Innovation Lead

This role would be required to develop and establish the Innovation strategy & roadmap of MAFTech with a milestone-based journey to reach a competitive maturity goal measured by concrete benefits & value creation while bringing in economies of scale & standardization. This role will also lead the setup & operations of the CoE practices in MAFTech to underpin the Innovation agenda and develop matured competencies. This role will also be responsible to appoint, train and operate the necessary team for successfully running the CoE & Innovation agenda at MAFTech

Role Details

• Create & lead the innovation culture within MAFTech to deliver concrete business benefits & value, while bringing in economies of scale & standardization.
• Setup the Innovation vision & strategy covering the processes, guidelines, governance and performance measurement KPIs for the underpinning CoE focus areas
• Proactively work with the business & technology teams to create an Innovation mindset & knowledgebase to enable them to identify use cases, calculate ROI and drive the delivery within their area or work
• Create the necessary processes, procedures, standards & guidelines for the CoE focus areas to ensure the work items delivered are unique and can be scaled & reused to minimize the investment and maximize the ROI
• Create and manage the portfolio of a strong demand pipeline authored & authorized by the business with clear ROI & value definition, calculation, measurement & reporting
• Establish and operate the necessary team for successfully running the CoE & Innovation agenda at MAFTech with the necessary resourcing, budgets, trainings, mentoring and the right environment of appreciation & personal development.
• Leverage the Innovation team & strategic cross functional teams to plan, govern & deliver the innovation agenda and aligned to the maturity model.
• Deliver value & concrete business benefits by leading, monitoring, generating & reporting the agreed ROI and value to maximize visibility to the business & management
• Facilitate innovation in the design thinking and help individuals and teams to find the best solutions to complex problems
• Establish a groupwide Innovation committee as the main sponsor and steering group for innovative technology solutions across the group, leveraging business needs, opportunities, innovative designs and partners eco-systems
• Build a recurring forum comprising MAF business, technology partners & innovators to showcase & provide access to emerging trends & new-age technologies and facilitate possible avenues & value propositions
• Proactively identify innovation opportunities and plan how to benefit from innovation in relation to business needs and the defined I&T strategy.
• Analyze what opportunities for business innovation or improvement can be created by emerging technologies, services or I&T-enabled business innovation; through existing established technologies; and by business and IT process innovation. Influence strategic planning and enterprise architecture decisions.

Definition of Success

• The strategy and framework for Innovation and the CoEs detailing the progressive journey for MAFTech with measurable milestones and detailed plan for delivery
• Lead on the innovation delivery pipeline, ensure alignment the business with clear ROI & value definition, calculation, measurement & reporting
• Successful set up for the innovation Centers of Excellence in digital and technology capacity e.g. RPA, IoT, DevOps

Personal characteristics

• Deep understanding of information management practices, system development life cycle management, IT services management, agile and lean methodologies, infrastructure and operations, and EA and ITIL frameworks.
• Exceptional soft and interpersonal skills, including teamwork, facilitation and negotiation.
• Confident, engaging people leader, able to communicate a vision and bring along on the journey
• Highly analytical with a structured problem-solving approach and a strong business acumen
• Excellent written, verbal, communication and presentation skills with the ability to articulate new ideas and concepts to technical and nontechnical audiences.

Required Background & Experience

• Master’s or bachelor’s degree in business, computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, system analysis or a related field of study, or equivalent experience.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in the Technology industry spanning across various areas like Product development, Techno/Functional SME, Portfolio management, Delivery management and similar with access & influence at the senior executive level
• 3 or more years of experience in digital delivery and innovation leadership.
• Leading industry certifications of methodologies & frameworks like Agile, PMP, ITIL, TOGAF.
• Hands-on mentality and entrepreneurial spirit with a high motivation to build, develop and lead cross functional teams spread over multiple locations
• Experience in leading large R&D and/or operations organizations within
• Think broadly and creatively in identifying long-term opportunities and future trends.
• Understanding of financial modeling as it pertains to IT investment.