Career Opportunities

Job Description:

The Innovation Manager is viewed as a critical role within the Innovation Group. The Innovation Manager reports to the Innovation Leader and is responsible for a variety of tasks on a project basis in support of the group’s objectives. This position is being added by the Innovation Group to improve the strategic, growth, & commercialization efforts of the entire organization's product portfolio and ensure that the business' strategic plans, marketing plans, development plans, and product positioning are aligned and successful. This position is specifically expected to directly contribute to the identification and realization of profitable business growth opportunities. The Innovation Manager position requires collaboration with external customers, internal customers, team members and other influencers to ensure all efforts have a strong market connect. This individual will spend the majority of their time managing projects in stage one and stage two of the stage gate process.

Roles & Responsibilities:

Primary Roles and Responsibilities Include:

1. Project Management: Work in partnership with cross functional teams to drive the development of technologies, with a focus on, resource prioritization, product lineup and role within the overall portfolio.
• Drive development and implementation of the company's innovation and commercialization process, including assessing the balance of short-term/long-term innovation needs, resource prioritization processes and identification of key metrics.
• Assist in the development of innovation platform growth strategies in partnership with Innovation Team Members to ensure that platforms are clearly defined, on-strategy with long-term visions articulated, have adequate resources planned over multi-year horizon, and with realistic targets set.
2. Analytical Support: Work within the Innovation Group and organization structure to identify the appropriate data collection and analysis required to attain project goals. Apply analytical frameworks and organization to unstructured business situations or to address specific questions or hypothesis. Understand, conduct and effectively communicate the results/findings of complex data analysis techniques.
3. Direct Market Analysis: Define and conduct the appropriate market/customer research required to attain project goals. Work with appropriate internal and external sources/organizations to develop and execute market research plans, data collection approaches, and direct customer data collection approaches in order to deepen market intelligence as a basis for improved strategic plans and commercialization approaches. Assimilate available data from various sources and communicate key findings/results.
4. Competitive Analysis: Define and conduct the appropriate competitive research and analysis to attain project goals. Work with appropriate internal and external sources/organizations to develop and execute competitive research plans, data collection approaches, and develop pro forma cost/margin analysis in order to deepen competitive intelligence as a basis for improved strategic plans and commercialization approaches.
5. Development: Define, refine, test and validate the overall opportunities for materials and commercialization approaches. Develop market insight by utilizing various sources of market and competitive data to define overall market/value chain structure. Conduct creative processes to develop and define strategic hypotheses. Establish and implement methods to test hypothesis validity and drive strategic insight.
6. Opportunity Assessment: Evaluate specific business opportunities based on both fundamental analytical and subjective methods. Evaluate business and investment opportunities using financial and sensitivity analysis.
7. Team Participation: Work with cross-functional teams through complex business issues. Understand and implement project planning, cornerstone planning, and group facilitation skills to attain project results.
8. Leadership: Provide direction to Innovation by influence and persuasion rather than through direct lines of authority. Identify new growth opportunities, develop business buy-in, and align business resources to successfully exploit those opportunities. Question existing business paradigms and challenge existing business strategies and structures in order to improve strategic plans, commercialization approaches and business results.

Job Requirements:

• Highly developed analytical skills and capability
• Superior strategy and commercialization skills
• Deep understanding of advanced business framework and complex business decision making techniques
• Highly developed interpersonal relationship skills including influence beyond formal authority
• Highly developed written and oral communication skills
• Creativity and persuasiveness
• Experience in market analysis and field data collection (market development)
• Advanced computer skills
• Technical undergraduate degree e.g. Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Materials Science, Polymers, Physics etc. MBA Preferred
• Five - Seven years of experience in the Chemical industry
• Stage Gate project leadership or team membership

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