Associate Director, Innovation Portfolio Lead

Royal Bank of Canada•New York, NY

3d•Onsite

About The Position

The Innovation Portfolio Lead will own the management and progression of the Innovation Foundry’s portfolio of ideas, experiments, and emerging solutions. This role will create the structure and discipline required to move ideas from initial concept through validation, incubation, and ultimately to a clear decision to scale, transition, or stop. Sitting at the intersection of business, technology, and innovation, the Portfolio Lead will work closely with idea originators, Foundry teams, subject matter experts, and senior stakeholders to ensure we invest time and resources in the opportunities with the greatest potential to create meaningful business value.

Requirements

7+ years of experience leading innovation portfolios, product portfolios, venture building, product strategy, or similar initiatives within a complex organization.
Innovation and product lifecycle expertise — strong understanding of how ideas move from discovery and validation through experimentation, incubation, product development, and scale.
Portfolio management and prioritization — ability to evaluate competing opportunities, balance strategic value against feasibility and investment, and recommend where to accelerate, pivot, pause, or stop.
Business case and value assessment — experience defining hypotheses, success measures, investment requirements, expected business outcomes, and the evidence required to support continued investment.
Technology and emerging innovation fluency — working knowledge of AI, data, digital products, fintech, and emerging technology trends, with the ability to engage credibly with both technical and business teams.
Executive stakeholder management — ability to influence senior leaders, challenge assumptions constructively, synthesize complex information, and communicate clear recommendations and portfolio narratives.
Structured problem solving in ambiguity — ability to bring clarity and momentum to early-stage opportunities where the problem, solution, ownership, or path to value may not yet be fully defined.
Experience working across business, product, technology, and other cross-functional teams to move initiatives from concept toward execution.

Nice To Haves

Experience within financial services, capital markets, fintech, or another highly regulated industry.
Experience with AI, alternative data, data products, or technology-enabled business models.
Exposure to venture studios, accelerators, corporate innovation programs, product incubation, or internal venture building.
Experience developing commercialization strategies, go-to-market plans, or transitioning incubated products into scaled business or technology teams.
Experience working directly with founders, entrepreneurs, or employee-led innovation programs.

Responsibilities

Own the Innovation Portfolio: Maintain the view of Foundry initiatives, providing visibility into pipeline, maturity, investment, dependencies, risks, and expected business value.
Drive Ideas Through the Lifecycle: Establish clear pathways from intake and evaluation through experimentation, validation, incubation, and scale, ensuring every initiative has defined outcomes and decision points.
Prioritize & Challenge: Partner with business and technology leaders to assess opportunities based on strategic alignment, client or business value, feasibility, differentiation, and potential to scale.
Create Portfolio Discipline: Define lightweight stage gates, success measures, investment criteria, and governance that allow the Foundry to move quickly while making deliberate decisions about where to invest.
Enable Founders & Teams: Work closely with employees bringing forward ideas, connecting them with the right expertise, resources, sponsors, and partners to give strong ideas the best opportunity to succeed.