Innovation Lead (Director)

Work Schedule

Environmental Conditions

Job Description

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue of more than $40 billion. We solve the world’s toughest problems, like giving cancer patients hope, ensuring water and food are safe, helping law enforcement solve cases through forensics and serving as the largest provider of COVID-19 solutions. 

PPD™, the clinical research business of Thermo Fisher Scientific, is a leading provider of global CRO solutions. We provide comprehensive drug development, laboratory and lifecycle services to customers across pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government entities. By harnessing innovative technology and expertise, we work to empower our customers to bring therapies to market, faster.

Innovation Lead (Director)

About the Team
The Clinical Development Strategy and Innovation (CDSI) team is part of Thermo Fisher’s Clinical Research Group (CRG). This team leads and integrates strategy, operational excellence, and disruptive innovation to accelerate drug development for customers and patients. The innovation strategy team aims to uncover groundbreaking opportunities, rigorously validate concepts, and spearhead industry leadership to revolutionize drug development through transformative innovations.

Position Overview
The Innovation Lead (IL) is a pivotal leadership role combining high-impact strategic vision, value prioritization, and leadership of transformative innovations. This role works with business leaders to set business direction and prioritize value hypotheses for designated digital products and innovative processes, ensuring alignment with connected business priorities and delivering measurable outcomes. The IL utilizes identified business priorities to shape the overarching product roadmap strategy and/or process workflow transformations.

We currently have 2 positions open remotely in the United States (East Coast preference) or the United Kingdom. 

• The first Lead role will focus on a proprietary digital product and associated process transformation that reinvents the way our organization strategically plans and continually forecasts core delivery of clinical trials. This spans operations and delivery functions connecting site strategies, enrollment forecasts, financial and resourcing impacts, and connects with our labs and clinical supply services.

• The second Lead role will focus on a proprietary digital product and process transformation that unifies data across the clinical trial landscape such as clinical operations, labs, clinical supply chains, finance, quality to deliver real-time insights and predictive intelligence. Spanning portfolio, study, and site levels, we are enabling proactive risk management, faster decision-making, and transparent collaboration to drive confidence in trial execution.

Role Responsibilities:

• Accountability and oversight for delivering prioritized business outcomes and value realization for innovative products, solutions, and/or process transformations. Sponsor and associated investment cases for approval.
• Maintain deep expertise in relevant internal and external technology and processes to inform business-driven competitive maturation, prioritization, and positioning of assigned innovations.
• Understand key business drivers, gather business requirements from stakeholders, and utilize functional knowledge to bridge the gap between business intent and development of assigned innovations working in partnership with PPD Digital and the business.
• Champion end-to-end workflow re-design to maximize innovation impact through business-process re-engineering working with the business SMEs and process owners to influence change.
• Through matrix leadership, oversee support services (e.g., change management, training, marketing etc.) to ensure adherence to timelines and accelerated seamless adoption of new processes, tools, and internal and commercial strategies.
• Define adoption targets and oversee business readiness (training, SOP updates, change ambassadors) to ensure sustained value delivery.
• Define monetization approaches, including internal charge-back or external revenue models, and partner with the funding team (e.g., Digital, IT, Business Division) and Finance to establish financial frameworks, ensure adherence, and manage risks related to ROI, P&L, and expenditure.
• Develop, monitor, and report metrics to support strategic KPI reviews and ensure expected ROI; work with business leaders to pivot or sunset solutions not meeting agreed thresholds.
• Develop and provide innovative-specific content for marketing materials. Present vision, plans, and roadmaps to internal and external stakeholders, including executive leaders, clients, and at relevant conferences or thought leadership forums.

For digital products, act as the direct counterpart to assigned Digital Product Manager (DPM):

• Define and rank high-level business outcomes and KPIs.
• Conduct proactive research, maintain a three-year horizon scan of unmet business problems, and propose creative strategic opportunities to inform product roadmaps.
• Collaborate with business leaders to represent internal and external customers, articulating and prioritizing desired functionality and user experience.
• Ensure product feature roadmaps align with approved business outcomes and work with business leaders to validate that the roadmap meets business needs.
• Consult with business leadership to define go/no-go decisions required on major roadmap themes and investment levels.
• Ensure product development team meets all regulatory, security, and data privacy requirements, maintaining audit-ready documentation and processes.
• Key contributions to build/buy/partner strategies, advising senior leaders on business needs and capability fit during exploration.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in business, computer science, life sciences, or a related field. Advanced degree (MBA, MS) preferred.
• Previous project management, product management or business operations experience that provides the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the job (comparable to 12 years’ experience). High preference given to those with clinical research or life science background. 
• 3+ years in a leadership role overseeing digital or technology-driven initiatives aligning impact with process
• 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.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Proven record of accomplishment managing large-scale, cross-functional projects in clinical trials, healthcare, or technology sectors.
• Demonstrated success in leading large, complex, matrixed teams. Demonstrated ability to oversee transformative programs that involved large change and communicate effectively with diverse stakeholders.
• Proven success by moving strategy to action and influencing change or adoption.
• Strategic Vision: Shape and execute an innovative solution roadmap aligned with business priorities and goals.
• Project Management: Deliver complex initiatives on time and within scope.
• Technical Acumen: Facilitate communication between business needs and development teams for seamless solution delivery.
• Technical Expertise: Familiarity with AI-driven technologies, including LLM and agentic AI, to inform evaluation and funding decisions.
• Data Analytics: Basic understanding of data analytics and visualization tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau) to monitor KPIs and metrics.
• Collaboration: Foster teamwork across R&D, digital, and operational units to achieve unified outcomes.
• Leadership and Influence: Provide strategic and tactical direction, aligning cross-functional teams and influencing stakeholders in a large organization.
• Communication: Excellent oral, written, and presentation skills with strong executive presence, adaptable to the audience.
• Problem Solving: Identify and proactively address challenges, mitigate risks, and resolve issues.
• Clinical Trials: Deep knowledge of the clinical trial innovation landscape, including technology and competitive trends.
• Change Leadership: Drive adoption and manage transitions for new tools and processes.
• Industry Experience: Experience in clinical research or biopharma operations, with expertise in competitive landscape and industry trends, particularly with forecasting or simulation tools.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Certifications in project management (e.g., PMP, Agile Certified Practitioner) or product management (e.g., Pragmatic Institute).
• Familiarity with financial modelling, ROI analysis, or P&L management in a digital product context.

At Thermo Fisher Scientific, we are committed to fostering a healthy and harmonious workplace for our employees. We understand the importance of creating an environment that allows individuals to excel. Please see below for the required qualifications for this position, which also includes the possibility of equivalent experience:

• 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%). 

Salary Transparency

This is a salaried role that will also be eligible to receive a variable annual bonus based on company, team, and/or individual performance results in accordance with company policy. Compensation will be initially discussed during the screening period, with actual compensation confirmed in writing at the time of offer.

Compensation and 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. We offer a comprehensive Total Rewards package that our U.S. colleagues and their families can count on, which includes:

• A choice of national medical and dental plans, and a national vision plan, including health incentive programs

• Employee assistance and family support programs, including commuter benefits and tuition reimbursement

• At least 120 hours paid time off (PTO), 10 paid holidays annually, paid parental leave (3 weeks for bonding and 8 weeks for caregiver leave), accident and life insurance, and short- and long-term disability in accordance with company policy

• Retirement and savings programs, such as our competitive 401(k) U.S. retirement savings plan

• Employees’ Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) offers eligible colleagues the opportunity to purchase company stock at a discount

For more information on our benefits, please visit: https://jobs.thermofisher.com/global/en/total-rewards