Principal Innovation & Partnership Lead, Displays Solutions

Principal Innovation & Partnership Lead, Displays Solutions

Description -

The displays and docking group innovation team has a mandate to explore and validate transformative innovations in core and adjacent businesses to deliver significant value creation, value capture and evolution to a multibillion-dollar business. The Principal Innovation Lead will work closely with the Director of Innovation, Strategy, Product Management and Engineering and have responsibilities that fall into 2 primary areas:

First, to define strategic direction, map out competitive landscapes and value chains, define sustained differentiation, advocate for funding and executive support and drive meaningful innovation of new products and technology ventures. 

Second, to lead scouting, building, and establishing relationships with Enterprise and startup partners for market validation, joint go to market, product and solution development, hypothesis testing, prototyping and joint go to market.

The Principal role is expected to lead the journey from zero to one—from concept to piloted MVP to commercial-scale deployment.

Responsibilities

Category Focus

• Tech Scouting & Trends: Identify and assess emerging technologies (AI, SaaS, IoT, etc.), manage relationships with deep tech startups, and source external innovation opportunities.
• Technology Product Design: Lead the end-to-end digital product design lifecycle—from research and wireframing to high-fidelity UI/UX, using tools like Figma, Sketch, and collaborating with agile teams.
• MVP & Rapid Experimentation: Define and run testable MVPs and technology pilots, leveraging agile, lean startup, and DevOps methodologies to iterate quickly.
• Product-Market Fit Validation: Conduct rigorous user testing, analytics reviews, and data-driven market validation, using metrics like retention, engagement, and NPS.
• Incubation to Scale: Create playbooks to transition successful pilots into scale-ready digital products and manage technical handoffs to core business or product teams.
• Startup & Tech Partnerships: Structure and manage pilots, joint-development agreements, and co-innovation programs with highly technical partners and venture-backed startups.
• Enterprise Partnerships: Landscape, scout, engage and manage enterprise partner relationships and joint solution experiences
• Ecosystem Development: Build a network of collaborators—including VCs, accelerators, university labs, and ecosystem partners—for continuous pipeline sourcing.
• Innovation Leadership: Coach cross-functional teams on best practices; stay ahead of software, cloud, AI, and digital platform trends.
• Agile Financial Stewardship: Set and track KPIs, manage incubator budgets, and develop business cases for investment in promising tech pilots.

Education & Experience Recommended

• Four-year or Graduate Degree in Marketing, Business Administration, or any other related discipline or commensurate work experience or demonstrated competence.
• 7+ years in technology innovation, product management, R&D.
• 4+ years experience in management consulting or corporate incubation
• 3+ years in partnerships or strategic alliances
• 4+ years in product management
• Proven track record of incubating and launching digital prototypes scaling HW based, SW enhanced, SaaS, AI/ML or platform products
• Strong comfort with AI and digital design tools. Hands on experience in design sprints and UX research, A/B testing, product market fit validation and tools
• Strong connections in startup community. Ideally located in or around San Francisco, Seattle, New York or Boston
• Experience leading cross functional, technical teams and structuring joint technical, GTM, or alliance collaborations
• Experience with open innovation, hackathons, tech scouting

Knowledge & Skills

1. Strategic Foresight & Market Intelligence

• Value Chain & Ecosystem Mapping: The ability to deconstruct complex industries to identify where value is shifting—especially as displays move from "passive output" to "intelligent hubs."
• Competitive Intelligence (Beyond Direct Peers): Identifying threats and opportunities from non-traditional competitors (e.g., software giants moving into hardware or silicon providers moving into solutions).
• Blue Ocean Strategy: Knowledge of how to create uncontested market space in "adjacent" businesses rather than just competing on specs in the core business.

2. Vent