Summary

The Innovation Operations Manager provides team leadership and administration with an emphasis on driving the implementation of our disciplined innovation framework processes and leveraging shared resources across a variety of stakeholders. The role will facilitate business development planning, engage with internal and external partners, and oversee highly collaborative product development and project management projects that support our leadership in the industry. The role also executes a variety of research and data analysis to help inform insights and opportunities that support the business and enhance customer value.

Reporting to:

Sr. Vice President of Innovation & Business Development

Job Responsibilities:

• Team Leadership & Administration
  • Manage strategic planning processes, monthly departmental business review reporting, annual outcomes reporting, and departmental budgeting processes.
  • Manage the implementation of our Innovation Framework roadmap across our family of brands for standardization of best practices and gained efficiencies.
  • Develop business cases and standardized processes to inform our investment prioritization and measure ROI.
  • Collaborate with Senior Product Technology Manager for implementation and utilization of our systems to support standardization of our disciplined Innovation Framework processes, KPI's, and data-driven decision making across our family of brands.
  • Collaborate with broader Strategic Services team for leverage and gained efficiencies (data team, professional development team, scholar network, etc.).

• Project Management and Product Development:
  • Support a variety of 'special projects' and 'shared' product development projects to gain efficiencies across the brands, minimize duplication and risk, and bring more new news to the marketplace.
  • Maintain collaborative project management schedules and produce data driven reporting to inform project success and continuous quality improvements.
  • Organize and facilitate project planning meetings (e.g., strategy sessions, progress checks, project handoffs, etc.) to ensure that all parties involved are properly informed and contributing, as necessary, to ensure alignment, sequencing and high quality execution.
  • Support prototyping, internal and field-testing processes.

• Manage Third Party Partnerships:
  • Manage strategic product related third party partnerships by serving as a liaison across stakeholder groups, ensuring contract oversight, and overseeing project management oversight for timelines and deliverables.
  • Coordinate partnership with University Industrial Design Program(s) for gained efficiencies and program enhancements that support studio classes and a variety of internship programs to fuel ideation and new product development concepts.
  • Oversee contract management processes and requirements and nurture highly quality, long-term relationships.

• Lead Research and Analysis:
  • Execute competitive intelligence activities and schedules to facilitate shared learnings across our teams and inform our business case strategies to lead in the marketplace.
  • Support benchmarking and analysis across current and new markets for ongoing insights and data driven decision making.
  • Build data driven business cases, proposals, and presentations to internal and external stakeholders.
  • Attend trade shows to gain insights, stay abreast of competitive activities, and nurture relationships with a variety of partners.

• Training and Change Management:
  • Support value proposition workshops to ensure current and relevance positioning across the brand portfolio and special projects with a keen focus on voice of customer.
  • Develop and deliver workshops and training modules that support change management and implementation of our innovation framework.
  • Deliver a variety of best practice and industry insight presentations to share knowledge across our teams related to industry trends, benchmarks, etc.
  • Other projects and activities as assigned.

Desired Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in a related field.
• 7 years plus of related experience.
• Proven Project management and/or product development leadership experience.
• Demonstrated success leading strategic partnerships.
• Process oriented analytical thinking and data-driven decision making.
• Attention to detail with the ability to execute in a fast-paced environment with competing deadlines.
• Exhibit creative thinking. The ideal candidate will be able to design and support direction to help meet objectives, expected outcomes, and KPI's that are within budget and resource parameters.
• Possess a strong ability to learn and leverage current methods for continuous quality improvements.
• Proven ability to utilize internal software systems such as Aha!, AutoCAD, Monday.com, etc. to enhance cross collaborations and project management processes for on time and on budget.
• Highly collaborative with the ability to train and influence change management.
• Must be committed to supporting the mission and values of PlayCore.

Additional Information

• Employee Type: Full-time Exempt
• Manages Others: Provides support to interns
• Travel: Up to 20%