Director, Innovation / Product Planning

We are Trojan Technologies, an organization that ensures greater water confidence and environmental stewardship for people, industries and municipalities, improving the lives of over one billion people globally. The products and services provided by Trojan play vital roles in making various stages of the water treatment process more effective, efficient and sustainable. We offer an environment that is team-centered, customer-driven, quality-focused, and growth-oriented. Working at Trojan Technologies will provide you the opportunity for robust career development.

The Director, Innovation / Product Planning is an important senior leader position within Trojan Technologies. This position leads a team of highly talented product planning associates to drive the long-term roadmap and early-stage NPD & Open Innovation projects for Trojan Technologies.

In addition to leading highly talented associates, the successful Director of Product Planning & Open Innovation will develop and lead the implementation of plans to achieve the company’s strategic priorities and KPIs related to NPD & Open Innovation.

Essential Functions

Provide leadership and drive cross-functional alignment to deliver company objectives, including but not limited to:

Leadership

• Build and develop a high performing, growth-oriented Product Planning & Open Innovation team as well as providing succession and supporting the building of talent funnels

• Ensure the team is doing the rights things (focusing on the critical few) and doing things right (leveraging DBS and best demonstrated practices)

• Active participation with R&D Engineering, Product Management and Marketing leaders to develop NPD roadmap and Open Innovation new partnerships.

• Develops global business processes to assure sustainability and standard work for the Product Planning & Open Innovation team

• Focus on accelerating commercial learning - failing and pivoting fast with the goal of partnering with external innovators to bring product to market under Trojan Technologies brand

• Utilize daily and visual management to align product development / open innovation efforts with Trojan Technologies’ growth targets and policy deployment

Product Planning

• Lead the creation of 5-year product roadmaps across all business segments and technologies that align with the corporate strategy and balance risk for the business. 

• Identify unmet customer needs and desired outcomes through extensive qualitative and quantitative customer/market research (VOC) to solidify new product concepts, build new business cases, and incorporate those opportunities into the roadmap.  Deliver breakthrough innovation and market share gains in target segments based on these roadmaps.

• Anticipate changes in the industry based on future scenario building from the deep market and competitive analysis

• Communicate strategy and gain buy-in from the President and Vice Presidents at quarterly Strategic Innovation Review meetings

Open Innovation

• Owns Trojan Technologies’ Open Innovation funnel and execution through DDS OI Process.

• Manages and prioritizes Open Innovation BU resources to accelerate viability assessment through Trojan Technologies established channels and transfer successful ventures to the Commercial BU Team

• Owns internal process to develop robust global financial forecasts for New Ventures partnerships and increase Incremental Pipeline Value (IPV) per plan

• Manages relationships with partners going through viability assessment by setting expectations, establishing milestones and sustaining clear and open communication.

• Create processes to allow product managers to efficiently navigate traditional hurdles to commercialize open innovation products

Other Non-Essential Functions

• Actively participates in the development of the annual product roadmap plan

• Performs other duties as required

• Supports and participates in Water platform Innovation team as needed

Critical Competencies / Leadership Anchors

• Develops a strategic plan and execute on a tactical level.

• Positive, “we will win” attitude

• Fail-fast mindset, able to recognize underperformance and redirect resources to higher ROI opportunities

• Approaches work with a strong sense of ownership, commitment and urgency. He / She is not afraid of challenging status quo.

• Ability to quickly establish significant credibility, trust and support with all levels of internal and external organization including peers, subordinates and senior management.

• Get things done globally with high integrity working through ambiguous conditions.

• Ability to manage relationships, deliverables, and expectations across business units, operating companies, and parent company.  Able to develop strategies, drive tactics and provide leadership in highly dynamic, high ambiguity, high complexity environment.

• Customer focused

• Continuous improvement mindset

• Team player

• Self-motivated and self-driven

• Confident

Education, Background and Skill Requirements

• BS or BA in Engineering or the Sciences required

• MBA or equivalent highly desirable

• 5+ years of experience introducing treatment solutions to Trojan Technologies Company customer base

• Broad knowledge of Trojan Technologies’ Company marketplace, customer applications, and use of Trojan Technologies products in the market

• Demonstrated skill at leading a global cross-discipline team

• Gets critical priorities done

• Ability to present highly complex, technical, or difficult messages clearly and persuasively

• Demonstrated ability to quickly acquire new knowledge and skills as required

• Demonstrated ability to prioritize clearly and manage finite resources

• Ability to travel up to 40% of the time.

Is this You?

You are a passionate self-starter who is interested in a challenging, results-driven position. You have a desire to join a fast-growing, customer-focused company making big waves in the water space. You enjoy helping people, people like and trust you, and you thrive in a team environment. Dive In - Have Impact.

Diversity & Inclusion

At Danaher, we are dedicated to building and sustaining a truly diverse and inclusive culture! These are not just words on a page—Diversity and Inclusion is a top priority for the company, and it ties deeply to each of our core values.

Danaher Corporation and all Danaher Companies are equal opportunity employers that evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other characteristics protected by law. The “EEO is the Law” poster is available here.