, or robotics, with enough depth to read our code, learn our systems, and capture what is novel about them
• The ability to pull invention out of busy engineers without becoming a tax on their time
• Precise technical writing, and comfort being the person the record depends on
• Judgment about what deserves protection, what’s a trade secret, and what to let go

Nice to Have:

• Experience at a hardware or robotics startup where the portfolio was still being built
• Experience managing an outside firm as the client, on scope, quality, and spend

Logistics

Onsite in Watertown, MA. The robots and the engineers are here.