[Remote] Innovation Director, Clinical Research Group
Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Thermo Fisher Scientific is a leader in clinical research, utilizing digital innovation, data science, and AI to enhance the development of life-changing therapies. The Innovation Director will drive innovation across the business landscape, overseeing a portfolio of high-impact opportunities and collaborating with senior leaders to ensure strategic alignment and value realization.
Responsibilities
- Own and oversee a portfolio of innovation opportunities, ensuring coherence, prioritization, and alignment to strategic and commercial objectives
- Lead identification, shaping, prioritization, and progression of opportunities, ensuring sustained focus on the highest-value initiatives
- Guide portfolio prioritization and investment trade-offs, balancing emerging opportunity development with scaling of validated concepts
- Contribute to governance, portfolio reviews, and investment decision-making activities across the innovation landscape
- Support and influence long-term strategic planning activities within the assigned remit, contributing to future innovation priorities and capability direction
- Identify patterns, dependencies, risks, and emerging opportunities that inform broader portfolio and enterprise innovation decisions
- Oversee the development and communication of the enterprise innovation story, ensuring a clear, consistent, and compelling narrative across internal stakeholders, clients, partners, and external industry audiences
- Partner with commercial, strategy, and communications teams to position innovation capabilities, thought leadership, and strategic initiatives effectively in the market
- Represent the organization internally and externally as a recognized innovation leader, contributing to strategic discussions, industry engagement, client interactions, and thought leadership activities
Skills
- Bachelors degree in Business, Science, Technology, Engineering, or a related field
- Previous experience leading innovation, transformation, strategy, product discovery, or technology-enabled business initiatives that provides the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the job (comparable to 10+ years' experience)
- Experience leading large-scale or enterprise-level portfolios, strategic initiatives, or cross-functional innovation programs
- Demonstrated success shaping and progressing high-impact innovation opportunities through structured discovery, validation, and transition activities
- Experience influencing senior and executive stakeholders within matrixed organizations
- Strong leadership experience across cross-functional business, digital, data, and technology environments
- Experience representing innovation initiatives in senior governance forums, strategic planning discussions, or external industry settings
- Deep understanding of innovation, experimentation, and evidence-based investment approaches
- Strong commercial awareness and understanding of how innovation supports growth, differentiation, and competitive positioning
- Strong communication and storytelling capabilities, including the ability to position innovation strategies, opportunities, and outcomes for executive, client, and external audiences
- Ability to balance long-term strategic thinking with practical portfolio prioritization and progression
- Strong analytical, decision-making, and problem-solving capabilities
- Understanding of emerging technologies, digital transformation, and innovation trends relevant to clinical research and healthcare
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to engage effectively across global and cross-functional teams
- Able to communicate, receive, and understand information and ideas with diverse groups of people in a comprehensible and reasonable manner
- Able to work upright and stationary for typical working hours
- Ability to use and learn standard office equipment and technology with proficiency
- Able to perform successfully under pressure while prioritizing and handling multiple projects or activities
- May require as-needed travel (0-20%) domestic and international
- Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship
- Must be able to pass a comprehensive background check, which includes a drug screening
- Advanced degree (MBA, MS) preferred
- In some cases, an equivalency, consisting of appropriate education, training, and/or directly related experience will be considered sufficient for an individual to meet the requirements of the role
Benefits
- This position may also be eligible to receive a variable annual bonus based on company, team, and/or individual performance results in accordance with company policy.
- Remote US
- May require as-needed travel (0-20%) domestic and international.
Company Overview