Head of Intellectual Property
US$270,000 – US$330,000 / yr base salary
Posted 7 Jul 2026
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 10+ yrs
- Management level
- People management
- Employment
- On-Site
- Contract
- Full-time
| Base salary | US$270,000 – US$330,000 / yr |
|---|
Field of studyComputer Science, Engineering (or related)
Study levelBachelor's
About 1X
We're building humanoid robots that work in home - doing the chores, handling the tasks, and giving people their time back. Simple, but it's not.
To do this right, we have to solve robotics, AI, manufacturing - at the same time, at scale, in a form factor that has to be safe enough to live with your family. If you're inspired by this, you'll thrive here. We've been at this since 2014 and we're at the point where the hard problems are behind us and the hard work is in front of us.
NEO is our flagship - a home robot designed to move, learn, and operate in the real world alongside real people. We're not demoing it - we're shipping it. We're excited to meet you, if this excites you.
If you've spent your career working on problems that matter and want to see them actually reach the world - this is that moment. We're scaling, we're hiring with intention, and we need people who want to build something that will genuinely change how humans spend their time - safely creating abundance for all.
About the Team
Our Legal team protects and compounds the value of everything 1X invents - the robotics, AI, and hardware breakthroughs that make a safe home humanoid possible. As our first dedicated intellectual property hire, you will stand up the function from the ground up, do the work hands-on, and build a team only as our milestones demand it. Few companies offer the chance to build an intellectual property portfolio this foundational, this early, in a field this new.
Your Charter
The mission of this role is to build and execute 1X's intellectual property strategy from the ground up - turning our breakthroughs in robotics and embodied AI into a defensible portfolio of patents and trade secrets that protects our freedom to operate, deters competitors, and compounds enterprise value as we ship NEO at scale. As our first intellectual property hire, you will do the work yourself today and build the team as our milestones warrant it.
Key Outcomes
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Own and execute a company-wide patent roadmap that prioritizes 1X's most defensible and commercially critical inventions across robotics, AI, and hardware
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Drive invention capture by embedding directly with engineering, AI, and hardware teams to surface patentable technology early and convert it into high-quality filed patents
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Build a portfolio that protects 1X's freedom to operate and creates leverage against competitors, measured by filing velocity, grant rate, and coverage of our core technology
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Identify and recommend strategic patents to acquire - both offensively and defensively - through landscape and competitive analysis, and lead diligence on those acquisitions