Patent Engineer

Hover is making the homeowner journey easy, transparent and fun. Starting with the home improvement industry,  we’re answering age-old questions like, “What is it going to look like?” and “What is it going to cost?”, by helping homeowners and pros visualize what’s possible with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and interactive 3D property models. Homeowners, contractors, and insurance professionals all use Hover to get fully measured, accurate, and interactive models of any property—in a matter of minutes, and with just a few snaps of a smartphone camera.

Join a team that is rooted in challenging the status quo, persistence, and dedicated to serving our employees, customers, and communities. With key investors, including Google Ventures and Menlo Ventures and leading insurance carriers such as Travelers, State Farm, and Nationwide, Hover is committed to changing the world, one home at a time. At Hover, we believe there is strength in diversity and are fostering an inclusive and diverse culture by hiring qualified, talented people from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Why Hover wants you

Hover is seeking a Patent Engineer to play a pivotal role in shaping the company’s technological future and advancing its innovations from a legal perspective. As a key player in a highly competitive industry, Hover understands that safeguarding its technology rights is essential for ensuring consumers continue to benefit from cutting-edge advancements. In this role, you’ll help identify and protect Hover’s growing portfolio of innovations, strategically positioning them within the competitive landscape. You’ll collaborate closely with engineers and product managers to build the legal framework that supports these technologies while aligning business and product strategies with legal considerations.

You will work directly with Hover’s in-house patent attorney and partner closely with the General Counsel. As part of a small, dynamic legal team, your contributions will have a significant impact on the company’s direction. While your focus may initially be on a specific technology segment, you’ll have the opportunity to support and gain deep insights into the entire scope of Hover’s technological innovations. Your ability to foster communication and collaboration between internal teams and external legal partners will be key to your success in this role.

You will contribute by

Collaborating closely with engineers in both small and large group settings, you will proactively identify and capture new inventions, extracting the critical nuances that make them patentable. Your primary responsibility will be preparing provisional patent applications for new inventions, while also staying closely involved with inventors to track ongoing developments for conversion into full applications and PCT filings. In the prosecution phase, you will go beyond simply responding to Office Actions; you will conduct in-depth research on cited prior art, crafting compelling arguments that expand the scope of the invention and ensure maximum protection, rather than just securing the easiest path to allowance.

With a keen understanding of the prior art, you will be uniquely positioned to guide engineers on where further innovation could unlock new opportunities—not only for current products but for future concepts as well. You will also review and refine your colleagues' work (and they’ll do the same for you), while staying at the forefront of emerging technological and legal developments, conducting research, and presenting findings to the team. This is an opportunity to have a direct, lasting impact on both the technology and legal strategies driving the company’s success.

Your background includes

• Bachelors of Science in engineering or computer science
• Familiarity with technical concepts like computer vision, machine learning, and active sensing technologies
• Comfort in working with multiple projects simultaneously
• Excellent writing skills, and comfort with AI tools and prompting for work-related tasks
• Excellent analytical and reading comprehension for assessing inventions and recognizing short term and strategic relevance
• Ability to learn new technology quickly

Nice to have

• Registration with the US Patent and Trademark Office
• At least two years experience with all stages of patent prosecution, with emphasis on drafting applications and Office Action responses 
• Excellent advocacy and communication skills; you have led your own inventor disclosure sessions with inventors, and Examiner interviews with the USPTO
• Familiarity with patent filing documents, procedures and platforms like EPAS and EFS
• Awareness of complementing intellectual property rights such as copyright and trade secret and ability to triage inventions and developments under each

Benefits

• Compensation - Competitive salary and meaningful equity in a fast-growing company
• Healthcare - Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and dependents
• Paid Time Off - Unlimited and flexible vacation policy 
• Paid Family Leave - We support work/life balance and offer generous paid parental and new child bonding leave 
• Mandatory Self-Care Days - A day set aside each month to allow employees to recharge 
• Remote Wellbeing Resources - We provide recurring fitness classes, meditation/ mindfulness tools, virtual therapy, and family planning assistance 
• Learning - We encourage continued education and will help cover the cost of management training, conferences, workshops, or certifications

Hybrid roles at Hover

Hover has Hubs in San Francisco and New York City, where we expect that all employees living within a 50-mile radius of our offices will come into their local Hover office at least three times a week to build rapport and foster organic connection. At this time, Hover is not considering fully remote roles.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $139,000 - $158,000 annually. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all applicable US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

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