Overview
The Innovation Strategy Lead will work across the innovation portfolio to translate promising ideas into clear, actionable strategies and product roadmaps. The role partners closely with technical experts, country teams, and leadership to clarify vision, prioritize pathways, manage risk, and enable rapid, disciplined execution.
Key Responsibilities
- Partner with innovation leads to clarify the long-term vision for new and emerging innovations, and translate that vision into concrete strategies with defined outcomes and success criteria.
- Lead the development of product roadmaps that sequence work from concept through deployment and scale, with clear milestones, dependencies, and decision points, accountabilities, and budgets.
- Work very closely with multiple stakeholders - technical experts, country program teams, policy experts, etc - to ensure strategies are grounded in delivery realities and system constraints.
- Develop plans that address possible risks and opportunities, and adjust in real-time as landscape shifts.
- Drive accountability across all roadmaps - develop the materials to document progress and roadblocks; support regular review cycles both internally and with external partners.
Required Experience
- Typically 6-8 years in strategy, program design, innovation delivery, or related roles within global development, humanitarian action, consulting, or adjacent sectors.
- Demonstrated ability to translate complex, ambiguous ideas into clear strategies and execution plans.
- Strong facilitation and stakeholder management skills, with experience working across diverse technical and operational teams.
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, including comfort with sequencing, prioritization, and risk assessment.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to synthesize and present complex information clearly.
- Comfort operating in fast-moving, evolving environments where pathways are not fully defined.
