Innovation Technical Manager

Shaw Industries

About The Position

At Shaw, the Corporate Innovation team collaborates with business partners to identify opportunities for value creation by seeing what’s next—exploring new materials, technologies, and experiences that shape the future of flooring and beyond. We inform and influence business decisions and strategy, including strategic risk-taking, while embedding innovation processes and best practices across the organization. As an Innovation Technical Manager II, you will take on greater ownership of technical discovery, prototyping, and experimentation. You will independently lead portions of innovation projects, translate early-stage ideas into tangible prototypes, and coordinate cross-functional teams to validate desirability, feasibility, and viability. You will help accelerate early-stage innovation work and strengthen Shaw’s ability to test, learn, and bring forward new opportunities.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Design, Business, or a related field; advanced technical training preferred.
3–5+ years of experience in innovation, product development, engineering, R&D, or a similar function.
Experience with prototyping, pilot trials, or technical experimentation.
Strong organizational skills and the ability to independently manage multiple priorities.
Solid communication and interpersonal skills; able to collaborate across diverse teams.
Curiosity and a growth mindset; ability to quickly learn new tools, materials, and technologies.
Proficiency with Microsoft 365, Smartsheet, Adobe Suite, CAD tools, or maker space technologies.

Responsibilities

Actively scans, evaluates, and translates emerging technologies into potential innovation platforms and competitive opportunities, collaborating with cross-functional partners to prioritize feasibility and strategic fit.
Develop low-fidelity prototypes using tools and technologies at the Shaw Makerspace to help teams visualize and test new concepts.
Coordinate with Shaw manufacturing facilities to schedule and execute small-scale trials and material experiments.
Design and run technical experiments to validate assumptions, explore manufacturability, and gather early performance data.
Establish clear learning goals, timelines, and success criteria for assigned project workstreams.
Manage day-to-day execution of innovation projects and independently lead defined portions of the work.
Facilitate collaboration across R&D, Design, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Marketing, and external partners.
Capture learnings, document technical results, and synthesize insights for project teams and leadership.
Apply innovation frameworks such as Stage-Gate, Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Jobs-to-Be-Done to guide experimentation and iteration.
Assist in guiding ideation sessions and problem-framing workshops that support early-stage discovery.
Prepare project updates, dashboards, and summaries to communicate status, insights, and recommendations.
Provide mentorship and hands-on support to Innovation Technical Manager I roles and interns.
Contribute to building innovation tools, templates, and best practices that improve team effectiveness.