Director / Senior Director, Intellectual Property

About the role

insitro is a physical AI company dedicated to unlocking causal human biology and accelerating the delivery of better medicines to patients. Our unique Virtual Human™ platform identifies novel, high-impact genetic intervention points, which our TherML™ platform translates into therapeutics-whether small molecules, biologics, or oligos. With multiple programs in metabolic disease and neuroscience advancing toward the clinic, and our first IND submission slated for the second half of this year, we are at a pivotal inflection point. This role adds senior in-house legal capacity to protect insitro's science and pipeline. Reporting to the VP, Head of Intellectual Property, you will lead patent preparation, prosecution, and freedom-to-operate analyses across therapeutic programs and the machine-learning platform. You will also help design and implement IP strategy that keeps pace with the legal developments shaping AI-native pharmaceutical companies-translating shifts in the law quickly into filings that strengthen insitro's scientific, competitive, and IP position. Based in South San Francisco, this is a hybrid role with three days onsite and two days remote.

Responsibilities

• Patent Preparation & Prosecution
• Draft and Prosecute: Prepare and prosecute U.S. and foreign patent applications across the therapeutic pipeline and machine-learning platform
• Ownership & Assignment: Manage inventorship, ownership, and assignment matters across jurisdictions
• IP Strategy & Portfolio Management
• Shape the Strategy: Help design, implement, and evolve IP strategy and asset lifecycle management in step with the rapidly shifting legal landscape for AI-native pharma
• Competitive Intelligence: Monitor patent filings, publications, and pipeline developments of competitors and translate complex landscape data into strategic recommendations for corporate strategy and business development
• Trademark & Trade Secret: Manage the trademark portfolio and support trade-secret strategy and protection
• Risk & Transactions
• FTO & Counseling: Conduct and lead freedom-to-operate, patentability, validity, and infringement analyses, and counsel scientific and business colleagues on data-use agreements and use of open-source software, AI models, and third-party datasets
• Due Diligence: Support IP due diligence for partnerships, collaborations, and financing transactions
• Invention Capture & Operations
• Embed with R&D: Identify and protect patentable innovations by partnering with research teams to establish systematic invention capture workflows and reviewing upcoming publications to prevent premature disclosure
• Outside Counsel & Budget: Manage outside counsel, foreign associates, and the IP budget; prepare IP strategy and portfolio reviews for leadership
• Docket Discipline: Maintain docket and information-disclosure-statement (IDS) discipline in partnership with the IP paralegal
• About You
• Experience & Qualifications
• Legal Credentials: J.D., active state bar membership, and USPTO registration (patent bar); this is an attorney role
• Scientific Foundation: Ph.D. in a life-science field
• Prosecution Depth: 8-10+ years as a patent attorney with substantial pharmaceutical/biopharma patent preparation and prosecution experience (in-house or firm), including written-description and enablement strategy
• Both Sides of the Table: Experience on the innovator side (offensive claiming and moat-building) and the fast-follower side (FTO analysis and navigation, licensing, and secondary patents)
• Full IP Toolkit: Breadth across patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyright, with exposure to handling IP in partnerships, licensing, and business transactions being a plus
• Subject Matter Expertise: Deep expertise in nucleic-acid and/or antibody therapeutics and working knowledge of AI/ML methods and their application in drug discovery are both pluses
• Technical Skills: Comfort using- or eagerness to learn - AI tools and workflows
• Core Competencies
• Strategic Translator: You convert shifts in patent law and the competitive landscape into concrete filing decisions that move fast enough to matter
• Embedded Partner: You build trust with scientists and engineers, making invention capture feel like a natural part of how R&D works rather than a legal obligation
• Operational Owner: You run a tight ship - docket, budget, outside counsel, and IDS discipline - without losing sight of the bigger strategic picture
• Compensation & Benefits at insitro
• This role is eligible for participation in our Annual Performance Bonus Plan (based on company targets by role level and annual company performance) and our Equity Incentive Plan

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