Principal Corporate Counsel: Trade Secrets, Copyrights, and AI in IP

Cisco•Mclean, VA

1d•$202,200 - $331,000•Hybrid

About The Position

This role is built around a genuine legal problem: the IP frameworks that governed technology companies for the past thirty years do not cleanly map onto how AI-era innovation works. Patents remain important, but inventorship rules are being tested across the world, copyright matters more than it ever has but the rules on AI-generated output are still being written, and trade secrets may become the dominant protection strategy for proprietary systems - but only if the program is built and maintained with rigor. In practice, you will lead the IP aspects of Cisco's AI legal & governance strategies, evolve and run Cisco's copyright program in the AI era, evolve and run Cisco's trade secret program as a genuine enterprise function, work with the patent team to advise them on AI-specific patent-related strategies, work with the AI legal team to audit and run AI vendor IP exposure, and serve as the IP team's legal intelligence function on AI.

Requirements

JD and active bar membership: J.D. from an accredited law school with active bar membership in at least one U.S. jurisdiction
10+ years IP legal experience: Minimum of 10 years of intellectual property legal experience, with at least 5 years focused specifically on technology-based IP matters, including copyright ownership and/ trade secret protection.
AI & IP proficiency: Deep working knowledge of copyright and/or trade secrets as applied to AI-generated works.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience advising on copyright licensing for software and/or AI-generated content at scale, including SaaS platform output, API-delivered content, or enterprise software products where the line between human-authored and AI-generated deliverables is blurred and legally material
International IP exposure relevant to AI (e.g., working knowledge of EU AI Act transparency obligations and their tension with trade secret protection).
Experience structuring or leading a trade secret litigation matter or pre-litigation investigation, including familiarity with trade secret identification for discovery purposes, reasonable-measures evidence, and the causal nexus standards courts are applying to AI-related misappropriation claims.
Track record of credible, concise executive communication on IP risk; ability to translate genuinely unsettled legal doctrine into business-relevant mentorship for executives and engineers without over-hedging or misrepresenting the state of the law, and with proven ability to defend a position under skeptical questioning.

Responsibilities

Lead the IP aspects of Cisco's AI legal & governance strategies: the policies, documentation standards, and invention bring together workflows that resolve whether AI-assisted innovations produce enforceable patents or evidentiary gaps. This includes updating mentorship on human conception documentation and partnering cross functionally with other subject-matter guides in Legal to establish the approved-tool standards to ensure IP protection and IP risk mitigation related to how engineers use AI in invention development.
Evolve and run Cisco's copyright program in the AI era — both the traditional function and the emerging questions: what Cisco can own in AI-generated technical and creative output, how to structure human authorship records to improve protectability, and how to lead the downstream copyright liability composed by foundation model training data in Cisco's vendor stack.
Evolve and run Cisco's trade secret program as a genuine enterprise function; not just a policy document. That means: identifying the best methodology and systems to classify our proprietary assets that deserve trade secret protection; detailing the reasonable protective measures required to establish and defend that protection; and craft the legal and technical governance that makes the program defensible in litigation.
Work with the patent team to advise them on AI-specific patent-related strategies, including AI-assisted inventorship documentation and any inter-jurisdictional differences that affect how we run patent protection.
Work with the AI legal team to audit and run AI vendor IP exposure, including being the IP critical issue point for AI-related agreements and establishing the IP contractual standards that Cisco requires before deploying AI tools at scale.
Serve as the IP team's legal intelligence function on AI: translating USPTO mentorship, Copyright Office reports, Federal Circuit decisions, and legislative developments in the US and abroad into timely executive-ready mentorship.

Benefits

medical, dental and vision insurance
a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution
paid parental leave
short and long-term disability coverage
basic life insurance
10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees (non-exempt)
flexible vacation time off program (exempt)
80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
annual bonuses (non-sales roles)
performance-based incentive pay (sales roles)