Lumenci is hiring a Director of Patent Litigation Consulting in the San Francisco Bay Area to lead our high-tech intellectual property practice on the West Coast. This is a people-management and delivery-leadership role: you will manage a team of technical consultants and IP experts, own program and project delivery across concurrent patent litigation and licensing matters, and set the quality standards behind our technical work product, including claim charts, source code review, reverse engineering, patent portfolio analysis, and expert report support.

Our client matters span software, telecommunications, semiconductors, and emerging technology sectors, including AI/ML, cloud infrastructure, consumer electronics, and medical devices. You are not expected to know all of it. We are looking for a technical consulting leader with deep expertise in at least one of these areas, proven experience managing and developing technical teams, and the executive presence to present complex findings to in-house counsel, litigators, and non-technical decision-makers.

About Lumenci  

Founded in 2018, Lumenci is a premier intellectual property consulting firm specializing in patent litigation, expert witness testimony, and patent monetization for leading corporations and global law firms operating across the software, telecommunications, semiconductors, and emerging technology sectors. 
A key part of Lumenci’s model is the integration of deep technical expertise with litigation strategy. Our teams support high-stakes disputes by developing technical narratives, performing rigorous analysis, and partnering with world-class expert witnesses whose testimony shapes case outcomes in courts and arbitration forums worldwide. 

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with offices in San Francisco, New York, and Gurugram, India, Lumenci delivers end-to-end support spanning technical analysis, expert strategy, valuation, and monetization execution. Our differentiated approach, which includes combining engineering depth, litigation experience, and operational rigor, has resulted in long-term partnerships with leading law firms and technology companies navigating complex IP disputes. Lumenci is backed by VSS Capital Partners (“VSS”) and Century Equity Partners (“CEP”). VSS is a private equity firm dedicated to investing in tech-enabled business services, healthcare, and education companies. Since 1987, VSS has managed eight private capital funds with aggregate committed capital of nearly $4 billion across 103 platform companies and over 600 add-on acquisitions.  

VSS’s investment in Lumenci was from VSS Structured Capital IV, L.P. (“VSS SC IV”), a $530 million fund that had its final closing in December 2022. CEP is a private equity firm headquartered in Boston, MA, that partners with companies seeking investments to support growth or fund acquisitions, partial buyouts, or recapitalization opportunities. 

Employment Type: Full-time, exempt
Work Arrangement: Remote (San Francisco Bay Area, CA)
Location: US
Reports To: Chief Delivery Officer
Travel: 15-25% (client sites, industry events)

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RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES

Team Leadership and People Management

• Lead, manage, and develop a team of technical consultants and IP experts, including direct reports and matrixed contributors across our US and India delivery teams.
• Own hiring for the practice: partner with People Operations on workforce planning, define role profiles, interview and select candidates, and onboard new consultants.
• Run the performance cycle for your team, including goal setting, regular one-on-ones, feedback, formal reviews, calibration, and compensation recommendations.
• Build individual development plans and career paths, mentoring consultants toward senior client-facing, expert-witness-adjacent, and practice-leadership roles.
• Coordinate training and enablement so consultants can move across matter types, technologies, and analytical methods.
• Foster a culture of innovation, technical excellence, and psychological safety, with high engagement and retention on your team.
• Address people and delivery issues early, partnering with People Operations on performance management when needed.

Program, Project, and Delivery Management

• Own delivery across a portfolio of concurrent client matters, including scoping, planning, budgeting, milestones, and on-time, on-budget completion.
• Manage staffing, resource allocation, and utilization across engagements, matching technical fit to matter requirements and balancing workload against deadlines.
• Identify and manage risks and dependencies across cross-functional, technical, financial, and legal workstreams, escalating early with options rather than surprises.
• Scope and price complex engagements, including large-scale data and source code review efforts, and manage change orders as matters evolve.
• Serve as the senior point of accountability on high-value, high-visibility matters, including fast-burn analyses with compressed litigation timelines.
• Track budget-to-actuals, margin, and utilization for the practice, and report on them to executive leadership.

Operating Standards and Best Practices

• Establish and enforce the practice's quality bar: review protocols, documentation standards, peer review, defensibility checks, and consistent work product across consultants.
• Build and codify repeatable methodologies, playbooks, templates, and internal training so outcomes do not depend on individual heroics.
• Drive continuous improvement in how the team works, including intake, workflow, time and capacity tracking, tooling, and knowledge management.
• Champion adoption of Lumenci's AI-enabled tooling and help shape internal tools and workflows based on what the delivery team actually needs.
• Partner with adjacent functions, including product, legal, finance, and People Operations, on cross-department initiatives and process standardization.

Client and Stakeholder Leadership

• Serve as a senior client relationship owner: run status and strategy conversations, manage expectations, and resolve escalations across multi-stakeholder engagements.
• Present technical and analytical findings in high-stakes settings to non-technical audiences, including executives, in-house counsel, litigators, and financial decision-makers.
• Advise clients and counsel on approach, feasibility, methodology, and trade-offs on complex technical matters.
• Support account growth organically through delivery quality by identifying follow-on work and expanded scope within existing relationships, and partnering with business development on new opportunities. Origination is a contribution to the role, not the core of it.
• Represent Lumenci at industry events, panels, and CLE programs as a practice expert.

Technical Direction

• Direct and quality-control technical work product, including claim charts, source code review, reverse engineering, technical due diligence, patent portfolio analysis, damages-supporting analysis, and expert report support.
• Develop technical narratives that connect rigorous analysis to litigation strategy, and shape how findings are presented in court, arbitration, and settlement contexts.
• Partner with testifying expert witnesses: brief them, direct the analysis underlying their reports, and prepare supporting technical exhibits.
• Bring deep expertise in at least one high-tech domain and the judgment to lead teams working in others. Our client matters span a wide range of technology, and no one is expected to know all of it. Examples of the areas our work touches include:
• Telecommunications and wireless: 3GPP, ETSI, and IEEE standards; 3G, 4G LTE, 5G, and 6G; Open RAN, private 5G, IoT, and edge computing.
• Semiconductors and hardware: chip architecture and design, electronic design automation (EDA), advanced packaging, memory, imaging, and display.
• AI/ML, cloud, and data center: model architectures and training pipelines, AI accelerators, distributed systems, virtualization, networking, and cybersecurity.
• Software and platforms: enterprise and SaaS architectures, fintech and e-commerce systems, APIs, open-source and licensing models.
• Consumer, automotive, and medical technology: devices and wearables, ADAS and EV systems, medical devices, and digital health.
• Stay current on technology and IP trends in your area of depth and translate them into practical guidance for the team and clients.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

Management

• Demonstrated people-management experience: direct reports, hiring, performance reviews, coaching, and career development. This is a required competency, not a preference.
• Strong program management and project management skills across concurrent, interdependent workstreams, including planning, scoping, budgeting, resourcing, and dependency and risk management.
• Experience leading distributed or cross-time-zone teams, and allocating people across a shared pool of resources.
• Track record of growing and retaining technical talent, including promoting consultants into more senior roles.
• Experience building process, standards, or internal products that improved how a team operated, not just what it delivered.
• Comfort with management tooling and operating rhythms, including project tracking (Jira, Confluence, or equivalent), utilization and capacity reporting, and structured status reporting to leadership.

Technical Expertise

• Deep working knowledge of at least one high-tech domain, with the analytical range to direct work in adjacent areas. Breadth across all listed technologies is not expected.
• Familiarity with patent litigation and IP workflows, including infringement and invalidity analysis, claim charts, source code review, expert reports, inter partes review (IPR) and post-grant proceedings, patent licensing and monetization, standard essential patents (SEPs) and FRAND commitments, and trade secret matters.
• Hands-on analytical foundation, including comfort with source code, data analysis, and AI-assisted analytical tooling, sufficient to direct and quality-control technical work.

Consulting and Communication

• Strong client management and stakeholder engagement skills across legal, technical, and executive audiences.
• Ability to simplify highly technical concepts for non-technical audiences, including executives, counsel, judges, and juries.
• Excellent technical writing and verbal communication skills for reports, whitepapers, expert materials, and legal documentation.
• Highly analytical approach to problem-solving across a wide range of technologies and business situations.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics, or a related technical field. Advanced degree (MS, PhD, MBA) or JD is a plus.
• 10+ years of combined experience across technical consulting, IP strategy, patent litigation support, licensing, or patent law, including senior client-facing delivery leadership.
• 5+ years of direct people-management experience leading technical or professional-services teams, with responsibility for hiring, performance, and development.
• Demonstrated ownership of program or portfolio delivery, including multiple concurrent projects, budget accountability, and resourcing decisions.
• Backgrounds we value: IP litigation consulting and expert-services firms, technical analysis and digital forensics consultancies, law firm IP practices, in-house IP or licensing teams, registered patent attorneys or agents, and licensing or patent-monetization organizations.
• Prior experience with patent litigation, licensing programs, expert witness support, or large-scale data and source code review is a significant plus.
• Registration with the USPTO, an active bar license, PMP, or Certified ScrumMaster are pluses, not requirements.

Why you will love working for Lumenci: 

Be Part of a Global Team: Joining Lumenci means joining a diverse and globally distributed team. You'll collaborate with talented individuals from different backgrounds and cultures, bringing unique perspectives to every project.

Growth and Development Opportunities: At Lumenci, we believe in recognizing and rewarding merit. We offer opportunities for merit-based promotions, allowing you to advance your career based on your performance, contributions, and dedication. We are committed to supporting your professional growth and development, providing the resources and mentorship needed to excel in your role and take on new challenges.

Benefits & Total Rewards 

• Comprehensive Health & Well-being: We offer robust medical, dental, and vision insurance options that include significant company contributions toward employee premiums to support the health of our "Luminaries" and their families. 
• Retirement Strategy: Lumenci provides a 401(k) program with a competitive employer-matching contribution, enabling employees to build long-term financial security. 
• Performance-Based Incentives: Our total cash compensation includes a variable pay component designed to reward both individual achievements (KRAs) and overall company success. 
• Time Off & Leaves: We prioritize work-life harmony through a balanced leave policy that includes accrued Paid Time Off (PTO), designated company holidays, and additional "floating" holidays for personal or cultural significance. 
• Holistic Wellness Support: Beyond standard medical care, we provide dedicated Wellness Leave to address both physical health and emotional well-being, as well as paid leave for significant life events like bereavement and parental bonding. 
• Culture of Autonomy & Growth: Employees benefit from a flexible, remote-first work environment that favors autonomy and provides structured support for ongoing professional development and career advancement.  

Compensation and Pay Transparency 

The good faith base salary range Lumenci reasonably expects to pay for this position upon hire is $192,000 - $260,000 per year for candidates based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Actual base salary within this range will depend on job-related factors including experience, technical depth, leadership scope, and internal equity.

In addition to base salary, this role is eligible for an annual performance bonus and Lumenci's benefits program, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, 401(k), and paid time off.

Salary History: In compliance with applicable laws, Lumenci does not request, require, or rely on an applicant's prior salary history when determining a starting salary or during any part of the hiring process.

Equal Opportunity Employer: Lumenci is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.  

Accommodation: If you require a reasonable accommodation to complete this application or participate in the interview process, please let your recruiter know.  

Employment Relationship: Nothing in this job description creates or is intended to create a contract of employment for any specific period of time. Employment with Lumenci, if offered, is on an at-will basis and may be terminated by either the employee or Lumenci at any time, with or without cause and with or without notice, subject to applicable law.