Sr Mgr, IP Policy Ops Lead

eBay•Austin, TX

1d•$150,000 - $175,000•Hybrid

About The Position

At eBay, we protect intellectual property rights while helping buyers and sellers participate in a trusted global marketplace. We work to keep the marketplace safe, fair, and easy to use for customers, sellers, rights owners, and partners. The Senior Manager, Intellectual Property Policy Operations Lead will set the direction for eBay’s global IP policy operations, including copyright, trademark, design rights, brand protection, rights owner reporting, repeat infringement risk enforcement quality and support our Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program. This leader will manage a team of Policy Managers and Policy Specialists who turn IP risk, legal requirements, marketplace trends, and customer needs into clear policies, practical enforcement standards, and measurable results. We are looking for a leader who can make good decisions in complex situations, explain policy choices clearly, and help teams move from issue identification to action. This role works closely with Legal, Product, Engineering, Customer Service, Analytics, and Operations to make sure our IP policies are clear, scalable, measurable, and ready to support modern enforcement tools. This is an opportunity to lead a high-impact policy area at the center of marketplace trust!

Requirements

10+ years of experience in intellectual property, trust and safety, ecommerce policy, platform governance, legal operations, risk, or compliance.
Led managers, senior individual contributors, policy experts, or domain specialists in a global environment.
Understand IP enforcement, including trademarks, copyright, counterfeit-adjacent risk, rights owner reporting, notice and takedown, repeat abuse, and seller remediation.
Ability to turn complex legal, policy, operational, and data inputs into clear strategy, practical requirements, and action.
Communicate clearly with senior leaders and cross-functional partners.
Use sound judgment, data, and customer impact to make decisions.
Ability to influence without relying on authority, and help teams align around what needs to happen next.
Dedication to working our Hybrid Model with 3 days per week onsite at our Austin, TX office.
7+ years of experience in intellectual property compliance
Outstanding communication skills – oral and written, including ability to deliver compelling presentations to internal and external groups
Experience, preferably in ecommerce, in the areas of policy, program management and/or strategy development
Familiarity with AI tools and an AI-first approach, with a demonstrated ability to harness technology to improve insight, execution, and decision-making.
Analytic and strategy development skills including expert Excel (pivot tables, advance functions, statistics) and PowerPoint skills; Superior skills in SQL coding and database query (e.g., SQL) and understanding of data warehouse architecture are required
A willingness to challenge existing approaches and ability to drive positive culture changes
Practiced at solutions design with an ability to think holistically about the impact that any changes will have on both eBay’s buyers and sellers
Ability to build credibility with partners
Outstanding personal initiative, a “can-do” spirit
BS/BA degree in related field required; Masters or MBA degree preferred
Degrees in business or analytics preferred
Work experience in consulting, strategy development, or analytics preferred

Responsibilities

Lead eBay’s global IP policy operations strategy and guide the team responsible for policy intent, risk assessment, enforcement planning, and ongoing improvement.
Identify emerging IP issues, rights owner concerns, regulatory changes, seller behavior patterns, enforcement gaps, appeal trends, and customer impact.
Set priorities, clarify decisions, remove blockers, raise quality standards, and build consistent ways of documenting policies, requirements, controls, and decision frameworks.
Make policies easier for sellers, rights owners, and internal teams to understand and apply.
Use enforcement outcomes, appeal data, false positive and false negative signals, seller impact, rights owner reports, and operational results to improve how we work.
Share clear recommendations with senior leaders on IP risk, enforcement health, performance, and where we need to act next.
Represent IP policy operations in governance forums, planning discussions, and major marketplace initiatives.
Partner with Legal and Regulatory teams on changing obligations, litigation risk, and external expectations while balancing customer trust, seller fairness, rights owner protection, marketplace growth, and compliance.