---
title: 'Program Manager, Technology Partnership Development at Copper'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/program-manager-technology-partnership-development-copper-berkeley-california-nbgh3xrdvhz7'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-13'
---

# Program Manager, Technology Partnership Development at Copper 

- **Company:** Copper 
- **Location:** Berkeley California, United States
- **Posted:** 2026-09-08
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-13
- **Apply:** https://copperhome.com/pages/jobs?gh_jid=5232549007

## Job description

## Overview

At Copper, we're reinventing home appliances for an electrified future. Our products come equipped with batteries, accelerating electrification and turning every customer home into a source of grid flexibility.

We're hiring a Program Manager to run the operational core of our business development and licensing efforts. The primary focus of this role is coordinating our partnership pipeline and licensing program — tracking deals, researching prospects, supporting negotiations, and keeping leadership informed. As a secondary responsibility, you'll also help coordinate the activities of our strong, growing patent portfolio (invention disclosures, prosecution tracking) so that what we protect and what we license or partner around stay connected.

This is an execution and coordination role, not a strategy-setting or senior-negotiator role. Because you'll be evaluating technical fit with potential partners and licensees, and occasionally reading patent claims against hardware designs, a solid technical background in our domain is required, not just a nice-to-have.

In your application, please 1) include a cover letter and resume, 2) highlight any part of your background (job responsibilities, accomplishments, degrees, grades) that persuasively describes your preparation for the role, 3) list any coursework in engineering and law, and 4) share any languages in which you can hold a business-level conversation.

We value diversity and are committed to building a team that reflects a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives. We’re especially focused on fostering an inclusive workplace where everyone can contribute to our shared mission.

This is a full-time position and it is expected to be in-office 4 days per week with 1 day flexible for in-office or remote work. Our office is located in Berkeley, CA.

## What you'll do

Business Development & Licensing (primary focus)

- Coordinate the partnership and licensing deal pipeline — tracking active conversations, deal status, next steps, and deadlines across business development efforts
- Research potential customers, partners, licensees, and licensors; prepare briefing materials and target lists for leadership
- Support negotiations by preparing materials, tracking deal terms, and coordinating redlines with outside counsel
- Manage deal logistics (NDAs, meeting coordination, data room management) across business development activity
- Maintain licensing program tracking: royalty payments and license compliance
- Coordinate with Finance on royalty invoicing, revenue recognition, and forecasting
- Track and report on program-wide metrics (pipeline health, deal velocity, revenue) for leadership visibility

Patents (secondary focus)

- Support invention harvesting by coordinating with engineering teams and helping capture invention disclosures
- Track patent applications through prosecution — deadlines, office actions, and continuation/divisional opportunities — in coordination with outside patent counsel
- Maintain the internal portfolio map (what's filed, issued, pending) and how it connects to active or prospective deals
- Help prepare claim charts and technical summaries used in licensing or partnership discussions

Cross-cutting

- Build and maintain shared tracking systems and dashboards across business development workstreams and patent portfolio activities so leadership has one clear view of program status
- Manage relationships and follow-ups with external partners as needed
- Identify and implement process improvements as these functions grow and formalize
- Prepare research, analysis, and materials that support senior leadership in strategy discussions and negotiations

## What you'll bring

Technical expertise

- 3–5+ years of experience in some combination of licensing, partnerships, &/or IP/patent operations, ideally in a hardware or electronics environment
- Fluency and experience with a range of licensing structures
- Experience preparing pitch materials for potential business partners
- Comfortable working with technical and legal material (partnership/license agreements, patent claims); able to translate between engineers and legal/business counterparts fluently
- Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, or a related technical field

Technical expertise (nice-to-have)

- Legal training in patent law and/or licensing
- Advanced engineering degree

Communication and cross-functional collaboration

- Clear and effective verbal and written communication skills
- Ease in working cross-functionally with all departments and all levels of the company
- Strong organization and coordination skills
- Track record managing multiple concurrent workstreams and deadlines across different stakeholders
- Ability to communicate in multiple languages (nice-to-have)

Joy and passion for work

- Comfort in an always-changing start-up environment
- Willing to step into whatever project or situation needs your assistance
- Calm under pressure. You bring clarity when things get chaotic.
- Comfortable operating in a program that spans multiple functions and isn't fully standardized yet
- Low ego, high accountability. You collaborate cross-functionally with openness.
- Mission-driven. You care about electrification and building products that truly serve customers.

Location

This is an in-office role that is on site four days with 1 day flexible for in-office or remote work. Our office is located in Berkeley, CA.

## Compensation & Benefits

The salary range for this role is $160,000-$190,000. We are committed to equitable compensation and we offer a generous benefits package to make sure you have the support you need.

## Equal Employment Opportunity

We are committed to creating an equitable and inclusive environment for all our employees and are seeking to build a team that reflects the diversity of the people we hope to serve with our products. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

## About Us

Copper's vision is a future where every home is electrified with abundant clean energy. Our mission is to make decarbonization accessible to everyone by selling electric home appliances that enrich their daily lives. We're reducing the cost of electrification by integrating batteries into household appliances, starting with the stove. Our work has been funded by the Department of Energy, in an effort to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and increase energy resilience with products that are high-performance, safe, intuitive, and robust. As we build our team and pursue our mission, we do it with a strong sense of our core values because it's not just what you do, it's how you do it. You'll see this in high-level decisions, how we run meetings, our day-to-day work, hiring, and our interactions with customers and the broader community. We intend to have a massive impact on our team, our neighborhood, and the world.

## About Copper 

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Copper designs and manufactures battery-equipped home appliances, starting with a plug-in induction range that requires no electrical rewiring.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage, $34.9M total funding)
- **Headquarters**: Berkeley, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Sam Calisch (CEO), Tucker Gilman (COO), Weldon Kennedy (CMO), and Joshua Land (Chief Development Officer)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Home electrification / Battery-integrated appliances
- **Target customers**: B2C homeowners seeking to switch from gas to induction cooking without costly electrical upgrades
- **Mission**: “Make the choice to decarbonize our homes easy and obvious” by combining battery storage with everyday appliances

## Products & Services
- **[Copper Charlie](https://copperhome.com/)**: A plug-in induction range with a built-in 5 kWh battery. It operates on a standard 120V outlet, eliminating the need for new wiring. Type: Hardware (appliance) with integrated energy storage.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available
- **Key Metric**: $34.9 million in total funding across five rounds (Seed rounds, Venture round, Debt financing)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Voyager Ventures (led a seed round), as well as other undisclosed investors; flexible financing offered through Affirm [copperhome.com](https://copperhome.com/)
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew 80% year-over-year to 36 employees; 5 active job postings as of mid-2026; selected by the Berkeley Housing Authority for a pilot program [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/copperhome)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Plug-and-play electrification**: The integrated battery allows induction cooking without upgrading home electrical panels, a major barrier to adoption.
- **Category creation**: First-to-market with a battery-equipped range, blending appliance and energy storage into one product.
- **Design and usability**: Focus on seamless user experience (e.g., no rewiring, easy financing) and aesthetics.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling production** of Charlie and expanding the product line to other battery-equipped appliances.
- **Driving home electrification** by removing cost and complexity, thereby reducing reliance on fossil fuels in the residential sector.
- **Building a direct-to-consumer channel** while pursuing partnerships with housing authorities and utilities.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven culture**: Team is united around fighting climate change through home decarbonization.
- **Small, fast-growing team** (36 people) with 80% YoY growth, offering high ownership and impact.
- **Berkeley-based HQ** with a second office in Berkeley; in-person collaboration valued (PT Office Manager role listed).
- **Notable engineering focus**: Open roles include Staff Software Engineer, Staff Embedded Systems Engineer, and Mechanical Engineer – strong emphasis on hardware+software integration.
- **Diverse talent pool**: Team members come from Otherlab, SPAN, Twelve, and other climate-tech companies [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/copperhome).

## Sources
1. [copperhome.com](https://copperhome.com/pages/about)
2. [copperhome.com](https://copperhome.com/pages/jobs)
3. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/copperhome)
4. [jobalmanac.com](https://www.jobalmanac.com/companies/copperhome)

## Other roles at Copper 

- [Sales and Marketing Program Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/sales-and-marketing-program-manager-copper-berkeley-california-b82k7y7v1tk8) — Berkeley California, United States
- [Retail Accounts Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/retail-accounts-manager-copper-berkeley-california-je9rgaesx2hf) — Berkeley California, United States
- [Senior Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-copper-berkeley-california-ytfnpgtecdbq) — Berkeley California, United States
- [Energy Products Program Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/energy-products-program-manager-copper-berkeley-california-yqed7021gwj8) — Berkeley California, United States
- [Staff Data Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-data-engineer-copper-berkeley-california-zv5n5mdv1900) — Berkeley California, United States
- [Senior Financial Analyst / Associate](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-financial-analyst-associate-copper-berkeley-california-j1byfw0kbztt) — Berkeley California, United States
- [Mechanical Engineer, New Product Development](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-new-product-development-copper-berkeley-california-axmpqt3zem2h) — Berkeley California, United States
- [Staff Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-copper-berkeley-california-kn42z74dgw3g) — Berkeley California, United States
- [Director of Business Development, East Coast](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-business-development-east-coast-copper-new-york-ff03ke891s48) — New York, NY
- [Staff Embedded Systems Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-embedded-systems-engineer-copper-berkeley-california-1wj9x6yqm343) — Berkeley California, United States