Position Summary

The Legal Specialist will be a key member of the Legal Operations Department, reporting to the Senior Director of Legal Operations in Phoenix, AZ. This role is responsible for reviewing, drafting, and administering a broad range of commercial agreements, including sales and procurement contracts, non-disclosure agreements (“NDAs”), joint development agreements, intellectual property licenses, and other commercial documents. The Contract Specialist will support transactional matters by providing drafting, project management, and process expertise, and will work closely with Legal Department attorneys while engaging directly with internal business stakeholders.

Duties and Responsibilities

Contract Management & Administration

• Serve as contract management system administrator, responsible for workflow optimization, configuration, and technical support.
• Generate and maintain reports from the contract management system for Legal leadership and internal partners.
• Track personnel changes (new hires and departures) and update access, permissions, and relevant records in the contract management system.

Process, Policy & Documentation Support

• Update and manage content on the Legal Department’s SharePoint and Intranet pages.
• Assist with internal audits of contracts and contract‑related processes.
• Identify training needs and assist in onboarding new employees on Legal processes and contracting tools.
• Ensure familiarity with Legal Department policies, corporate policies, and operational procedures.
  
  

Operational & Cross‑Functional Support

• Submit Legal Department invoices for timely processing and payment.
• Collaborate effectively with attorneys, paralegals, and cross‑functional stakeholders throughout the organization.
• Manage multiple projects and priorities, ensuring deadlines are met with high‑quality work product.
• Proactively identify and escalate issues, propose solutions, and take ownership of assigned projects and tasks.
  
  

Skills and Competencies

• Strong organizational, analytical, and project management capabilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to understand and work with substantive legal concepts, transactional documentation, and contract terminology.
• Strong problem‑solving and decision‑making skills with a proactive, detail‑oriented approach.
• Ability to build and maintain effective working relationships at all levels of the organization.
• High degree of accuracy and attention to detail, including proofreading for grammar, spelling, and formatting.
  
  

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree preferred, or a paralegal certificate with 5-10 years of experience as a contracts or transactional paralegal.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and Outlook.
• Experience using contract management software.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities in a deadline-driven environment with professionalism and sound judgment.

Position summary: 

Part of ASM’s Intellectual Property (IP) core organization, this role is responsible for detailed planning and execution of ASM’s IP commercialization and licensing efforts for chemistry development. The individual contributor in this role ensures licensing revenue receipts and suppliers’ performance obligations to ASM and its customers and is a key point of contact between ASM and its licensed suppliers, works with other ASM organizations and global stakeholders to support supplier/customer issues and contributes to identification of new opportunities for protecting or extracting value from ASM’s Intellectual Property.

Duties include:

1. Support ASM’s Chemistry Development Group (CDG) for licensing activities:
   1. Negotiate licensing master agreements and statement of work (SOW)
   2. Collect, review and work with corporate functions to process supplier’s financial reports
   3. Plan and execute licensing projects and ensure deliverables from both CDG and KPU stakeholders
   4. Drive preparations for and participate in Global Licensing operations reviews
   5. Contribute as needed to other Global IP / Global Legal initiatives related to licensing and CDG

1. Ensure performance under licensing agreements:
   1. Act as a liaison between chemistry licensed suppliers and ASM internal organizations
   2. Promptly identify and initiate action when needed to address supplier performance
   3. Help suppliers resolve end-customer issues related to ASM licensed products

1. Standard Operation Procedures (SOP), Tollgates, Triggers:
   1. Devise and oversee chemical development process
   2. Drive technical, business tollgates and other “triggers”
   3. Own Licensing SOP, align with overall Product Lifecycle (PLC) process, drive improvements
   4. Recognize and address different Key Product Units (KPU) specifics to customize Licensing SOP

1. Travel domestically and internationally to meet with suppliers and internal stakeholders (less than 20%).

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering or related scientific fields, PhD preferred
• Minimum of 3 years in the semiconductor or related industry
• Strong knowledge of chemical precursors and processes
• Familiarity with ASM semiconductor equipment, its value components, document control systems and/or PCP and ECO processes a strong plus
• Experience and/or ability working in cross-functional (licensing) teams, manage by influence and without authority
• Advanced knowledge of Excel and other MS office suite
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, drive results with little supervision; Project Management experience a plus
• Familiarity with intellectual property assets, its management, safeguards and IP transactions
• Experience directly interfacing with suppliers, customers, and/or technical or business negotiations, particularly in a cross-cultural/international environment
• Self-starter with attention to detail, strong analytical skills, business and technical acumen, solid verbal and written communications skills.

The Challenge 

 As a (senior) Patent/Litigation Analyst in the Phoenix office, your primary focus is performing tailored patent analyses and landscapes for various global business needs. In addition to these core duties, you will play a key role in IP risk mitigation. This includes maintaining close contact with the rest of the global IP & licensing team and other stakeholders. 

 You will report directly to the IP strategy lead, located in Helsinki, Finland. You will have a strong working relation with IP team members in the US, Japan, Korea, Belgium, Finland, and the Netherlands as well as the technical members and business units around the globe. 

 The role is in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. In this position, traveling will be required to accommodate the global footprint of the IP team and other stakeholders. Being in Phoenix means you will interface with key U.S. technical and business staff on-site, while virtually connecting with colleagues and internal partners worldwide. 

 Education 

• B.Sc. required, M.Sc. preferred degree in chemistry, materials science, physics or other relevant semiconductor engineering discipline. 
• J.D, active membership in good standing in at least one U.S. state bar and eligibility to obtain in-house registration in Arizona (if necessary) 

Experience  

• 3-6 years of legal experience supporting U.S. patent litigation is required. For example, involvement in preparing IPR filings, PTAB trial support, written opinion work, or patent infringement case support (such as prior art research, claim charting, depositions, technical expert support, or trial experience) will enable you to effectively bridge technical analysis with litigation strategy. 

• Foundation and desire to analyze patents / scientific information, evidence of use and further tailor and compile analysis and claim charts from those. 
• Self-driven mentality and capability of operating with a high degree of autonomy. 

Required skills 

• Ability to navigate effectively through IP and scientific information in a global, complex, multicultural, dynamic, and demanding high-tech environment. 

• Familiarity with U.S. patent litigation procedures and terminology with capability to prepare technical materials for legal proceedings (e.g., claim charts, prior art evidence for IPRs, deposition exhibits). 

• Ability to take a complex topic and break it down to tailor a message to a variety of stakeholders in the business having a range of technical and business experience. 

• Able to understand multiple and varying interests and devise the right questions to achieve the stakeholders' desired outcome.  

• Understanding diverse cultural backgrounds of other team members and stakeholders and adjust way of working to accommodate those cultures. 

*NOTE* - The internal job title may differ from the advertised in line with our internal job title matrix.