Head of Business Development, Europe (m/w/d)

Job title: Head of Business Development, Europe (m/w/d)

Location: Germany (Munich or Düsseldorf preferred) — remote, with regular travel across Europe. Candidates based in the United Kingdom or the Nordics will also be considered.

Employment type: Full-time, permanent

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer

Compensation: Competitive base salary and uncapped performance-related variable compensation, benchmarked above market for the region. We will share the specific range with you in our first conversation, before any interview. We will not ask you about your current or previous salary at any stage.

Role Overview

Lumenci is seeking a Head of Business Development, Europe (m/w/d) to establish and scale our commercial presence across the European market, spanning both Lumenci's expert IP services and iLumos.ai, our expert-guided AI platform for patent intelligence and monetisation.

This is a founding, revenue-owning role. You will be Lumenci's first dedicated business development leader in Europe, responsible for market entry, pipeline generation from a standing start, and closing the first wave of European clients across corporate IP departments, law firms, and litigation funders.

The role reports directly to the CEO and sits at the intersection of enterprise sales, IP domain expertise, product go-to-market, and regional market building. It is a senior individual contributor position carrying a personal revenue target, with the autonomy and executive access to match. Over time, this role will help define and build the European commercial function, including establishing repeatable market-entry processes and, as the region scales, contributing to future team structure and hiring.

You will work cross-functionally with our technical experts, consulting delivery teams, product leadership, and marketing to translate deep technical IP capability into European client relationships and recurring revenue.

About Lumenci

Founded in 2018, Lumenci is a premier intellectual property consulting firm specialising in patent litigation, expert witness testimony, and patent monetisation for leading corporations and global law firms across the software, telecommunications, semiconductor, and emerging technology sectors.

A key part of our model is the integration of deep technical expertise with litigation strategy. Our teams support high-stakes disputes by developing technical narratives, performing rigorous analysis, and partnering with world-class expert witnesses whose testimony shapes case outcomes in courts and arbitration forums worldwide. Alongside our services business, our iLumos platform delivers expert-guided AI for patent intelligence — portfolio segmentation, target identification, and infringement and validity assessment — moving clients from analysis to action in minutes rather than months.

Today we work with more than 175 clients and 80 law firms, supported by over 100 technical experts and 300+ campaigns, with more than $3.5B tied to verdicts, settlements, and negotiated outcomes.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with offices in San Francisco, New York, and Gurugram, India, Lumenci delivers end-to-end support spanning technical analysis, expert strategy, valuation, and monetisation execution. We are backed by VSS Capital Partners and Century Equity Partners.

We have built a strong North American franchise. Europe is our next market, and this is the role that opens it.

Key Responsibilities

Market entry and go-to-market strategy

• Define and execute the go-to-market plan for Europe, beginning with the DACH region and expanding into the UK, Nordics, and broader EU markets.

• Define ideal customer profiles, target account lists, and high-value early adopter segments for the European market.

• Contribute to product positioning, messaging, and commercialisation strategy for both Lumenci services and iLumos, based on European customer and market feedback.

• Gather structured market intelligence, customer discovery insights, and competitive observations — including UPC-driven shifts in European patent strategy — to inform roadmap and go-to-market decisions.

• Advise leadership on entity, partner, and hiring decisions as Europe moves from beachhead to scaled operation.

New business development and enterprise sales

• Own the full enterprise sales cycle for the region: territory and account planning, outbound prospecting, discovery, solution shaping with technical experts, commercial negotiation, and close.

• Build durable executive relationships with Chief IP Counsel, Heads of Patents, General Counsel, Heads of Licensing, R&D and innovation leaders, and IP partners at leading European firms.

• Build the region's pipeline through targeted outbound, referral networks, and a deliberate industry-event strategy across the European IP and licensing calendar.

• Structure complex, multi-year engagements spanning litigation support, portfolio and licensing programmes, technical analysis, and AI-enabled IP platform services.

Platform commercialisation and pilots

• Lead tailored iLumos demonstrations, workflow walkthroughs, and value-based conversations with European law firms, corporate IP teams, and litigation funders.

• Structure pilot and proof-of-concept engagements with clear business objectives, success criteria, stakeholders, and timelines.

• Support conversion of pilots and early engagements into subscription, usage-based, or long-term commercial relationships.

• Stay engaged through early adoption on your first European accounts, partnering with product leadership and consulting delivery on onboarding, enablement, and value realisation until the region supports dedicated customer success coverage.

Commercial infrastructure

• Establish the CRM discipline, forecasting cadence, and pipeline reporting rigour that the region will scale on, in partnership with global revenue operations.

• Build repeatable market-entry, prospecting, and deal-structuring playbooks that support expansion into additional European markets.

• Collaborate cross-functionally across product, engineering, consulting, sales, and executive leadership teams spanning US, European, and Indian operations.

Who You Are

You are a domain-deep, entrepreneurial enterprise seller who has built a market rather than inherited one. You are equally credible in a discovery conversation with a Head of Patents, a technical scoping session with reverse-engineering experts, a platform demonstration with end users, and a commercial negotiation with procurement.

You understand that in IP services and patent intelligence, trust and technical credibility precede transactions, and you have both the network and the substance to earn them. You are comfortable with the ambiguity of a first-in-region role, and you would rather own the outcome than inherit the infrastructure.

Required Qualifications

• Extensive experience — typically 12 years or more — in enterprise business development or complex solution sales, with a sustained record of new-logo acquisition and target overachievement against seven-figure annual revenue goals.

• Direct experience selling into intellectual property, legal, or professional services buyers — corporate IP and legal departments, and/or IP law firms.

• Demonstrated success building a market, territory, or region from a standing start rather than inheriting an established book of business.

• Proven ability to sell consultative, high-consideration engagements with long sales cycles and multiple stakeholders, including procurement and legal.

• Experience running discovery conversations, guiding product demonstrations or capability presentations, and translating customer needs into solution workflows and quantified business value.

• Established European network across the IP, licensing, or legal services community.

• Strong CRM discipline and forecasting rigour, with the ability to establish commercial infrastructure without dedicated support.

• Business-fluent English, plus business-fluent German or another major European business language aligned to your territory.

• Legally authorised to work in your country of residence within Europe, and willing to travel extensively across the region.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience at an IP intelligence, legal technology, expert services, patent analytics, or IP managed services provider.

• Technical fluency in one or more of: semiconductors, telecommunications and standards, AI/ML and cloud, software, consumer electronics, or medical devices.

• Experience selling AI-enabled or platform-based products alongside expert human delivery.

• Experience helping launch or commercialise a new product, business line, or geographic market.

• Familiarity with patent monetisation, licensing programmes, or litigation funding economics.

• Active participation in the European IP community — LES, AIPPI, EPO and UPC-adjacent events, IP Service World, IPBC, or similar.

• Comfort operating in a founder-led, high-growth, distributed environment across US, European, and Indian teams.

What We Offer

• Direct reporting line to the CEO, with genuine ownership of a region rather than a territory within an existing structure.

• Base salary and on-target earnings as stated above, with uncapped variable compensation and accelerators above target.

• A guaranteed variable component during your ramp period, reflecting that this is a market-entry role with no existing pipeline.

• The scope and visibility of a founding commercial role in a private-equity-backed, high-growth business.

• Remote working with a dedicated travel and industry-event budget.

• 30 days of annual leave, plus public holidays and local benefits appropriate to your country of employment.

Recruitment Process

1. Introductory conversation with People Operations

2. Interview with the Chief Executive Officer

3. Market-entry working session, based on a plan you prepare

4. Panel conversation with consulting delivery, technical experts, and marketing

5. Final conversation and reference checks

We aim to respond to every applicant. If you require any reasonable adjustments or accommodations at any stage of the recruitment process, please tell us in your application or contact us at [email protected], and we will make appropriate arrangements.

Equal Opportunity

Lumenci is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of gender, gender identity, age, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, disability, sexual orientation, marital or family status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable law, including the German General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) and the UK Equality Act 2010. Selection decisions are based solely on qualifications, experience, and demonstrated capability.

You are not required to include a photograph, your date of birth, your age, your marital status, your nationality, or details of your health in your application, and we ask that you do not do so. We will not ask you about your current or previous salary at any stage of this process.

How Your Data Is Handled

Lumenci is the data controller for personal data you submit as part of this application. We process your data on the basis of our legitimate interest in assessing candidates and taking steps prior to entering into a contract of employment.

Your data will be used solely to assess your application, will be shared internally only with those involved in this recruitment process, and will be stored in our applicant tracking system. Where your data is transferred outside the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we apply appropriate safeguards, including Standard Contractual Clauses.

We retain unsuccessful applicants' data for 6 months, after which it is deleted, unless you consent to us keeping it for future opportunities. You have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, or object to the processing of your personal data, the right to data portability, and the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. To exercise these rights, contact [email protected].