Innovation Research Functional Lead

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co•Boston, MA

About The Position

Brown Brothers Harriman’s Cable 5 innovation practice identifies, investigates, and incubates potential future businesses through a disciplined, stage-gated process, from idea sourcing to MVP. The Innovation Research Functional Lead is a senior leadership role guiding early-stage research strategy, concept development, and business design for new product concepts. The role validates whether market problems exist and matter to relevant audiences, whether a defensible solution and business model address them, and whether the solution can be built. Working at the intersection of market research and business design, the Functional Lead guides concept teams from idea through product launch, providing tools, frameworks, and approaches that prioritize testing critical hypotheses. The role partners with Product, Design, Engineering, Applied Intelligence, and Market Opportunity Development teams; leads and develops research talent; and helps modernize and scale the research function across the innovation portfolio and broader organization.

Requirements

10–15 years of experience in research, business design, innovation, and new product development.
Proven ability to translate research into business strategy and concept validation.
Strong understanding of market sizing, opportunity analysis, and early-stage product discovery.
Fluency in qualitative research methods, such as ethnography, blinded interviews, and prototype testing.
Experience working cross-functionally with product, design, engineering, and analytics.
Comfort navigating ambiguity, lean testing, and agile ways of working.
Experience building, managing, and developing a research team spread across multiple working concepts.
Ability to manage a complex ecosystem of internal subject-matter experts and sponsors.
Ability to apply research to design practices and frameworks such as value-chain building, journey mapping, and developing primary-research stimuli.

Nice To Haves

Experience in financial services or technology.

Responsibilities

Lead the research and business design function across concept pods focused on early-stage innovation.
Work with Product, Design, Engineering, and Applied Intelligence Functional Leads and the Market Opportunity Development team to advance ideas from concept to market.
Own market-size validation and financial modeling for new concepts, ensuring alignment with revenue growth goals.
Define and implement research plans to test customer desirability, market-size potential, and solution-shape options.
Guide researchers in qualitative and quantitative methods, including expert and customer-segment interviews, desk research, and early market testing.
Support iteration of concept direction based on research insights and sponsor feedback.
Develop repeatable frameworks and tools to scale research across the innovation portfolio and extend it into the broader BBH organization.
Collaborate with the Applied Intelligence Functional Lead to pursue and support implementation of AI tools and prompting techniques that produce thoughtful, accurate, independent, and sourceable research outputs.
As part of the senior leadership team, lead ongoing transformation of the research function and innovation practice, incorporating modern capabilities and technologies.
Participate in talent management; identify, cultivate, assess, and develop innovation research talent; and use and continuously improve competency models.
Build, manage, and develop a research team working across multiple concepts.
Manage a complex ecosystem of internal subject-matter experts and sponsors.
Carry research into design practices and frameworks, including value-chain building, journey mapping, and development of primary-research stimuli.