Make your mark for patients
We are looking for a Competitive Intelligence Specialist who is curious, thorough, and collaborative to join our Intellectual Property team, based in our UCB office in Slough, UK or in our HQ located in Anderlecht, Belgium.
About the role
You will support our intellectual property teams by searching scientific and patent literature, preparing clear reports, monitoring filings, and sharing insights that help guide strategic decisions.
You will also contribute to awareness activities, support due‑diligence work, and help improve how we manage and share information across the organisation.
Who you’ll work with
You will be working in a team that collaborates closely with intellectual property attorneys, competitive intelligence colleagues, scientists, and other specialists across UCB.
You will also interact with external partners, including database providers and peers at conferences, to stay informed about new tools and industry developments.
What you’ll do
• Search scientific and patent literature to support assessments of landscapes, patentability, and freedom to operate.
• Prepare clear, structured reports highlighting key findings for attorneys.
• Monitor relevant patent filings, legal status updates, and regulatory developments.
• Share insights and updates through bulletins, dashboards, and internal communication channels.
• Support training for colleagues on how to search for patents.
• Contribute to projects that enhance internal databases and information services.
Further responsibilities, depending on experience in a similar position, could include for instance:
1. Conducting more complex searches.
2. Assisting the attorneys in their due diligence activities.
3. Coaching and training UCB teams (outside of IPD) interested UCB staff to help themselves search for patents.
4. Liaisons with external database suppliers on technical and financial aspects.
5. Taking the lead on particular IPD-CI projects.
Interested? For this role we’re looking for:
• A degree in biological or life sciences, biochemistry, molecular biology, gene technology, or related fields.
• Ability to interpret scientific and patent information and summarise key insights clearly.
• Strong communication skills and attention to detail when analysing and reporting data.
• Curiosity, willingness to learn, and comfort working with new tools and technologies.
• At least basic knowledge/understanding of key word searching in commercial patent and literature databases (e.g. STN, Patbase, Pubmed, Espacenet)
• Ideally some knowledge of Biological sequence searching (e.g. GenomeQuest, NCBI)
• Ability to collaborate across teams and work effectively with diverse colleagues.
Are you ready to ‘go beyond’ to create value and make your mark for patients? If this sounds like you, then we would love to hear from you!