IP Counsel

Job Description

Who we are

Mantle8 is a clean-tech start-up rethinking natural hydrogen exploration, combining cutting-edge technology with sharp geological strategy. We're backed by leading clean-tech investors, including Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Kiko Ventures. Having just closed a significant Series A, we're entering a defining phase: delivering FLOW, our most ambitious natural hydrogen exploration campaign to date, across multiple geographies and with leading industrial partners. The goal is to unlock the "Geological Trifecta" - high pressure, high purity, and multi-megaton scale, all in one location. Pull that off, and hydrogen at under €1/kg becomes possible.

What The Role Is About

As IP Counsel, you'll report directly to our CTO, S. Jammes, and take on a central role in building and running Mantle8's IP strategy across patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and defensive publications. You'll be the internal go-to on IP topics, working closely with the CTO, external counsel, the geoscience and engineering teams, and leadership, while keeping a close eye on the competitive IP landscape.

What you'll be doing

• Help the CTO shape and evolve Mantle8's IP strategy, turning our technology roadmap into a clear, prioritised set of IP actions.
• Manage our relationships with external patent and trademark counsel, running filings and prosecution end to end.
• Set up and run our invention-disclosure process, working directly with inventors across the company.
• Drive patents from disclosure through to grant, and manage our trademark portfolio.
• Put trade-secret protocols in place where they make strategic sense.
• Build and maintain patent watch reports, and brief the CTO and leadership team on emerging IP risks and opportunities.
• Feed IP insights into product, commercial, and partnership decisions, including M&A and fundraising due diligence.

Nice to have

• Background or interest in subsurface, geoscience, or energy.
• Qualified IP attorney, European Patent Attorney, or French CPI (or working toward it).
• Experience running trade-secret or defensive publication programmes.
• Trademark portfolio management at scale.
• Experience with IP due diligence in fundraising or M&A.
• Willingness to relocate to Grenoble.

What we offer

• A competitive package, including a corporate welfare plan and supplementary health insurance.
• A permanent contract (CDI) with full French employment protections.
• The chance to build a new clean energy industry from the ground up, based in the French Alps.

Requirements

• A technical background - physics, geoscience, engineering, or similar - with at least a Master's degree.
• Professional IP experience: patent drafting, prosecution, or IP strategy, ideally in tech, deep-tech, or energy.
• Enough technical fluency to engage credibly with our geoscience and engineering teams.
• The ability to run a structured patent watch framework.
• Strong written communication, fluent English, French a strong plus. An entrepreneurial, hands-on mindset - someone who gets things done rather than waiting for a bigger team.