Global Innovation Manager

The opportunity:

We are seeking a dynamic and forward-thinking Innovation Manager to lead the business unit innovation activities.

This role involves overseeing all BU innovation programs, seeking out innovative solutions, and building relationships with startups, universities, suppliers, and customers. Additionally, the Innovation Manager will manage our “Innovation Lab Network”, creating and developing a network of labs and third-party collaboration to drive innovation, fostering a culture of creativity and continuous progress within the organization, while staying up to date of industry trends and emerging technologies to ensure the business remains at the forefront of innovation and technology leadership.

In this role you will be asked to challenge the BU to step outside of the comfort zone, reframe the organization thinking and collaborate effectively to champion innovation at all levels within Transformers and across Hitachi Energy. Together with the other BU stakeholders, you will be requested to capture innovation ideas, inputs and challenges from the market and ideally learn from across various industries in order to gradually adopt/incorporate a new versatile problem-solving mindset as well as any innovation (be it incremental or disruptive) within Transformers with the simple objective of solidifying our technology leadership in the years to come.

The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in innovation management, excellent leadership skills, and the ability to think strategically and creatively.

How you’ll make an impact:

• Lead the innovation strategy for the entire business unit to drive business growth and efficiency, fostering a culture of open innovation across the organization.
• Oversee and manage all technology and portfolio development BU programs, ensuring alignment with innovation goals.
• Establishing and driving processes for idea generation, considering external and internal perspectives, to define customer centric technology, product and market innovation roadmaps.
• Drive collaboration with cross-functional R&D, technology, engineering, product and market teams, to identify opportunities for innovation and improvement, considering both incremental and disruptive, short-, mid- and long-term innovative initiatives to provide value to customers.
• Lead a team of technology scouts and program managers.
• Actively search for innovative solutions by engaging with startups, universities, suppliers, and customers.
• Develop and maintain relationships with external partners to foster innovation.
• Manage the Innovation Lab Network, including the creation and coordination of labs and third-party collaborations.
• Network with other Hitachi companies.
• Collaborate with internal teams to integrate innovative solutions into existing processes and products.
• Provide leadership and guidance to cross-functional teams involved in innovation projects.
• Monitor industry trends and emerging technologies to identify opportunities for innovation.
• Active scouting for overall co-creation opportunities and putting in place arrangements to fulfill the business needs.
• Aggressive mining of scientific literature and patent databases.
• Coordinate with Legal functions while managing and securing Intellectual Property.
• Managing and mentoring a cross-business team of innovators, providing guidance and support to help them develop and achieve their full potential.

Your Background:

• MSc and Industry background.
• At least 5 years of proven experience in innovation management, preferably within a similar industry, in a global corporation.
• Strong understanding of innovation processes and methodologies.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Experience in transformer, high voltage or energy industry will be highly valued.
• Ability to think creatively and strategically.
• Strong project management and organizational skills.
• Experience working with startups, universities, and external partners.
• Experience in implementing global innovation projects in topics such as Power Electronics, Robotics, Digitalization, Artificial Intelligence, etc.
• Ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams.
• Fluent spoken and written English. Other languages will be an advantage.