The technology innovation manager is part framework builder part culture marker, he is a hands on champion that drives the innovation culture at an organization while empowering and unblocking grassroots initiatives that solves or pushes the envelope in operational excellence. Mindfield Consulting’s technology innovation manager job description should be used by leaders to understand the role and to hire and vet candidates against.
Key Imperatives for a Technology Innovation Manager: Problem Solver versus Culture Maker
The technology innovation manager is focused on utilizing leading industry technologies to improve processes, accelerating how organizations do their work, while finding new ways to scale and increase effectiveness. This role should focus on balancing innovation culture building versus delivering on innovative projects, which is a key decision point for leaders considering an Innovation Manager hire.
One common fallacy is to over rely on the technology innovation resource to drive and come up with all the ideas, or to fix all the problems. In reality the technology innovation leader should be seen as an enabler to identify areas in the organization where innovation culture can be enhanced, key wins for the organization, and how to retain people to continue the fuel for innovation.
Utilizing Technology Innovation Manager Job Description
This flexible job description is used to tailor for different needs of an organization within industries, technology, direct reports, and products that can be varied which are annotated with placeholders like [Industry], [Company], [Product], and [Service]. The fields can be customized for your specific context via download option below. An investment in bringing on a Technology Innovation Manager is crucial to the continued success of the technology function and your organization as a whole. Leaders are encouraged to take time and due diligence when considering their next hire.
Job Title
Innovation as a discipline is still an emerging field for businesses and institutions, of which come with a number of different job title classifications. Typically when a specializing(i.e. for product, technology, or industry) with respect to the Innovation Managers title represents a specific discipline or function that is emphasized or can characterize where innovation is to occur or the means. For this resource we focus on the various technology innovation job titles a professional can hold:
-Technology Innovation Manager
-Digital Innovation Manager
-Digital Technology Innovation
-Systems Innovation Manager
-Innovation Consultant
-[Product]
Job Description
Serving as the leader in technology innovation reporting to [CEO/CTO/VP of Technology] you will be leading [Company Name]’s innovation maturity program, in nurturing and developing the organization’s innovation capabilities and culture. The focus of the Technology Innovation Manager is to provide recommendations to senior leadership on key innovation projects to align resources and support to completion. The Manager alongside [departments] will coach and empower delivery teams to adopt a culture of innovation to better serve customers and stakeholders. The Manager will further serve as a subject matter expert in utilizing technology to scale, grow, and increase the effectiveness of on-going operations alongside demonstrated gains in KPI. The innovation manager will continually challenge the status quo of best practices, or good enough sentiments, to help propel the organization into devising industry leading practices.
Scope of Role
-Provide leadership on existing technology portfolio for innovation balancing exploration with ROI
-Oversee multiple innovation projects to meet cost, scope, and schedule constraints
-Partner closely with [department(s)] to deliver projects with scale and impact
-Identify talent needs that will help enable the successful delivery of the innovation roadmap
-Address talent needs by hiring contractors, staff, or training existing team members
-Guide strategic investments in emerging technology to enable higher levels of performance for teams
-Build out an innovation framework to identify, nurture, and scale innovation initiatives and culture in delivering impact to [stakeholders/customers]
-Develop and executive an innovation roadmap in enabling key capabilities and customer outcomes
-Develop key performance indicators and KPIs in lieu of requirements of executives and [stakeholder/customers]
-Provide leadership in prioritizing and triaging backlog of innovation projects
-Coach delivery teams on AGILE best practice to foster culture for innovation
-Identify and manage external vendors in the delivery of contracted work
-Ability to roll up your sleeves to assist with delivering innovation projects while empowering other department leaders
-Lead SR&ED submissions to gain funding and cost advantage for innovation initiatives
Skills and Qualifications
-Passion for moving out of the status-quo and leading change that makes an impact
-Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering or related [industry] experience
-Experience influencing executive leaders and delivery teams to work collaboratively and adopt[industry] leading technology and methods
-Strong track record of growing innovation capability and maturity within organization
-2-4 years’ creating an innovation platform to take ideas from concept, operation, to scale
-6+ years’ scoping, leading, and delivering innovation initiatives
-3 + years’ providing technology solutions in an [industry] environment preferred
-Knowledge of SR&ED rules and experience submitting proposals for review to the CRA
-Experience utilizing and coaching AGILE delivery methods on projects
-PMP, ITIL, SCRUM certification desirable
Achieving Bold Technology Innovation
Mindfield has a history of vetting, executing, and operationalizing bold technology visions. Our team enables the right technology and people to work together to help organizations lead in their industry. Contact Mindfield consulting for support in vetting technology candidates or preparing for future leadership interviews.