Program Manager, Technology Partnership Development

At Copper, we're reinventing home appliances for an electrified future. Our products come equipped with batteries, accelerating electrification and turning every customer home into a source of grid flexibility.

We're hiring a Program Manager to run the operational core of our business development and licensing efforts. The primary focus of this role is coordinating our partnership pipeline and licensing program — tracking deals, researching prospects, supporting negotiations, and keeping leadership informed. As a secondary responsibility, you'll also help coordinate the activities of our strong, growing patent portfolio (invention disclosures, prosecution tracking) so that what we protect and what we license or partner around stay connected.

This is an execution and coordination role, not a strategy-setting or senior-negotiator role. Because you'll be evaluating technical fit with potential partners and licensees, and occasionally reading patent claims against hardware designs, a solid technical background in our domain is required, not just a nice-to-have.

In your application, please 1) include a cover letter and resume, 2) highlight any part of your background (job responsibilities, accomplishments, degrees, grades) that persuasively describes your preparation for the role, 3) list any coursework in engineering and law, and 4) share any languages in which you can hold a business-level conversation.

We value diversity and are committed to building a team that reflects a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives. We’re especially focused on fostering an inclusive workplace where everyone can contribute to our shared mission.

This is a full-time position and it is expected to be in-office 4 days per week with 1 day flexible for in-office or remote work. Our office is located in Berkeley, CA.

Business Development & Licensing (primary focus)

Coordinate the partnership and licensing deal pipeline — tracking active conversations, deal status, next steps, and deadlines across business development efforts

Research potential customers, partners, licensees, and licensors; prepare briefing materials and target lists for leadership

Support negotiations by preparing materials, tracking deal terms, and coordinating redlines with outside counsel

Manage deal logistics (NDAs, meeting coordination, data room management) across business development activity

Maintain licensing program tracking: royalty payments and license compliance

Coordinate with Finance on royalty invoicing, revenue recognition, and forecasting

Track and report on program-wide metrics (pipeline health, deal velocity, revenue) for leadership visibility

Patents (secondary focus)

Support invention harvesting by coordinating with engineering teams and helping capture invention disclosures

Track patent applications through prosecution — deadlines, office actions, and continuation/divisional opportunities — in coordination with outside patent counsel

Maintain the internal portfolio map (what's filed, issued, pending) and how it connects to active or prospective deals

Help prepare claim charts and technical summaries used in licensing or partnership discussions

Cross-cutting

Build and maintain shared tracking systems and dashboards across business development workstreams and patent portfolio activities so leadership has one clear view of program status

Manage relationships and follow-ups with external partners as needed

Identify and implement process improvements as these functions grow and formalize

Prepare research, analysis, and materials that support senior leadership in strategy discussions and negotiations

Technical expertise

3–5+ years of experience in some combination of licensing, partnerships, &/or IP/patent operations, ideally in a hardware or electronics environment

Fluency and experience with a range of licensing structures

Experience preparing pitch materials for potential business partners

Comfortable working with technical and legal material (partnership/license agreements, patent claims); able to translate between engineers and legal/business counterparts fluently

Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, or a related technical field

Technical expertise (nice-to-have)

Legal training in patent law and/or licensing

Advanced engineering degree

Communication and cross-functional collaboration

Clear and effective verbal and written communication skills

Ease in working cross-functionally with all departments and all levels of the company

Strong organization and coordination skills

Track record managing multiple concurrent workstreams and deadlines across different stakeholders

Ability to communicate in multiple languages (nice-to-have)

Joy and passion for work

Comfort in an always-changing start-up environment

Willing to step into whatever project or situation needs your assistance

Calm under pressure. You bring clarity when things get chaotic.

Comfortable operating in a program that spans multiple functions and isn't fully standardized yet

Low ego, high accountability. You collaborate cross-functionally with openness.

Mission-driven. You care about electrification and building products that truly serve customers.

We are committed to creating an equitable and inclusive environment for all our employees and are seeking to build a team that reflects the diversity of the people we hope to serve with our products. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

Copper's vision is a future where every home is electrified with abundant clean energy. Our mission is to make decarbonization accessible to everyone by selling electric home appliances that enrich their daily lives. We're reducing the cost of electrification by integrating batteries into household appliances, starting with the stove. Our work has been funded by the Department of Energy, in an effort to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and increase energy resilience with products that are high-performance, safe, intuitive, and robust. As we build our team and pursue our mission, we do it with a strong sense of our core values because it's not just what you do, it's how you do it. You'll see this in high-level decisions, how we run meetings, our day-to-day work, hiring, and our interactions with customers and the broader community. We intend to have a massive impact on our team, our neighborhood, and the world.