Head of Innovation

Head of Innovation

Location: Cheltenham, UK (Hybrid working)

Benefits: 27 days holiday plus Wellbeing day, Private Medical Insurance, Bonus scheme, Sharescheme, Enhanced pension plan, Life assurance, Discount scheme.

Job Summary:

The Global Head of Innovation will be responsible for setting up a strong framework to outline the innovation roadmap, building an effective innovation ecosystem, and supporting efforts to create an innovative culture within the organization. This role is crucial in defining and prioritizing the innovation strategy, ensuring smooth integration with Voice of Customer (VoC) insights, operating companies (OpCos), Steam Executive Committee (SEC), and other key stakeholders to align on strategic objectives, investments, capacity, capabilities, direction, and deliverables. This senior and high-visibility position requires interaction across the global organization and is essential for driving the future success of STS.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement a comprehensive innovation methodology to enable further growth and includes best practices, tools and processes to move at pace.
• Foster mechanisms for the search and generation of customer-centric ideas.
• Build best practices to ensure efficient cross-collaboration across all teams to avoid duplication of efforts and enhance scalability.
• Support Sector & Portfolio Teams to leverage external partnerships and customer co-creation, not only to create quality ideas, but also to ensure successful commercialization.
• Promote a culture of psychological safety, and constructive challenge around innovation and further improve the tolerance for failure and the willingness to experiment.
• To build a roadmap to achieve our vision of "Pioneering Innovation, Driving Success" and to identify the key gaps in our Innovation capabilities.
• Build the framework to help define, evaluate, and communicate clear innovation priorities aligned with customer needs and macro trends.
• Introduce and manage a process to find and prioritize customer-centric ideas that align with the business's strategic objectives, investments, capacity, capabilities, and direction.
• Implement Agile working principles for new product development and innovation.

Qualifications / Preferred Skills:

• Proven Experience: Proven experience in innovation management, strategy development, and ecosystem building. This includes a track record of successfully implementing innovation methodologies and driving innovation initiatives within an organization.
• Strong Understanding of Innovation Methodologies: In-depth knowledge of various innovation methodologies and tools, such as agile practices, design thinking, and lean startup.
• Leadership Skills: Excellent leadership skills with the ability to inspire, influence, and motivate cross-functional teams without having direct authority. Experience in leading and managing teams to achieve innovation goals.
• Communication and Collaboration: Excellent communication and collaboration skills. Ability to work effectively with stakeholders at all levels of the organization and foster a culture of collaboration and accountability.
• Commercial Knowledge: Strong commercial acumen with the ability to understand market dynamics, customer needs, and competitive landscape. Experience in commercializing new innovations and delivering them through operational companies would be an advantage.

The Steam Thermal Solutions business is one of three businesses within Spirax Group. Spirax Sarco and Gestra are our two brands that form Steam Thermal Solutions and are global leaders in the supply of engineered solutions for the design, provision and maintenance of efficient industrial and commercial steam systems. Steam Thermal Solutions has global coverage across 67 operating units (called OpCos), organised into four Divisions: EMEA, APAC, Americas, Gestra.

Spirax Group is a FTSE100 and FTSE4Good multi-national industrial engineering Group with expertise in the control and management of steam, electric thermal solutions, peristaltic pumping and associated fluid technologies.

Our Purpose is to create sustainable value for all our stakeholders as we engineer a more efficient, safer and sustainable world. Our technologies play an essential role in critical industrial processes and industrial equipment across industries as diverse as Food & Beverage, Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology, Power Generation, Semiconductors and Healthcare. With customers in 165 countries, we provide the solutions that sit behind the production of many items used in daily life, from baked beans to mobile phones!

Our Purpose, supported by our inclusive culture and Values, unites us, guides our decisions and inspires us everywhere that we operate. We support our colleagues to make their difference for each other as well as customers, communities, suppliers, our planet and shareholders by creating a truly equitable working environment where everyone feels included.

Benefits:

You will receive a competitive salary (and a discretionary bonus), flexible working and excellent benefits including 27 days holiday allowance (before bank holidays), 3 days' paid volunteering leave, comprehensive private healthcare, enhanced pension plan, life assurance, optional participation in a Share Ownership Plan, free onsite parking, flexible benefits, and access to a personal discounts' portal. We also offer a range of additional support and benefits through our Everyone is Included Group Inclusion Plan, detailed below.

Everyone is Included at Spirax Group:

We are passionate about creating inclusive and equitable working cultures where everyone can be themselves and achieve their full potential. For us, that means supportive teams and strong relationships where everyone's contribution is valued - across social and cultural backgrounds, ethnicities, ages, genders, gender identities, abilities, neurodiversity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and everything else that makes us human and unique.

We want everyone to be able to make their difference here, so we will always consider requests for flexible working.

We know that everyone needs some extra help from time to time too, so we have introduced a range of additional benefits through our Group Inclusion Commitments. These include gender-neutral parental leave, 15 days of extra paid caregiver leave, paid time off and support for anyone experiencing pregnancy loss or domestic abuse, menopause-friendly workplace principles and more. Learn more at .

We are also a Disability Confident Committed Employer. If you would like to apply using this scheme, please select this option in our application form or notify our recruitment partners.