Director of Innovation

Req ID:  11813  

 

JOIN AN INDUSTRY LEADER! Quality First & Green Always

Sloan is the world’s leading manufacturer of commercial plumbing systems and has been in operation since 1906. We are at the forefront of the green building movement and provide sustainable restroom solutions. We manufacture water- efficient products including flush valves, electronic faucets, soap dispensing and sink systems along with vitreous china fixtures for commercial, industrial and institutional markets worldwide.

 

Job Purpose

This role is based at Sloan’s Franklin Park, IL headquarters and reports directly to the Chief Engineering Innovation Officer. Serving as the key liaison between the plumbing industry and the Innovation team, this position translates deep market expertise into forward-looking product strategy and drives end-to-end innovation execution to deliver next-generation solutions that accelerate sustainable growth.

Job and Responsibilities

• Defines strategic direction for innovations based upon deep category knowledge, external trends of relevance, and competitive market analysis that translate into sustainable success and business growth.
• Provide thorough and responsible stewardship of innovative engineering projects or individual modules within complex, cross-functional initiatives, including driving the problem-solving process and supporting research and analytics, and distilling pragmatic recommendations for company leadership's consideration.
• Lead execution of design reviews, integrate with product teams with early requirement capture, phase gate reviews, design control audits, verification, validation, design and manufacturing transfer, and post-market surveillance.
• Build and maintain trusted relationships with university and vendor partners.
• Bridge the greater creative community within Sloan.
• Interact with external innovations community.
• Attracts, leads, manages, and mentors employees in such a way to ensure retention, development, and superior performance of talent.
• Provide reports to leadership and team members on projects on a regular basis. · Other duties and responsibilities as required.

Required Qualifications

• High School Diploma or GED
• 10 + Years Product Design and Development
• Advanced level experience working with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.).
• Business Acumen - understand the financial implications of ideas. Understand the market and how to develop products consumers want. Know how to present ideas to executives and justify the costs of projects.
• Communication - Able to convey and present ideas to their team, clients, and key stakeholders in a way they will understand.
• Complete understanding of construction and architectural process for large scale projects like stadiums and airports as well as smaller scale projects like schools and office building.
• Creativity – The ability to come up with futuristic products and next generation solutions and develop new ideas and strategies. Able to develop new products, improve existing products, or develop new ways to market products. Able to improve processes and procedures. Be inventive, unafraid to explore new ideas, or mix old and new ideas to come up with new solutions. Be a forward thinker predicting the future of customer needs by understanding the existing market, architectural design trends and the current issues customers experience.
• Demonstrates clear, professional, and respectful verbal and written communication in all interactions, consistent with an inclusive work environment.
• Strategic Thinking - Able to develop plans and strategies for innovation including: considering resources, potential outcomes, testing ideas, and evaluating success. · Strong ability to interface with ownership and senior executives, delivering presentations and demonstrations and have challenging conversations.
• Successful past experience with team collaboration
• The skill, passion and knowledge to persuade fellow team members regarding ideas you believe in.
• Working experience within the plumbing market and the insight to help predict where that market is going by having a good market knowledge of the latest design trends and customer needs.

   Why you’ll love working here: