(Senior) Manager, Intellectual Property & Innovation Culture

Role description summary

The Manager, Intellectual Property & Innovation Culture is a strategic leadership role that plays a pivotal part in advancing SES’ evolution as a technology-driven, innovation-led organization. The role is accountable for translating corporate strategy, long-term technology ambitions, and executive priorities into a living, enterprise-wide culture of innovation that is understood, adopted, and sustained across the company,

Operating at the intersection of strategy, technology and people, the role shapes how innovation is experienced in practice – turning high-level strategic intent into concrete behaviors, engagement models, and participation at scale. It ensures that innovation is not confined to processes or functions, but embedded into everyday decision-making, engineering excellence, and commercial thinking across geographies.

The role acts as a trusted interface between senior leadership and the broader organization, sensing cultural maturity, identifying friction points, and proactively shaping interventions that reinforce SES’ strategic goals. Through close engagement with executive leadership, including the CEO, the role helps articulate, reinforce, and evolve SES’ innovation narrative – ensuring consistency between strategic ambition and cultural reality.

Alongside this strategic cultural mandate, the role retains full ownership of SES’ global intellectual property portfolio, ensuring that innovation energy generated across the organization is systematically captured, protected, and aligned with long-term value creation.  Acting as the organization’s IP authority, the role provides strategic guidance on competitive positioning, risk mitigation, and monetization opportunities, while embedding an innovation-aware culture that encourages idea generation and responsible IP practices across SES. The incumbent combines deep expertise in IP governance with strong commercial acumen and cross-functional influence to deliver measurable business impact and long-term value creation. 

The incumbent also owns and actively manages a significant IP and Innovation cost center, with accountability for budget planning, forecasting, cost optimization, and vendor management. Financial stewardship is exercised in close alignment with strategic priorities, ensuring disciplined investment while maximizing enterprise impact.

By positioning intellectual property as both a strategic asset and a cultural enabler, the role strengthens SES’ competitive advantage while reinforcing a scalable, responsible, and high-performing innovation culture.

Primary responsibilities

1. Innovation Culture Leadership & Engagement (Primary Focus)

• Design and lead SES’s global innovation culture initiatives, fostering curiosity, experimentation, and proactive idea contribution across the organization
• Champion innovation as a behavioral norm through structured engagement, storytelling, recognition, and targeted communications
• Build and nurture innovation communities and networks that connect engineers, technologists, and business teams across regions
• Develop awareness, training, and enablement programs that empower employees to contribute ideas confidently and responsibly
• Act as a visible ambassador for innovation culture, reinforcing participation without owning or governing innovation processes

2. Cross-Functional Collaboration & Enablement

• Collaborate with leadership of Verticals to align cultural initiatives with strategic growth themes and opportunity areas
• Support line managers and leadership teams in embedding innovation behaviors within their teams and daily operations
• Facilitate feedback loops between innovators, process owners, and leadership to continuously improve engagement and outcomes

3. Strategic IP Portfolio Ownership & Value Enablement

• Retain full ownership of SES’ global IP Portfolio, ensuring effective invention capture, evaluation, and protection
• Translate grassroots innovation activity into high-quality invention disclosures and strategically aligned IP assets
• Define filing strategies and portfolio priorities in alignment with SES’ technology roadmaps and business needs
• Conduct competitive IP intelligence, freedom-to-operate analyses, and risk assessments to support product development and market entry
• Oversee patent, design, and trade secret lifecycle management in coordination with external counsel

4. IP as a Cultural Enabler

• Position IP as an enabler of innovation participation, demystifying IP concepts and reducing barriers to contribution
• Embed IP awareness into innovation culture initiatives without introducing procedural governance
• Advise teams on patentability, risk, and protection in a pragmatic, innovation-friendly manner

5. Commercial, Risk & Leadership Contribution

• Support commercial teams with IP positioning for bids, partnerships, and customer engagements

• Provide strategic insight into competitive IP landscapes and freedom-to-operate risks to be able to make informed innovation decisions
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on innovation culture maturity, portfolio health, and engagement trends
• Own the IP budget, vendor management, and reporting on portfolio performance and cultural engagement metrics

6. Collaboration with Legal

• Reporting relationship with Legal (specifically to the VP, Commercial Legal Technology & Innovation), to ensure IP legal oversight (patent and trademark)
• Support to the Legal Department, as requested, on matters related to IP portfolio management (e.g., drafting/ mailing C&D letters, coordinating with marketing to obtain trademark use specimens for renewals/ maintenance fees, etc.)  
• Preparation of IP Reports: (i) list of all issued/ granted patents; (ii) list of all pending patent applications; (iii) list of all issued trademarks; and (iv) list of all pending trademark applications
• Quarterly meetings with VP, Commercial Legal Technology & Innovation on all IP matters and provide copies of the updated IP Report

COMPETENCIES

Innovation Culture & Influence

• Proven ability to cultivate innovation mindsets and engagement at scale in a global organization
• Strong influencing skills, with the ability to drive change without formal authority
• Credibility with technical and business audiences alike

Intellectual property Expertise

• Deep knowledge of global IP systems and portfolio strategies
• Ability to translate IP from a legal construct into a practical innovation tool
• Experience managing external IP counsel and advisors

Strategic & Commercial Acumen

• Strong business judgment in aligning IP activities with strategic priorities
• Ability to interpret complex technical and legal information for senior stakeholders
• Commercial awareness to support value creation and risk mitigation