Principal, Innovation and Commercialization Water Technologies

Kymera International • Durham, NC

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Principal, Innovation & Commercialization – Water Technologies is responsible for integrating technical innovation, product development, and technical marketing to accelerate profitable growth of the Water Technologies business. The role builds and leads the research and development agenda while translating technical capability into differentiated market positioning, value propositions, application strategies, and customer-facing content. The role connects market needs and Voice of the Customer with the R&D roadmap, portfolio lifecycle, stage-gate development, market testing, trade-show activity, and commercialization. It requires strong industrial water-treatment expertise together with the ability to communicate complex technologies clearly and work across commercial, technical, regulatory, and leadership teams.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s, in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Water Technology, Environmental Engineering, Marketing with a strong technical background, or a related discipline.
• Significant experience in industrial water treatment technologies, industrial process technologies, or technical industrial products.
• Demonstrated success connecting customer and market needs with innovation roadmaps, product development, market testing, and commercialization pipelines.
• Experience developing technical value propositions and customer-facing technical content for complex B2B industrial markets.
• Experience developing and managing intellectual property strategies including patents, trade secrets, technical documentation, and technology protection initiatives.
• Familiarity with global environmental, industrial, and regulatory standards related to water treatment and industrial process technologies.
• Deep technical knowledge of industrial water treatment and industrial process applications, with the credibility to engage customers, partners, and technical stakeholders.
• Strong market orientation with the ability to convert technical performance into clear customer value propositions, differentiated positioning, and compelling technical communications.
• Strong understanding of Voice of the Customer, market testing, portfolio lifecycle, competitive intelligence, and new-product development processes.
• Strong understanding of patent strategy, IP generation, trade secret protection, competitive technology positioning, and innovation governance.
• Proven ability to work across commercial, technical, regulatory, supply chain, and leadership teams while maintaining clear accountability between technical value creation and commercial deal execution.
• Strong analytical, scientific, written, and presentation skills, with the ability to simplify complex technical concepts without losing technical credibility.

Responsibilities

• Translate market insight, customer needs, competitive intelligence, and Voice of the Customer into product, application, and innovation priorities.
• Develop differentiated technical value propositions, application positioning, technical literature, case studies, white papers, presentations, and other customer-facing content that enable the commercial team.
• Drive innovation programs via phase & gate ownership focused on product performance, application expansion, operational reliability, manufacturability, cost competitiveness, and commercial relevance.
• Lead the technical content and execution support for trade shows, conferences, webinars, industry publications, and other market-development activities, including follow-up of technical opportunities.
• Support portfolio lifecycle management by identifying opportunities to expand, reposition, improve, or rationalize products and applications based on technical and market evidence.
• Establish and strengthen the company’s intellectual property strategy, including patent generation, trade secret protection, technical documentation, and competitive technology positioning.
• Establish technical processes, documentation standards, validation protocols, and development governance to improve execution and commercialization effectiveness.
• Support strategic customer engagements with high-level technical expertise, application development, troubleshooting, and technology positioning while maintaining clear commercial ownership of opportunity qualification, pricing, margin, and closing.
• Partner closely with commercial on target markets, customer insight, value propositions, launch plans, and technical sales enablement.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal