Innovation Pipeline & Platform Lead

IEEE•Piscataway, NJ

About The Position

The Innovation Pipeline & Platform Lead is responsible for the end-to-end operational management of IEEE's innovation pipeline and the Qmarkets Q-ideate platform (IEEE Innovation Portal). This role owns the daily flow of ideas — from intake through triage, moderation, evaluation routing, and status communication — ensuring the innovation system operates with speed, consistency, transparency, and trust. This role is the system operator and workflow governor of the Office of Innovation. Success is measured by pipeline throughput, SLA adherence, submission quality, reviewer engagement, and contributor trust. The Pipeline & Platform Lead ensures that every idea submitted to IEEE's innovation ecosystem is handled professionally, fairly, and efficiently. This is a high-volume, detail-intensive, operations-heavy role that requires comfort working deeply within a configurable enterprise platform and coordinating across a federated organization, such as IEEE.

Requirements

Experience in operations, program management, innovation operations, platform administration, or workflow governance.
Hands-on experience managing enterprise platforms or workflow systems (idea management platforms, ticketing systems, CRM, or similar).
Demonstrated ability to manage high-volume intake, prioritization, and moderation with discipline and consistency.
Strong process orientation and exceptional attention to detail.
Excellent written communication skills, particularly for stakeholder-facing updates and guidance.
Comfort working across matrixed, federated organizations with diverse stakeholder groups.
Analytical mindset with the ability to interpret operational metrics and translate them into improvements.

Responsibilities

Own the daily intake of innovation submissions through Qmarkets Q-ideate (always-on and campaign-based).
Perform first-level moderation to ensure submissions meet quality, completeness, and relevance standards.
Conduct initial triage and classification, tagging ideas by theme, innovation type, readiness level, and strategic alignment.
Route ideas to the appropriate workflows, campaigns, reviewers, or operating units based on defined criteria.
Manage high-volume submissions calmly and consistently, ensuring no ideas stall or disappear in the system.
Serve as the primary platform owner and operator for Qmarkets Q-ideate within the Office of Innovation.
Configure and maintain workflows, stage gates, permissions, roles, and automated notifications.
Maintain platform hygiene, including submission structure, taxonomy consistency, reviewer assignments, and workflow integrity.
Execute bulk actions and operational adjustments to keep the pipeline moving efficiently.
Partner with the Innovation Principal to improve platform configuration, campaigns, and engagement design.
Own and enforce SLAs for idea acknowledgment, review timing, status updates, and feedback loops.
Track pipeline health indicators, including backlog size, cycle time, drop-off points, and conversion rates.
Proactively identify bottlenecks or breakdowns in the pipeline and escalate issues with recommendations.
Ensure fairness, transparency, and consistency in the evaluation and advancement of ideas.
Coordinate with OU Innovation Delegates, reviewers, and subject matter experts to support timely evaluations.
Act as the primary point of contact for submitters regarding process questions, expectations, and status updates.
Provide clear, empathetic communication that reinforces trust in IEEE’s innovation process.
Support change management by reinforcing how the pipeline works and explaining why governance is important.
Produce regular reports and dashboards on pipeline performance, engagement, and throughput.
Surface insights and operational recommendations to the Director of Innovation to improve system effectiveness.
Support leadership and Board-level reporting with accurate, defensible pipeline data.
Contribute to the continuous improvement of innovation operations, workflows, and platform usage.