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The German Patent and Trade Mark Office – an attractive employer
Balance work and family, find security
Have you always had a passion for inventions and are looking for a new venture? One that allows you to balance work, family and leisure? As a federal authority, we have a lot to offer to you – both as a central provider of IP services and as a family-friendly employer with flexible working hours.
Why work at the DPMA? What we offer you
Important notice:
With German being the working language at the DPMA, current job advertisements, training schemes, characteristic job profiles and other parts of this career site are published in German only. Please refer to the German-language version of this website. Applications must be made in the German language.
The German Patent and Trade Mark Office is responsible for the protection of innovations in Germany. In fulfilling this task, the DPMA itself has been and is a pioneer in digital administration. Instead of dusty file storage rooms, a modern, digital and ergonomic workplace awaits you. This allows a large part of our staff to work from home, so they can better reconcile work, leisure and family life.
We offer very good social benefits, individual qualification and career opportunities, a professional health management service and are committed to equal opportunity. As a civil service employer, we offer secure employment to boot.
For a better work-life balance
We take our social responsibility seriously and have a particular way of rewarding your commitment: Because we respect that people in the 21st century want to reconcile work and private life, we help our staff connect these two areas of life.
Our flexible working system allows you to reconcile work, family and leisure, as we offer part-time working schemes tailored to your individual needs and flexitime, so you are largely flexible in choosing when you work. For example, in addition to your regular vacation days, you can take up to 24 compensation days per year – subject to a sufficient working-time account balance.
Moreover, as a DPMA staff member you can also work from your home office. Almost half of our 2,772 staff (as at 31 January 2021) already have so-called teleworking jobs. In the current pandemic situation, organisational measures and the provision of further technical equipment made it possible to offer home working options for more than 90% of the staff, so that personal contacts at the workplace are largely limited and, at the same time, staff can better reconcile their family duties with professional requirements.
As the balance of work and private life and a family-friendly working environment are very important to us, our staff have many options. You can work as a part-time executive, e.g. by sharing leadership with another executive (two-person leadership), and you can bring your child to work on days when regular childcare arrangements fall through at short notice. We provide parent-child rooms or you can borrow our mobile toy box. Our Zweibrückenstraße office houses a crèche run in cooperation with the City of Munich.
Furthermore, the family support service of the Arbeiterwohlfahrt (a workers’ welfare association) offers help, e.g. if children or elderly/disabled relatives suddenly need care, and the DPMA pays the fees for the advice on and the procurement of care.
The DPMA’s family-friendly personnel policy is expressed by its membership in the family-oriented organisation 
Familienpakt Bayern (Bavarian Family Pact) and the nationwide network Erfolgsfaktor Familie (Success Factor Family). The exchange of experiences with other members and the comprehensive platforms for knowledge, topics and contacts in the member area serve to promote the balance of family life and work at the DPMA in the future too.
In 2020, the DPMA was recognised for its family-friendliness and awarded the "work and family" (berufundfamilie) audit certificate.
Benefit from our workplace health management
Whether you work for a private sector company or a federal authority: You and your well-being are what determine success. If you feel comfortable at work, you are motivated and committed. We lay the foundations and therefore provide workplace health management. Our goal is to promote, improve and maintain the health and job satisfaction of all staff at the DPMA.
We support measures for reducing harmful stresses and strains and exploiting health promotion potential. We want to offer ideal work contents, ideal working conditions and an ideal work organisation. That is why we provide an ergonomic work environment (no open-plan offices). We encourage you to behave in a health-conscious way and take advantage of this offer. Our aim is you like working at the DPMA. We offer our staff a variety of fitness activities and relaxation classes (e.g. Pilates, fascia training, yoga) during the lunch break or after work. This programme prevents a lack of physical activity, serves to ease work-related stress and enhance resilience. In addition, we focus on a new key theme every year, e.g. healthy eating or digitisation and health. These annual themes are supported by different campaigns, workshops and talks.
Personnel development: Our staff is our priority
Skilled, motivated staff are a prerequisite for an organisation’s success. To maintain and, above all, develop and extend these resources, we pursue a reasonable personnel development. That means we take the skills, strengths and career objectives of our staff into consideration and discuss and agree adequate development and promotion measures with them.
Only if an employer recognises good work, it can deploy its staff in an appropriate and success-oriented manner. To achieve this, we count on dialogue. If you show us options for your further development, if you are committed and open to changes, we will support you. This is how we ensure the job satisfaction, motivation, performance and commitment of all of our staff in the long term. We offer you good career and development opportunities because we recruit executives mainly from our own ranks. In addition, you can attend general training courses (e.g. language courses, IT courses).
We live equal opportunities
A federal authority, we have to fulfil our statutory duties. The organisation and structure of our office are subject to the framework of the civil service. As a staff member of our office, you benefit from a secure job that allows you to make future plans.
We have a diverse staff. People of various nationalities, of different genders and with disabilities work at the DPMA. We appreciate the work of every one of them and value them as human beings.
Pictures: DPMA, institutions
Last updated: 9 March 2022
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