Program Manager, IP Operations (SW and Tools)

Qualcomm • San Diego, CA

1d

About The Position

Qualcomm is an international leader in driving innovation and developing intellectual property. The Intellectual Property Department within the Legal function has an opportunity in its Operations team for a Software Program Manager focused on AI Software and Tools. This position plays a crucial role in defining, governing, and delivering the department’s AI tools roadmap, from concept through launch and end of life.
The role is designed for a technically fluent program manager who excels at cross-functional orchestration. The individual will partner closely with IP stakeholders (attorneys, engineers, operations, and department leads) and IT delivery teams to translate business needs into clear requirements, prioritize a portfolio of AI use cases, and drive predictable execution using plans of record, risk management, stakeholder alignment, and outcome tracking.
This position requires familiarity with LLM-enabled solution concepts, and common limitations, to effectively scope use cases, set stakeholder expectations, and ensure that appropriate governance and controls are in place. The emphasis is not on model tuning or deep technical evaluation, but on delivery of AI-enabled tools in a sophisticated IP Legal and specifically IP environment.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
• 2+ years of Program Management or related work experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, information systems, computer science, or related field.
• 5+ years of program management, product management, or software delivery experience, driving cross-functional execution from initiation through delivery.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled software concepts, including LLM-enabled workflows and common limitations and risks, sufficient to support scoping, governance, and stakeholder expectation management.
• Demonstrated experience developing and managing plans of record, including schedules, milestones, deliverables, dependencies, and risk mitigation.
• Demonstrated ability to translate stakeholder needs into clear requirements and coordinate effectively with engineering and IT delivery teams to deliver solutions.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with demonstrated ability to convey complex program status, tradeoffs, and AI-related considerations to audiences with mixed technical depth, including attorneys, operations, IT, and leadership.
• Strong analytical thinking and structured prioritization skills to balance value, risk, feasibility, dependencies, and change management while leading a multi-stakeholder roadmap.
• Demonstrated ability to operate in ambiguity and create execution structure through plans of record, stakeholder cadence, risk tracking, and decision discipline.
• Proven ability to influence without authority in a matrixed environment, build alignment, manage expectation resets, and keep delivery on track.
• Ability to support multiple concurrent initiatives with competing priorities and short deadlines while maintaining quality, clarity, and predictable delivery outcomes.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in engineering, computer science, information systems, or related field.
• Prior experience in Intellectual Property, including working knowledge of the patent lifecycle and prosecution workflows across U.S. and foreign jurisdictions.
• Experience delivering AI-enabled tools or automation programs in an enterprise setting, with emphasis on operationalization and adoption.
• 7+ years of program management or related work experience, including experience presenting to and influencing senior leadership.
• Experience working in a large, matrixed organization and driving adoption of shared tools across multiple stakeholder groups with differing incentives and constraints.

Responsibilities

• Own the IP AI Software and Tools roadmap by managing project intake, prioritizing initiatives, and delivering on them.
• Lead cross-functional discovery and requirements definition with IP attorneys, engineers and operations, to convert business needs into comprehensive requirements and measurable success criteria.
• Develop and execute plan of record for assigned initiatives, including schedules, milestones, resourcing assumptions, key risks, and decision points.
• Orchestrate delivery with IT by clarifying scope, coordinating integration requirements and managing tradeoffs (features, schedule, cost).
• Operationalize governance for AI tools in partnership with appropriate stakeholders by defining and maintaining expectations for guardrails, policies and human oversight touch points.
• Use LLM and GenAI familiarity to set expectations on common risks (hallucinations and sensitive data exposure) and ensure the right oversight and mitigations are built into delivery plans.
• Drive launch readiness and adoption by owning rollout plans, stakeholder communications, enablement materials and training coordination.
• Define and report KPIs for AI tool impact (for example adoption, cycle-time improvements, quality indicators, and cost avoidance or savings where applicable) and provide regular leadership updates through dashboards, reports, and presentations.
• Maintain working knowledge of IP processes, data, and tools relevant to the IP lifecycle and identify opportunities where AI-enabled tooling can improve throughput, quality, and operational efficiency.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level