Patent Litigation Counsel

Company Description

Guardant Health is a leading precision oncology company focused on guarding wellness and giving every person more time free from cancer. Founded in 2012, Guardant is transforming patient care and accelerating new cancer therapies by providing critical insights into what drives disease through its advanced blood and tissue tests, real-world data and AI analytics. Guardant tests help improve outcomes across all stages of care, including screening to find cancer early, monitoring for recurrence in early-stage cancer, and treatment selection for patients with advanced cancer. For more information, visit guardanthealth.com and follow the company on LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Facebook. 

Guardant Health, Inc. is seeking an experienced Patent Litigation Counsel to join its IP Team. As a key member of the team, you will be responsible for managing and executing Guardant’s patent dispute, enforcement, and defense strategy across a wide range of technologies in the cancer diagnostics space, including liquid biopsy and next generation sequencing (NGS)–based assays. You will combine deep litigation experience with strong technical understanding of Guardant’s technology portfolio to help protect and advance Guardant’s mission of improving the lives of cancer patients.
 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead and manage U.S. and international patent litigations, pre‑litigation disputes, and other contentious matters (including PTAB proceedings), from early case assessment through trial and appeal.

• Develop and drive case strategies that reflect both the nuances of Guardant’s technologies and broader business objectives.

• Oversee all aspects of litigation, including pleadings, motion practice, discovery, claim construction, expert work, deposition prep and trial prep; work closely with fact and expert witnesses, internal business stakeholders, and outside counsel.

• Conduct and supervise detailed infringement, non‑infringement, validity, and enforceability analyses with a focus on NGS‑based diagnostics, bioinformatics pipelines, and cancer genomics platforms.

• Collaborate with scientists, engineers, clinical, regulatory, and commercial teams to understand Guardant’s products, R&D roadmap, and competitors’ products, and to translate technical concepts into compelling litigation positions.

• Partner with leadership across Legal, R&D, Product, and Business teams to provide strategic IP risk counseling for product launches, marketing claims, and competitive positioning.

• Manage and coordinate outside counsel, including staffing, budgets, and performance to ensure high‑quality and cost‑effective representation.

• Assist with portfolio‑related enforcement strategy (e.g., assertion programs, notice letters, and settlement structures) in coordination with the broader IP and business teams.

• Maintain and share up‑to‑date understanding of competitive IP landscapes in oncology diagnostics and related technologies.

Nice-to-Have Additional Responsibilities (Depending on Experience and Interest)

• Support IP aspects of strategic transactions, including M&A due diligence, collaborations, and licensing deals.

• Advise on IP licensing, settlement, and other deal structures in the context of disputes and strategic partnerships.

• Provide freedom‑to‑operate (FTO) counseling and risk assessments for new products, features, and geographies.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctorate from a nationally accredited law school.

• Member in good standing of at least one U.S. state bar; registration with the USPTO is optional.

• 5+ years of patent litigation experience at a leading law firm and/or in‑house legal department, with a focus on life sciences, medical devices, diagnostics, or biotechnology.

• Meaningful trial experience, including participation in key trial phases (e.g., opening/closing, witness examinations, argument of substantive motions) in U.S. district court and/or PTAB proceedings; first‑chair experience a strong plus.

• Technical background enabling strong understanding of Guardant’s technology; an advanced degree in Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Cancer Genomics, Genetics, Statistics, or a related field is strongly preferred.

• Familiarity with technologies used in cancer diagnostics and NGS‑based assays, such as:

  • Methods for analyzing genomic data from diagnostic NGS assays;

  • Library preparation methods (e.g., targeted sequencing, whole‑genome sequencing, methylation sequencing, RNA‑seq);

  • Algorithms and tools used in cancer genomics (e.g., sequence alignment, variant calling).

• Demonstrated ability to work closely and credibly with scientists, engineers, and business leaders, and to explain complex technical and legal concepts to non‑lawyers.

• Excellent written and oral advocacy skills, strong strategic and analytical thinking, and sound business judgment.

• Experience managing and collaborating with outside counsel effectively and efficiently.

• Familiarity with AI‑enabled tools for legal research, prior art searching, and competitive landscape analysis is a plus.

• Adaptable, flexible, and comfortable operating in a fast‑paced, rapidly evolving environment as part of a highly collaborative team.

Hybrid Work Model: This section is applicable to onsite employees who are eligible for hybrid work location as specified by management and related policies.  Guardant has defined days for in-person/onsite collaboration and work-from-home days for individual-focused time. All U.S. employees who live within 50 miles of a Guardant facility will be required to be onsite on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. We have found aligning our scheduled in-office days allows our teams to do the best work and creates the focused thinking time our innovative work requires. At Guardant, our work model has created flexibility for better work-life balance while keeping teams connected to advance our science for our patients.