We're Cruise, a self-driving service designed for the cities we love.

We’re building the world’s most advanced, self-driving vehicles to safely connect people to the places, things, and experiences they care about. We believe self-driving vehicles will help save lives, reshape cities, give back time in transit, and restore freedom of movement for many.

Cruisers have the opportunity to grow and develop while learning from leaders at the forefront of their fields. With a culture of internal mobility, there's an opportunity to thrive in a variety of disciplines. This is a place for dreamers and doers to succeed.

If you are looking to play a part in making a positive impact in the world by advancing the revolutionary work of self-driving cars, join us.

About the Role:

Cruise is looking for a highly motivated team player to serve as Staff Counsel, Intellectual Property. While technical skills, experience, and knowledge are vital requisites of this role, the best candidates are personable and organized and will demonstrate the ability to act with efficiency, flexibility, and creativity for the Cruise community!

What you’ll be doing:

• Support Cruise’s patent program by rallying engineering teams through hands-on learning about their work, inspiring them as inventors, and providing legal guidance so their ideas find success in patenting
• Strategically facilitate patenting in key areas (e.g., software robotics) by aligning with engineering leadership and through mastery understanding of autonomous vehicle technology at Cruise and in the industry, patent landscaping, and competitive awareness
• Manage invention intake, review, and decision communication/feedback to inventors
• Supervise outside counsel patent preparation and prosecution and assist in managing such costs
• Support patent strategies on externally-facing protections
• Anticipate future legal issues and needs; proactively formulate and execute solutions to address these areas

What you must have:

• Patent Attorney, admitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office and at least one state
• Law Degree and Undergraduate or Graduate Degree in computer science, electrical engineering, or other related technical field
• 9+ years legal experience
• Both law firm and in-house experience
• Patent preparation and prosecution expertise
• Experience managing significant patent portfolios
• Experience in open source, patent litigation, pools, transactions, marketplace, or standard-essential patents
• Strong intuition for protecting against potential legal and operational disruptions
• Understanding or propensity for understanding autonomous vehicle technology

Why Cruise?

• Our benefits are here to support the whole you:
  • Competitive salary and benefits 
  • 401(k) Cruise matching program 
  • Medical / dental / vision, AD+D and Life
  • One Medical membership
  • Flexible vacation and company paid holidays
  • Healthy meals and snacks provided for non-remote employees
  • Paid parental leave
  • Fertility Benefits 
  • Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, subsidized by Cruise
  • Flexible Spending Account 
  • Monthly wellness stipend
  • Pre-tax Commuter Benefit Plan for non-remote employees

• We’re Remote Friendly
  • We believe that your value to the team can be provided at a Cruise office or from the comfort of your home. Depending on your function, enjoy the flexibility of remote work and join our growing community of remote employees in the continental United States.

• We’re Integrated
  • Through our partnerships with General Motors and Honda, we are the only self-driving company with fully integrated manufacturing at scale.

• We’re Funded
  • GM, Honda, Microsoft, SoftBank, & T. Rowe Price, have invested billions in Cruise. Their backing for our technology demonstrates their confidence in our progress, team, and vision and makes us one of the leading autonomous vehicle organizations in the industry. Our deep resources greatly accelerate our operating speed.

• We’re Independent
  • We have our own governance, board of directors, equity, and investors. Our independence allows us to not just work on the edge of technology, but also define it.

• We’re Vested
  • You won’t just own your work here, you’ll have the potential to own equity in Cruise, too. We are competing in a market that is projected to grow exponentially, which gives our company valuation room to grow.

Cruise LLC is an equal opportunity employer. We strive to create a supportive and inclusive workplace where contributions are valued and celebrated, and our employees thrive by being themselves and are inspired to do the best work of their lives. 

We seek applicants of all backgrounds and identities, across race, color, ethnicity, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or parental status, or disability. Applicants will not be discriminated against based on these or other protected categories or social identities. Cruise will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, in accordance with applicable laws.

Cruise is committed to the full inclusion of all applicants. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process please let our recruiting team know or email HR@getcruise.com.

We proactively work to design hiring processes that promote equity and inclusion while mitigating bias. To help us track the effectiveness and inclusivity of our recruiting efforts, please consider answering the following demographic questions. Answering these questions is entirely voluntary. Your answers to these questions will not be shared with the hiring decision makers and will not impact the hiring decision in any way. Instead, Cruise will use this information not only to comply with any government reporting obligations but also to track our progress toward meeting our diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging objectives.

Note to Recruitment Agencies: Cruise does not accept unsolicited agency resumes. Furthermore, Cruise does not pay placement fees for candidates submitted by any agency other than its approved partners.