Director, IP Strategy & Technology Intelligence

Agilent Technologies•Santa Clara, CA

About The Position

The Director, IP Strategy & Technology Intelligence translates Agilent’s scientific and technical innovation into competitive advantage, commercial value, and informed growth choices. The role aligns strategy and technology intelligence with enterprise research priorities, business objectives, technology roadmaps, and unmet customer needs. Reporting to the VP, Research in the Office of the CTO, the Director partners closely with Agilent’s Legal team and connects researchers, technology leaders, and business stakeholders to shape innovation and IP priorities. The Director supports enterprise strategy and governance, including translating company priorities into innovation and portfolio priorities, coordinating annual IP strategy reviews, and establishing governance for emerging inventions, strategic coverage, portfolio gaps, and investment or pruning opportunities. The role engages scientists and engineers to identify commercially meaningful innovations, facilitates invention assessments, and recommends portfolio priorities using customer value, strategic relevance, competitive differentiation, technology maturity, business priorities, and cost drivers. The position conducts competitive landscaping, technology scouting, market and scientific surveillance, and analysis of emerging technologies. It frames opportunities by assessing technology maturity, market attractiveness, customer pain points, adoption barriers, and strategic fit, then translates findings into recommendations for research investments, technology roadmaps, and product-platform choices. The Director also supports technical risk assessments led by IP Counsel and communicates insights to business, Research, Strategy and Corporate Development, and CTO leadership. The role helps translate strategic growth priorities into technology and screening criteria for potential acquisitions, investments, partnerships, and licensing opportunities. It supports evaluation of external technologies and ecosystem partners, including universities, startups, research institutes, and suppliers, and assesses technical fit, IP position, collaboration models, and paths to commercialization. The Director builds strategic and competitive-intelligence capabilities across Agilent’s global scientific and engineering communities and integrates technology intelligence and external-innovation considerations into research planning, stage-gate and technology-review processes, and portfolio decisions.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, chemistry, physics, life sciences, computer science, or a related technical discipline.
10+ years of relevant experience spanning R&D, technology strategy, competitive or technology intelligence, product strategy, external innovation, or corporate development.
Strong working knowledge of scientific and IP information sources, portfolio analytics, and product lifecycles.
Ability to understand complex technologies and connect technical differentiation to customer needs and commercial opportunities.
Experience supporting cross-functional evaluation of external technologies, strategic partnerships, licensing opportunities, investments, or acquisitions.
Strong analytical judgment, written and oral executive communication, facilitation, and stakeholder-management skills in a global matrixed organization.

Nice To Haves

Advanced technical degree; MBA or formal training in strategy, finance, economics, data analytics, or intellectual property.
Experience in analytical instrumentation, laboratory technologies, life sciences, diagnostics, or other regulated scientific-technology industries.
Familiarity with one or more relevant technology areas, including chromatography, mass spectrometry, spectroscopy, cell imaging, flow cytometry, genomics, laboratory automation, or scientific software.
Experience supporting licensing, technology transfer, strategic partnerships, or acquisition due diligence.
Experience building invention programs and portfolio review processes within a global technology organization.
Experience with patent and non-patent literature databases, market-intelligence sources, portfolio analytics, visualization, and AI-assisted research methods, with appropriate validation and governance.

Responsibilities

Support and drive enterprise strategy in partnership with Research, business and technology leaders, Legal/IP Counsel, and Business Intellectual Property Coordinators.
Translate enterprise strategy, technology roadmaps, product plans, and business priorities into actionable innovation, protection, and portfolio priorities.
Coordinate the annual IP strategy review and establish a regular governance cadence for emerging inventions, strategic coverage, portfolio gaps, and investment or pruning opportunities.
Partner with Legal/IP Counsel to evaluate IP protection approaches and develop decision frameworks that balance customer value, technical differentiation, strategic relevance, geographic coverage, timing, and lifecycle cost.
Engage scientists and engineers to identify innovations with meaningful technical differentiation and commercial potential.
Facilitate invention assessments with Research, business stakeholders, IPCs, and IP Counsel.
Recommend portfolio priorities based on customer value, strategic relevance, competitive differentiation, business priorities, technology maturity, and cost drivers.
Use portfolio analytics and external intelligence to identify white space, concentration risk, and opportunities.
Conduct competitive landscaping, technology scouting, market and scientific surveillance, and analysis of emerging technologies.
Develop repeatable methods for opportunity framing, including technology maturity, market attractiveness, customer pain points, adoption barriers, and strategic fit.
Translate intelligence findings into recommendations for research investments, technology roadmaps, and product-platform choices.
Provide technical analysis and coordinate researcher input for risk assessments led by IP Counsel.
Communicate concise, grounded insights to business, Research, Strategy and Corporate Development, and CTO leadership.
Help translate strategic growth priorities into technology and screening criteria for potential acquisitions, investments, partnerships, and licensing opportunities.
Support early-stage opportunity evaluation through technology landscaping, target and competitor mapping, technical differentiation assessment, and strategic-fit analysis.
Partner with business leaders and Legal to evaluate licensing, technology transfer, and strategic collaborations.
Support evaluation of universities, startups, research institutes, suppliers, and other ecosystem partners, including technical fit, IP position, collaboration model, and path to commercialization.
Build strategic and competitive-intelligence capabilities across Agilent’s global scientific and engineering communities in partnership with Legal and business leadership.
Support integration of technology intelligence and external-innovation considerations into research planning, stage-gate and technology-review processes, and portfolio decisions.
Build trusted networks across R&D, product management, marketing, Legal, Strategy and Corporate Development, Finance, and external experts.