Director, Innovation - Standards

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BUILDING A WORLD CLASS TEAM STARTS WITH YOU

At the heart of CSA Group is a vision: making the world a better, safer, more sustainable place. It's been part of our mission for nearly one hundred years: from the first engineering standard for railway bridges developed in 1919, to more than 3,500 standards, codes & related products today.

Headquartered in Canada, with a global footprint of more than 30 labs and offices across Europe, Asia and North America, CSA Group tests, inspects and certifies a wide range of products - from every day househould items to leading edge technology-to meet exacting requirements for safety, performance and environmental impact.

Our employees take pride in making a difference in people's lives through the work that we do. We're looking for people like you to help make it happen.

Job Summary:

The Director, Innovation - Standards will play a crucial role in driving Standards Organization’s digital strategy and vision. This role will be at the helm of Standard’s digital evolution at a unique time for the business.

The Director, Innovation - Standards role will appeal to a confident, proactive, energetic individual who thrives in a complex environment with a strong foundation in strategy and the customer experience. S/he will recognize that this role represents a unique opportunity to work with a dedicated team to build on past successes and help drive the continued growth of an iconic Canadian organization.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

The objective of this role is to lead the development, and execution, of the technology innovation roadmap for the Standards business – in service of its 5-year strategic plan. The scope of this role encompasses developing new business capabilities, introducing leading edge platforms, analyzing data, proposing new business models, and creating innovative public-facing digital products. The role will maintain, and execute against, an innovation roadmap for the Standards business.

Understanding the Business

• Regularly review 5-year strategic plan for the Standards business.
• Develop and lead the Standards technology innovation roadmap highlighting needs over the next 5 years.
• Externally benchmark with peer group and other sectors to ensure that the roadmap is competitive in terms of impact and timing.
• Review, align and refine innovation roadmap with key stakeholders including but not limited to the CEO & President, President of Standards, and Standards Vice Presidents
• Continually monitor the emerging technology landscape to identify opportunities to accelerate the innovation roadmap, and consequently the attainment of Standard’s strategic objectives.
• Architect, design, and lead the execution of the products on the roadmap.
• Ensure that the products remain within the parameters of the defined outcomes previously aligned with the business stakeholders.

Working Well with Others

• Provide strategic leadership and direction to the Innovation transformation team.
• Recruit, lead, coach and motivate a high-performance team by building and promoting career paths for professional growth, through goal-setting, continuous feedback, mentoring and training.
• Lead a team composed of individuals with unique skill sets spanning UX, UI, AI, Business Analysis, Advanced Analytics, Innovation, Project Management, and Full-Stack Development.
• Ensure the team understands the unique contribution each makes to innovation agenda and orchestrate their priorities through the different phases of concept development and project delivery.
• Make a deliberate effort to nurture working relationships amongst team members with significantly varied roles and create a sense of identity and belonging
• Align innovation roadmap with key business stakeholders and IT.
• Support stakeholders in the development and presentation of business cases to attain CFO approval.
• Communicate roadmap to IT and other business stakeholders enabling them to establish project plans and staffing requirements by FY.
• Adopt the process co-creation with key business stakeholders to ensure buy-in of the project and adoption of the final solution.
• Escalate to the ELT issues for resolution which deviate from strategic plan.
• Curate user interviews with employees, members, customers, prospects and members of the public to gather inspiration for product design.
• Conduct UX and UI testing with the target audience and iterate on design based on feedback received.

Delivering Results

• Adhere to the timelines outlined in original business cases.
• Estimate build and maintenance budget requirements, including business benefits.
• Attain final approval from the business stakeholders for the introduction of new technology.
• Formulate comprehensive change management plan for various products including partner mapping, change readiness, system gap assessment, risk management and mitigation.
• Lead weekly review of key performance metrics with the Technology leadership team and also within the Standards leadership team meetings highlighting any risks to FY plan.
• Ensure adherence to the innovation roadmap.
• Minimize deviation from innovation roadmap and overall technical debt.
• Maintain a disciplined process for the intake, evaluation and closeout of new requests from the business.
• Maintain appropriate levels of cyber controls, up-time, un/planned downtime.

Preferred Education and Experience:

• Bachelor of Engineering/Science and/or MBA
• PMP certified – designation does not have to be current.
• 10+ years of Program Management and Project Management experience, leading large complex IT initiatives in the Application Management domain.
• 10+ years in the Tech industry
• Experience in developing digital innovation strategies for organizational success
• 10+ years of experience either supporting, performing or leading each of the following disciplines at a large scale for a Tech company:
  • Product Development
  • Product Management
  • Product Canvas
  • Business Model Canvas
  • Operating Model Canvas
  • Product Monetization Models
  • Innovation Roadmap Development
  • Innovation Idea Sourcing
  • Design Thinking / Design Shop
  • Business Architecture
  • Application Architecture
  • Data Architecture
  • Technical Architecture
  • Advanced Data Analytics
  • Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
  • TOGAF
  • Project Management
  • Agile
  • UX/UI Design
  • Technology Budget Management
  • Change Management
• Significant experience working with, presenting to and leading executive steering committees
• Superior interpersonal, relationship building, negotiation, communication and presentation skills
• Results driven with an orientation to exceed goals and deliver high-quality business results.
• Experience of championing change and driving change throughout an organization and amongst a product user base.

CSA Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on any grounds stipulated by applicable laws. We are an organization where opportunities are based on skills and abilities, and differences are respected and valued. Please contact us at talentacquisition@csagroup.org if you require accommodation in the interview process.