Senior Director, Innovation

Job Summary:

Identifies human and business needs by coordinating research across the department, understanding research initiatives across the organization, and obtaining access for complex primary and secondary research, partnering with key stakeholders to obtain and scope data, refining the interpretation of data, and navigating the political landscape of the organization to identify critical gaps/issues in current services, experiences, or products.Champions a culture of using innovative visual approaches for explaining complex recommendations, surveying the industry for new approaches, and setting standards for reports, presentations, and descriptions. Builds partnerships and leverages business opportunities to set the strategic direction of multidisciplinary teams to develop, synthesize, ideate, prototype, facilitate the creation of requirements, and test complex innovative solutions. Forecasts diverse business/stakeholder needs, evaluates overlap with organizational goals, and identify and engage content experts to drive the strategic alignment of stage-appropriate business cases and product/services strategies. Advises and guides executive leaders on the planning and implementation of complex projects and champions a culture of collaboration and fostering partnerships with inter/intraorganizational and executive leaders.Ensures and aligns necessary resources for the successful deployment of frameworks/playbooks and drives socialization efforts during deployment for high-priority projects, and forecasts changes and needs to champion continuous improvement processes.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Builds organizational capacity and prepares high potentials for growth opportunities and advancement; builds collaborative networks inside and outside the organization for self and others. Provides framework for soliciting and acting on performance feedback; drives collaboration to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to foster performance improvement. Models and drives continuous learning and oversees the recruitment, selection, and development of talent; stays current with industry trends, benchmarks, and best practices; ensures performance management guidelines and expectations to achieve business needs. Acts as a thought leader on industry trends, benchmarks, and best practices; shares best practices within and across teams to drive improvement. Motivates and empowers teams; maintains a highly skilled and engaged workforce by aligning cross-functional resource plans with business objectives. Provides guidance when difficult decisions need to be made; creates opportunities for expanded scope of decision making and impact across teams.
• Oversees the operation of multiple units and/or departments by identifying member and operational needs; ensures the management of work assignment allocation and completion; translates business strategy into actionable business requirements; ensures products and/or services meet member requirements and expectations while aligning with organizational strategies. Engages strategic, cross-functional business units to champion and drive support for business plans and priorities; assumes responsibility for decision making; sets standards, measures progress, and ensures resolution of escalated issues. Sets and communicates goals and objectives; analyzes resources, costs, and forecasts and incorporates them into business plans; obtains and distributes resources. Anticipates and removes obstacles that impact performance; addresses performance gaps and implements contingency plans accordingly; ensures teams accomplish business objectives; serves as a subject-matter expert and trusted source to executive leadership; provides influence and consultation in the development of the larger organizational or business strategy.
• Communicates ideas by: championing a culture of using innovative visual approachesfor explaining complex recommendations and surveying industry trends for new approaches; and setting standards and expectations for reports, presentations, and descriptions, and championing effective storytelling techniques to align findings with business strategy to generate buy-in and influence senior leaders.
• Architects solutions by: building external partnerships and leveraging new business opportunitiesto set the strategic direction for multidisciplinary teams in the development, synthesizing, ideation, prototyping, and testing of complex and innovative solutions; championing industry best practices to ensure recommendations meet quality standards and effectively meet business and human needs; providing oversight to teams on organizational requirements to guide the facilitation for outlining, defining, and prioritizing requirements and capabilities for new complex solutions; forecasting diverse business/stakeholder needs, evaluating overlap with organizational goals, and identifying and engaging content experts to drive the strategic alignment of stage-appropriate business cases with organizational goals; and evaluating the complexities and overlap of organizational goals with the implementation of new projects to steer the creation of complex product & service strategies that include vision, goals, target market/members, key capabilities, product & service roadmaps, and other strategy components.
• Identifies human and business needs by: coordinating research across the department, collaborating with senior leaders to understand other research initiatives across the organization, and obtaining access for primary and secondary research; partnering with key stakeholders to obtain data, scoping data sources, and refining the interpretation of data; and navigating the political landscape of the organization to identify complex or critical gaps/issues in current services, experiences, or products for multiple projects or strategic initiatives to champion business/stakeholder needs.
• Supports and monitors deployment efforts by: ensuring and aligning resources needed for the successful deployment of frameworks/playbooks and driving socialization efforts for high-priority projects; ensuring program outcomes align to business strategy and/or KPIs, providing oversight on business objectives, and partnering with executive leaders to review and refine performance metrics; and championing continuous process improvement efforts by forecasting internal and external changes and developing continuous improvement strategies.
• Manages projects by: championing the development of complex project approaches and work plans and driving conversations with executive leadership and sponsors to plan and prioritize current/future projects, determine resource availability, and manage the portfolio of projects; and shaping project outcomes, coordinating and distributing resources, setting expectations and providing oversight to identify, remove, and/or escalate barriers across multiple highly complexinitiatives to deliver high-quality outcomes.
• Supports stakeholders by: advising and guidingexecutive leaders on the planning and implementation of highly complex projects; and championing a culture of collaboration and fostering strategic partnerships with inter/intraorganizational and external partners and executive leaders.