Senior Director Standardization Foresight & Delivery (E6092)

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers•Piscataway, NJ

About The Position

The Senior Director, Standardization Foresight & Delivery will lead a transformative effort to reimagine how future standards development ecosystems operate and deliver global consensus. This position will champion innovation in collaboration models, tools, and processes by designing, testing, and, with proper support, scaling new ways for stakeholders, organizations, and industries to co-create standards that shape the future. Reporting to the Managing Director, IEEE SA, the incumbent will serve as an independent change catalyst—operating with a firewall from day-to-day business operations to preserve neutrality and open innovation. However, the role will partner closely across the organization to leverage talent, data, and infrastructure as shared resources. The Senior Director, Standardization Forsight & Delivery will directly oversee a small, high-impact team, including two direct reports.

Requirements

Seasoned in presenting to internal and external boards, and securing internal/external funding throughout various experimental and realization stages.
Demonstrated success in leading transformational or experimental initiatives with measurable outcomes.
Strong understanding of global industry dynamics, disruptive technologies, and emerging collaboration platforms.
Exceptional strategic thinking, systems design, and political acumen skills.
Proven ability to operate independently while managing cross-functional collaborations effectively.
Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement abilities.
Entrepreneurial and seasoned leader who combines visionary creativity with pragmatic execution.
Excel at connecting diverse stakeholders around future-oriented goals, and understand how to balance bold innovation with cultural and organizational sensitivity.
A strategist and builder—able to conceptualize a new model for standards collaboration and to guide the organization toward realizing it.
Master's or other advanced degree Business, innovation management, organizational design, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
15-20 years Progressive leadership experience in R&D, innovation strategy, ecosystem development, or standards/governance environments

Responsibilities

Reimagine collaborative frameworks: Design and prototype next-generation standards development environments that promote agility, inclusivity, and cross-sector innovation.
Resourceful & Strategic: Ability to develop approaches that gain market buy-in and experimentation resulting in economical and pragmatic ways that enable realization of outcomes through a partnership approach, where appropriate, and a leadership approach when appropriate.
Lead disruptive initiatives: Identify and champion new modes of stakeholder engagement, digital collaboration, and knowledge sharing that challenge traditional approaches. With Executive and Board Alignment, it can turn ideas into reality in an entrepreneurial fashion.
Proof of Concepts: Direct and integrate market intelligence to inform collaboration strategies, emerging trends, and potential disruptions.
Cross-functional partnership: Engage with internal teams—such as technology, policy, stakeholder relations, and operations—to align innovation projects with organizational priorities without direct dependency or reporting conflicts.
Innovation governance: Establish frameworks for experimentation, measurement, and feedback within a protected innovation environment.
External ecosystem engagement: Build strategic relationships with thought leaders, startups, research institutions, and international bodies to co-develop transformative approaches to collaboration.
Thought leadership: Represent the organization in forums, conferences, and working groups as a visionary thinker driving the next paradigm of standards creation.
Team leadership: Lead, mentor, and develop the market intelligence team to cultivate a culture of curiosity and assessment of appropriate references, trends, and relevant use cases to realize a future state, potentially in parallel to a current state.
Intelligence-led strategy: Direct and integrate market intelligence to inform collaboration strategies, emerging trends, and potential disruptions.