NPD Director, Breakthrough Innovation, Global Learning & Creative

Job Summary

ACCO Brands is seeking a New Product Development Director to lead Breakthrough Innovation for the Global Learning & Creative portfolio. This role is accountable for defining and advancing enterprise-critical innovation platforms that drive long-term category growth and competitive advantage across global markets.

This leader operates at a strategic and executional level, personally leading high-impact programs while shaping how innovation is defined, prioritized, and delivered across the broader NPD organization. The role has enterprise-wide influence, partnering with global brand owners and regional commercial leaders to align innovation with long-term brand strategy and financial objectives.

As a senior member of the innovation leadership team, the Director provides thought leadership on portfolio direction, innovation investment, and capability building, ensuring ACCO’s innovation engine delivers sustained commercial impact. This role reports to the Vice President, North America Marketing, Product, and Strategy.

Responsibilities

Breakthrough Product Creation (Player-Coach)

• Personally lead the ideation, design, and launch of globally-scoped, platform-level new product programs, from insight through commercialization that drive category growth and strengthen ACCO’s competitive market position across regions
• Identify and articulate consumer, category, and white-space insights across global markets, and translate them into commercially viable, differentiated, and exciting product concepts while defining broader innovation opportunity areas and strategic platforms for future growth
• Operate as a hands-on builder on the most strategic "big bet" programs — not solely through delegation
  Assemble, coach and develop a team of New Product Managers, with a specific focus on building breakthrough thinking capability, insight-driven design, and commercial rigor

Product Development Execution (Stage Gate + Agile)

• Lead programs through Stage Gate where appropriate, and design Agile or hybrid approaches where speed-to-market demands it
• Partner closely with the PMO (which this role does not own) to drive process improvement, identify speed unlocks, and align governance — without duplicating PMO accountabilities
• Deliver programs on-time, on-budget, and on-financials, with disciplined trade-off management when resources, timing, or scope must flex

Global Brand Owner & Regional Partnership

• Partner with global brand owners who hold brand equity stewardship for Learning & Creative brands to ensure new product programs are anchored in brand strategy, equity, and long-term positioning
• Lead alignment on program-level innovation priorities and platform decisions across global and regional stakeholders
• Coordinate with regional Marketing and Product teams  to align timing, scope, and go-to-market approach for globally-scoped Learning & Creative launches, maximizing reach and commercial impact
• Build the operating connections, briefing cadence, and decision points required for multi-region launches to be executed cleanly and at speed

Additional Responsibilities

Innovation Orchestration Across the Portfolio

• Serve as the operational backbone for new product development across the team, ensuring projects are prioritized, sequenced, and executed with consistency and rigor.
• Establish and run the operating framework for how the broader team manages new product development — including project prioritization, IBP/PMR inputs, and innovation best practices - across the NPD function, ensuring consistency, scalability, and alignment with enterprise innovation objectives
• Codify and scale innovation best practices, templates, and standards so the team gets faster and better over time

Organizational Influence & Change