Director, AI Innovation – Emerging Capabilities

Role Overview

• The Director, AI Innovation & Emerging Capabilities leads the scouting, introduction, and scaling of AI and disruptive digital technologies across R&D.
• This role serves as the function's primary horizon scanner and innovation translator, converting external signals into concrete R&D opportunities and building structured pathways from early-stage pilots to scaled capabilities.
• The Director operates with a future-back mindset, ensuring the organization is not caught off-guard by technological disruption but instead positioned to capitalize on it.
• Continuously monitor the external AI and disruptive technology landscape to identify signals, trends, and emerging capabilities with potential R&D relevance.
• Maintain a living map of the external innovation environment including academia, startups, vendors, and adjacent industries.
• Establish and manage a network of external relationships (research institutes, technology partners, innovation ecosystems) to maintain leading-edge awareness.
• Triage and assess emerging threats and opportunities using structured evaluation frameworks before they surface in mainstream discourse.
• Translate complex external technology signals into concise, R&D-relevant opportunity briefs that leadership can act on.
• Identify and articulate capability gaps between the current R&D operating model and what disruptive trends demand.
• Introduce capabilities and approaches that would not organically surface through internal channels, deliberately expanding the organization's aperture of what is possible.
• Develop compelling narratives and business cases for disruptive capabilities, tailored to senior R&D and cross-functional audiences.
• Design and govern a structured pipeline from exploratory pilot to production-scale capability, with defined stage-gates, success criteria, and go/no-go decision logic.
• Lead proof-of-concept and pilot initiatives for high-potential disruptive technologies, ensuring rapid learning cycles and clear value demonstration.
• Partner with delivery and product teams to transition successful pilots into scalable, embedded capabilities that measurably improve R&D execution.
• Define and track performance metrics demonstrating that disruptive capabilities are delivering tangible, quantifiable impact on R&D outcomes.
• Provide R&D leadership with a clear, regularly updated view of the innovation landscape; presenting insights in formats that drive decision-making, not just awareness.
• Serve as a credible internal voice on AI and digital disruption, challenging conventional thinking and advocating for proactive capability investment.
• Contribute to strategic planning cycles by ensuring innovation foresight is embedded as a structural input, not an afterthought.
• Support team operating model design and contribute to intake and prioritization processes.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in technology strategy, innovation, AI/ML, or digital transformation roles
• Demonstrated track record of translating emerging technology trends into adopted value-generating capabilities within a large organization
• Deep knowledge of the current and near-future AI and digital technology landscape, including generative AI, machine learning, agentic systems, and adjacent disruptive technologies
• Experience designing and running pilot programs with defined success criteria, stage-gate governance, and clear pathways to scale
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to senior, non-technical audiences with clarity and conviction
• Comfortable operating with ambiguity; skilled at structuring undefined problem spaces and creating frameworks where none exist
• Strong external network across technology vendors, research institutions, and innovation ecosystems.

Benefits

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