Senior Director, Product Innovation

Veralto•Wood Dale, IL

About The Position

In this role, you will lead the creation of 5-year product roadmaps for products & solutions across all coding and marking technologies that align with Videojet's corporate strategy and balance risk for the business. You will drive deep market insight and competitive analysis—including future scenario building—to anticipate industry changes and unmet customer needs over a 5-year horizon. You will communicate product innovation strategy and secure buy-in from the President and Vice Presidents at quarterly Strategic Innovation Review meetings. You will champion customer-centric innovation by leveraging a team of Product Innovation Managers and User Experience teams to identify unmet customer needs and desired outcomes through extensive qualitative and quantitative customer and market research. You will build compelling new business cases around emerging opportunities and incorporate them into the product roadmap to support the company's 5-year-old growth targets. You will partner with the VP R&D, and engineering teams to define new product innovations, technology success criteria, roadmaps, and business opportunities. You will drive strategic business partnerships with external providers of product innovations and evaluate third-party and open innovation partners to assure profitable business models. You will develop Standard Work for Customer Insights leveraging VES and other relevant tools. You will own the team's primary financial metric—Incremental Pipeline Value from New Product Development—to achieve the company's 5-year forecasted growth targets. You will lead and develop a high-performing team of Product Innovation Managers and User Experience Team, set strategic direction, coaching for career growth, and cultivating a culture of bold innovation. You will contribute to and lead select Videojet strategic initiatives beyond the core product roadmap, in partnership with senior leadership.

Requirements

Extensive experience in product management, product innovation, or product strategy within a B2B industrial technology, manufacturing, or hardware/software company.
Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Business, Marketing, or a related discipline.
Proven track record of building and delivering multi-year product roadmaps that generated measurable incremental revenue and drove competitive differentiation.
Demonstrated experience leading and developing high-performing product or innovation teams with direct people management responsibility.
Experience with market research methodologies, customer discovery, competitive landscape analysis, and executive-level business case development.
Demonstrated ability to influence and align stakeholders through compelling, data-driven strategy communication.

Nice To Haves

Experience in the coding, marking, printing, or industrial automation industry.
MBA or advanced degree in a business or technical discipline.
Background in open innovation, technology scouting, or strategic external partnership development.
Familiarity with stage-gate, lean innovation, or portfolio management frameworks.
Experience with financial modeling, NPV analysis, and ROI evaluation in a product development context.
Background working across global, matrixed organizational structures.

Responsibilities

Lead the creation of 5-year product roadmaps for products & solutions across all coding and marking technologies that align with Videojet's corporate strategy and balance risk for the business.
Drive deep market insight and competitive analysis—including future scenario building—to anticipate industry changes and unmet customer needs over a 5-year horizon.
Communicate product innovation strategy and secure buy-in from the President and Vice Presidents at quarterly Strategic Innovation Review meetings.
Champion customer-centric innovation by leveraging a team of Product Innovation Managers and User Experience teams to identify unmet customer needs and desired outcomes through extensive qualitative and quantitative customer and market research.
Build compelling new business cases around emerging opportunities and incorporate them into the product roadmap to support the company's 5-year-old growth targets.
Partner with the VP R&D, and engineering teams to define new product innovations, technology success criteria, roadmaps, and business opportunities.
Drive strategic business partnerships with external providers of product innovations and evaluate third-party and open innovation partners to assure profitable business models.
Develop Standard Work for Customer Insights leveraging VES and other relevant tools.
Own the team's primary financial metric—Incremental Pipeline Value from New Product Development—to achieve the company's 5-year forecasted growth targets.
Lead and develop a high-performing team of Product Innovation Managers and User Experience Team, set strategic direction, coaching for career growth, and cultivating a culture of bold innovation.
Contribute to and lead select Videojet strategic initiatives beyond the core product roadmap, in partnership with senior leadership.