Analysis Skills, Business Administration, Business Analysis, Business Case, Business Development, Business-to-Business (B2B), Construction, Cross-Functional, Establish Priorities, Management Consulting, Manufacturing, Market Analysis, Market Trend Analysis, Marketing Requirements Document (MRD), Mining Industry, Oil and Gas, Oil and Gas Exploration, Pricing, Product Documentation, Product Engineering, Product Management, Product Planning, Product Positioning, Return on Investment (ROI), Risk Analysis, Total Cost of Ownership, Willing to Travel, Writing Skills
Position: Senior Innovation Analyst
Location: onsite in Buffalo, NY
Duration: Fultime
Visa: citizens
What You'll Be Doing:
Opportunity Assessment & Analysis
Transform half-formed technical concepts into structured business assessments by collaborating with technical specialists, product experts, and engineering teams
Produce rigorous opportunity assessments including market sizing, customer value framing, competitive positioning, target customer identification, business case fundamentals (TCO, ROI, payback), and risk analysis
Deliver decision-ready recommendations that directly inform executive prioritization and investment decisions
Customer Validation
Lead targeted customer engagement to validate assessment assumptions and ground opportunities in real demand
Conduct on-site discovery with plant managers, process engineers, and operations leadership to test business-critical assumptions
Market Requirements Documentation
Author Market Requirements Documents (MRDs) for prioritized opportunities, defining market problems, customer segments, use cases, competitive landscape, and success metrics
Provide structured handoffs to product and engineering teams for downstream development
Market Intelligence
Maintain working knowledge of competitive offerings, pricing dynamics, and market trends across verticals (Mining & Industrial, Oil & Gas Drilling, Civil Construction) and adjacent industries
Ground all assessments in current market reality
Stakeholder Collaboration
Build strong cross-functional relationships with technical, commercial, and operations teams
Guide engineers and product specialists in framing business questions and support commercial leaders with structured opportunity views for innovation investment decisions
What You'll Need to Have:
Travel: Up to 15% to customer sites, plants, and industry events
Bachelor's degree required; MBA or other business-focused graduate degree strongly preferred, ideally paired with a technical undergraduate (engineering, science, or related discipline).
5+ years in product management, product planning, business analysis, management consulting (especially industrial practices), or related disciplines that develop structured business judgment.
Strong understanding of industrial industries: (examples: civil construction, mining, oil & gas)
Demonstrated ability to take ambiguous opportunities and develop them into clear, decision-ready business assessments.
Strong written communication, particularly in structured analytical documents, opportunity assessments, business cases, MRDs, executive briefs, or similar artifacts.
Comfortable working alongside technical experts and translating between technical possibility and business viability. Industrial, manufacturing, or B2B equipment context strongly preferred.
Strong business judgment: comfortable with market sizing, value-in-use logic, TCO and ROI fundamentals, competitive positioning, and the trade-offs that arise in prioritization decisions.
Self-directed and effective in ambiguity; able to structure problems independently and bring well-framed recommendations forward rather than waiting for direction