Life at Elvie – Meaningful work. Exceptional people
We develop extraordinary and smart technologies designed to improve the lives of women. It’s a fascinating and challenging area that requires us to solve the problems that no one else has ever tackled before.
Our first product, Elvie Trainer, is an award-winning app-connected trainer that helps women strengthen their pelvic floor muscle via fun, five-minute workouts. It took the wellness industry by storm and is now available via the NHS Supply Chain. Our street cred is backed up by more than 12 awards for innovation and design, including the prestigious Red Dot Award and an IDA Design Award.
Our second innovation: Elvie Pump, the world’s first silent hands-free, wearable breast pump, has received international praise, including being listed as one of the Times 100 best inventions in 2019 and ‘wearable design of the year’ at the Dezeen Awards.
Elvie has received more than 30 awards, including being named one of 15 startups “To Watch” by The Sunday Times and ranked as the 6th fastest growing business in the UK by SyndicateRoom in 2019. Tania Boler has recently been rated as the 8th most influential person shaping british technology in 2019 by Business Insider and both products have been featured in the Oscar Nominee Gift Bags. In April 2019, Elvie announced a $42 million Series B, the largest ever fundraise in Femtech.
How do we like to work?
You will be surrounded by people who want to improve everything and everyone around them. People who are passionate about our mission. People who are driven to solve tough problems and constantly consider the best ways to improve the health and wellbeing of women.
We’re deeply proud of our values, which are intrinsic to the way we behave every day. We take them seriously because we want our culture to thrive:
- We’re fearless – We tackle taboos and break boundaries, requiring sensitivity and courage.
- We’re innovators – We are passionate, curious and data-driven. We are constantly learning how to work smarter, faster and better. Always embracing change and innovation.
- We’re in it together – Together, we are constantly learning, embracing change and seeking innovation, whilst having fun along the way. We stay authentic and embrace our differences.
About you
This is a new and exciting opportunity to join us as Legal Counsel for IP and Product. Reporting to the Head of Legal, you will be the first hire into our existing small legal team, and will be responsible for executing on the Elvie’s IP strategy, the day to day management of the portfolio, primary legal support on all NPI and new product launches, together with supporting our internal quality and compliance teams. As Legal Counsel at Elvie you will enjoy an extremely broad role, providing strategic legal advice on a wide variety of legal projects and challenges facing Elvie across all its countries of operation, with a particular focus on intellectual property matters. This is a highly visible and exciting role, offering exposure to all levels across the business, including C-suite. This is a great opportunity to make the role your own and get involved with exciting projects in a fast-paced, creative and fun environment.
The role can be based in London or Bristol. Flexible working requests will be openly considered.
What you will do
- IP management: Ownership of Elvie’s IP strategy and day to day management of the IP portfolio globally, including trade mark and design registrations to protect the company’s brand assets and products, together with patent applications and prosecutions as we continue to launch new products and expand into new territories
- IP enforcement: Managing contentious IP disputes and claims, including actual or threatened litigation by or against the company in relation to its IP portfolio
- Establishing internal processes to support a global scaling portfolio
- Primary legal support for our product engineers on New Product Innovation (NPI), New Product Development (NPD) and providing all legal input for new product launches (including regulatory requirements, consumer facing information (IFU, warranty etc), IP protection and product research/user trials)
- Working closely with our quality team to support on product regulatory issues, including new country launches, regulatory filings, risk assessments, products warranty and any contentious product matters
- International markets: As a global role, you will act as legal adviser to our international teams based in the US and China, as well as our UK based teams
- Strategic projects: Acting as a business partner to help structure and provide legal advice on new strategic initiatives launched by the company from time to time
- Providing legal support on a variety of other matters as required (e.g. advertising/marketing/consumer, litigation/disputes, supply chain/retail, technology, corporate and company secretarial matters).
- Hiring and managing external counsel where appropriate and managing legal budgets relating to your areas of responsibility
- Creating and improving legal processes, including developing contract templates, standard forms and legal issue checklists, and designing and implementing appropriate systems for the review, execution and management of contracts
- Preparing and conducting legal education and training for different teams across the business, particularly on IP matters
Requirements
- 4-6 PQE qualified lawyer in England & Wales
- Significant IP experience, preferably including: both contentious and non-contentious matters; building, scaling and management of an international IP portfolio (trademarks, design rights and patents); experience in patent applications, prosecutions and infringement matters;
- Working knowledge of medical devices and consumer product regulation
- Experience in US and/or China is a bonus.
- Prior experience in negotiating and drafting range of commercial agreements
- Trained in a top-tier private practice firm, and ideally also had in-house experience, (preferably in a start-up, tech, e-commerce and/or consumer electronics in-house environment)
- Ability to work autonomously with little supervision
- Ability to deliver commercial and pragmatic solutions and concise advice, with strong influencing and negotiating skills
- Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to juggle and prioritise a large number of competing matters and work to deadlines
- Self-motivated, independent and results-focused; with a willingness to roll up your sleeves, undertake a wide variety of tasks and to take ownership
- Adaptable and be able cope with change quickly, and be enthused and excited about what’s around the corner for us
- Most importantly, you must be keen to support the Elvie mission, and like the idea of working in a fast-paced start-up environment where you can share your future
Note: you must have the right to work in the UK to apply for this role
Benefits
Elvie is at the crest of a wave! Founded by women’s health expert Tania Boler and tech entrepreneur Alex Asseily, Elvie is a collection of bright and motivated team members working across the business to shape the emerging femtech industry.
We are passionate about creating disruptive products that address the challenges that matter most to women and dismantling the taboos around women’s bodies. Here, you can be part of a business and brand that has a positive and meaningful impact on the world, while learning a great deal and having fun.
What are some of the perks of working at Elvie?
We are looking after you. As well as the chance to develop products with real work impact and working with dedicated and passionate colleagues, our benefits have flexibility and wellbeing in mind with
- Great work environment – regular company socials, free daily snacks
- Flexible work environment built on trust and autonomy
- Enjoy employee / friends & family discounts on Elvie products
- Annual personal development allowance & unlimited access to our learning & development platform
- A tax-efficient group pension scheme with SmartPension
- A tax-efficient charity donation scheme
- Life Insurance with Yulife
- Medical, Dental & Optical with WPA
- Employee Assistance Program for you and your family
- Generous employee referral program
- Cycle Scheme & Tech Scheme
- YuLife Well-being app & access to SmartHealth app with unlimited GP appointments for you and your family, plus various well-being initiatives throughout the year
At Elvie, we believe in having diverse teams in which everyone can be their authentic self is key to our success. We encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds to apply and we don’t discriminate based on race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, marital status, disability or age. We are a family-friendly employer with a culture based on trust, autonomy and flexibility, and are working on making our offices wheelchair friendly and breastfeeding friendly. We do our best to accommodate part-time requests and flexible requests as much as possible. We are also a member of UK Tech Talent Charter and proudly working in partnership with myGwork and Women’s tech hub.