PanEuropeanSeal YP in IT

Check out the units which are participating in the Pan-European Seal Young Professionals Programme 2025/2026 and let us know your preference when applying: 

Engineering and Architecture

Engineering and Architecture drives cloud-native engineering and architecture by curating and updating IT strategy, reference applications and architectures, and technical standards. The department collaborates closely with Business Information Technology's (BIT) domain and product architects to deliver solutions that are strategic as well as practical, efficient and fully compliant with established BIT standards and methods.
This role offers a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in a dynamic environment. You will be learning from seasoned professionals (lead architects) and contributing to the creation and delivery of IT products that have a tangible impact on the EPO’s operations.
 

Data Science

The Data Science team uses artificial intelligence to support patent examiners with a variety of processes during the patent grant process. We operate a diverse AI stack, based on small and large language models as well as computer vision models to solve interesting and complex problems. These include finding relevant citations from patent applications, prediction of classification symbols from massive labels spaces for multimodal information, file routing and generating natural language answers for procedural natural language questions.
You will be involved in state-of-the-art machine learning and AI application development to support the patent grant process using large language models and large vision models in the cloud and on-premises. You will contribute to data preparation as well as the finetuning and evaluation of these models in close cooperation with the rest of the Data Science team and machine learning engineers.
 

User Experience

The User Experience team is responsible for providing user experience (UX) design services within the EPO and is in charge of the EPO Design System, which is a set of common UX components and guidelines. The team supports the development and maintenance of internal and external software applications by ensuring that the overall solutions provide the best possible user experience in terms of  user requirements such as accessibility and ergonomics. Additionally, designs must be compliant with the EPO Design System and consistent across the whole portfolio of applications. The team tests and validates designs and prototypes with users to ensure their effectiveness.
You will be involved in enhancing the usability of the design system's (DS) component library and CSS framework. Furthermore, you will support by identifying and addressing pain points in the integration of DS components into various projects. Additionally, you will create and maintain DS documentation, develop onboarding resources for new developers and manage and support the front-end developer community.
 

IT Co-operation Partnerships

IT Co‑operation Partnerships drives collaboration between the EPO and national patent offices, focusing on IT modernisation and digitisation. It delivers advanced data-driven tools and search solutions to streamline patent processes from application to grant. This dynamic team delivers key tools that foster innovation, interoperability and a harmonised patent ecosystem, enhancing the efficiency of the European patent system.
You will be fully immersed in IT cooperation-related activities, with a primary focus on implementing the deployment of new search tools and data-driven applications. Additionally, you will contribute to business analysis, user support and data-related tasks, ensuring alignment with the overarching project objectives and supporting its successful execution.
 

IT Cooperation – Implementation Support

The EPO's IT Cooperation Directorate facilitates seamless technical collaboration among national patent offices worldwide. This ensures exceptional services, efficient processes and a harmonised patent ecosystem for users of the European patent system.
Our primary mission is to streamline and simplify the patent application and examination process. We achieve this by managing robust IT cooperation initiatives that focus on interoperability between the EPO and its partner offices. These efforts include a comprehensive programme to modernise and digitise the operations of partner patent offices. This initiative supports a wide range of IT tools for handling patent applications, from submission to grant, and oversees the global deployment of an advanced search tool.
You will be involved in IT cooperation-related activities, focusing primarily on implementing new end-to-end patent processing tools using AI, blockchain and advanced software development. You will contribute to business analysis and support the overall project objectives. Additionally, you will be working on delivering applications and tools tailored for partner offices and their customers, and assisting in coordinating activities with partner offices. Further, you will be using modern development tools, AI and blockchain to build advanced interactive tools. You will also learn design patterns for multi-system integration as well as enhanced technical skills in Java/SpringBoot and JavaScript/React, apply DevOps practices and gain experience in a multicultural, multi-site setting.
 

Web Solutions

The Web Solutions department ensures the maintenance, evolution and innovation of the EPO's web presences. It delivers end-to-end technical solutions, adopts new web technologies, consolidates platforms, improves site functionalities and supports online publication processes to enhance internal and external user engagement.
You will collaborate with stakeholders, support workflow management, contribute to web content and tool integration, and explore AI capabilities in online publications. Through hands-on projects, you will gain experience in web technologies, DevOps, CI/CD, automated testing and the interface between business and IT.
 

Finance Tech Centre of Excellence

The Finance Tech Centre of Excellence, part of the Corporate IT Directorate, supports the Finance and Procurement business units by delivering and maintaining essential IT tools, including SAP S/4Hana, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Commerce and Ivalua, a cloud-based procurement platform. The department also acts as a strategic business partner, providing advice and support to ensure effective and efficient operations in these areas.
You will provide operational support to all stakeholders of Ivalua, while also supporting the application life-cycle from requirement gathering to testing, analysis and deployment, incident resolution and ticket management (ServiceNow and Ivalua extranet). You will complete Ivalua's certification process to learn the application.
 

Data Protection Office

The Data Protection Office is responsible for monitoring the legal and operational compliance of the EPO with Data Protection Rules. It provides advice on the protection of personal data in relation to projects, contracts and cooperation agreements. Additionally, it develops policies and methodologies, issues guidance documents, conducts data protection audits and carries out awareness activities.
You will be involved in assessing IT security and data protection risks related to new projects and activities. Additionally, you will evaluate the data protection and IT security measures of external providers and translate technical and legal requirements into practical advice for business areas. Your role will also include participating in data protection audits and investigations.
 

Risk and Compliance

The Risk and Compliance team is responsible for maintaining the Integrated Management System and keeping it compliant with the standards of the Office (ISO9000, ISO45000, EMAS, ISO27000), data protection, business continuity as well as the coordination of the internal and external audits. Sustainability of the IT services delivered and GreenIT are also part of our core activities.
You will be working with the Sustainability and ICT Sustainability teams to support environmental reporting for EMAS certification. Additionally, you will enhance ICT Sustainability carbon footprint dashboards and reports, and work on the life cycle assessment of the main ICT assets to improve their footprint within the configuration management database. Furthermore, you will develop customised messaging and campaigns to support both Business Information Technology's (BIT) internal communication and communication with BIT users. You will also organise and support specific communication events or campaigns when required, such as World Cyber Cleanup Day and International E-Waste Day.
This is a great opportunity if you want to work in various areas of ICT sustainability (digital responsibility, digital sobriety, eWaste, ecoDesign, GreenOps), and especially if you are keen to act in limiting digital pollution while working in our Sustainability team.
 

Patent Academy - Digital Implementation (EdTech)

This department is responsible for devising the learning management system (LMS) platforms, tools and formats to implement the training activities and e-learning resources in the annual European Patent Academy catalogue. Areas of responsibility include LMS and user interfaces, reporting of training data and the implementation of technological and AI enhancements: virtual assistants, personalised training recommendations, accessibility aids, engagement boosters and learning resources' curation and creation aids. These developments aim to elevate the quality, sustainability and scalability of the e-learning offering.
You will contribute to the pedagogical and technical implementation of online training activities in the European Patent Academy. Additionally, you will support contextual testing of the Moodle platform at the user interface level, collect, clean, and consolidate data from training activities for reporting purposes, and contribute to the optimisation of the Moodle interface for a better user experience and system performance. Additionally, you will maintain and improve the training activities dashboard and its visuals, contribute to the implementation of online and onsite training events, including the setup of Moodle resources and webpages, and act as an invigilator for European qualifying examinations.
 

Certifications

The EQE and Certifications department supports the EPO's mission towards an accessible and sustainable patent system. The department organises and manages the implementation of the fully digital European qualifying examination (EQE) and European patent administration certification (EPAC). We collaborate closely with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders and oversee governance of the examinations. We also implement the Candidate Support Programme which is another impactful initiative, fostering equitable access to the patent profession. Moreover, we are in the process of proposing a new certificate on European patent information.
You will collaborate with IT departments and examination providers on certification tools and digital processes, propose and follow the implementation of technical solutions for the interoperability of examination systems, and support the development, testing and use of digital examination platforms such as WISEflow, ServiceNow-based EQC portal and secure servers. Additionally, you will support testing to ensure data confidentiality and platform resilience, generate technical reports and analyses for management and stakeholders, assist with digital process simplification and technical troubleshooting, and contribute to the creation of the new European patent information certificate.