Innovation Manager
- Job Title
- Innovation Manager
- Job ID
- 27729123
- Work Hybrid
- Yes
- Location
- Multiple,
- Other Location
- Description
-
Start Date: May 2024
Employment Type: This is a full-time, exempt position (hybrid)
Location: Atlanta, GA; Bronx, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Newark, NJ
Reports to: Senior Director of Strategy & Innovation
General Overview
The Knowledge House’s mission is to empower and sustain a talent pipeline of technologists, entrepreneurs, and digital leaders who will uplift their communities out of poverty.
The Knowledge House (TKH) approach is to (1) close gaps in the education-to-employment pipeline in underserved Bronx neighborhoods by teaching young adults aged 16-24 skills to launch careers or ventures in technology, and (2) support links between local youth, tech innovation, and business development that bring positive community impact.
Headquartered in the South Bronx, the poorest congressional district, TKH has served more than 1,850 students. Current core programs include our Innovation Fellowship in software engineering for adult job trainees and our Karim Kharbouch Coding Fellowship for high school students to learn web design.
Role Overview
The Knowledge House is seeking an Innovation Manager to manage and operationalize initiatives that further our innovation and learning culture, therefore supporting sustained growth. The main responsibilities of this role will include managing pilot projects, supporting strategic planning, and implementing organizational change communications. This multifaceted position requires strong project management skills, strategic thinking, problem-solving abilities, and effective collaboration with cross-functional teams.
Reporting to the Senior Director of Strategy & Innovation, this role will be instrumental in nurturing the organization’s testing and learning muscles through both building processes and managing distinct innovation and/or strategic projects. Your role is to plan, execute, and deliver projects successfully, ensuring they align with organizational goals and drive business outcomes. Furthermore, you will play a key role in communicating strategy and learnings from innovation with the rest of the organization and external stakeholders.
To be successful in this role, you should demonstrate extensive experience in project management and change management, preferably in a nonprofit or startup environment. You are motivated by supporting a diversity of projects and identify as a generalist and a lifelong learner.
Key Areas of Responsibility
Project Management (50%)- Manage innovation initiatives and special projects inclusive of pilot programs and services, new revenue streams, and new customers
- In partnership with project leads, design project plans and manage to meet or exceed deadlines, inclusive of thorough communication plans
- Facilitate the definition, scope, requirements and execution of new program or product development
- Lead the planning, execution, and monitoring of projects, ensuring that they are delivered on time, within scope, and on budget
- Develop and present proposals, updates, issues and findings to senior leadership inclusive of suggestions, risk mitigation, cost benefit analysis and action plans
- Supervise implementation of innovation strategies to determine necessary changes, reallocation of resources, and review progress
- Coordinate with cross-functional teams, including departments like marketing, operations, and IT, to ensure seamless project execution and alignment with various stakeholders
Strategic Communications (25%)- Implement strategic communications related to change management, employee engagement, and furthering a culture of learning and innovation
- In partnership with Senior Director of Strategy & Innovation, develop and implement processes for moving projects from incubation states through to maturity
- Support development of strategic plans and the monitoring of benchmarks and timelines
- Partner with Senior Director of Strategy & Innovation and the Civic Science Fellow to design and implement pilot evaluation plans, inclusive of sharing out learnings with senior leadership, project teams, and key stakeholders in a timely manner
- Identify knowledge management approach for innovative efforts and pilot learnings
- Present new processes and ideas to improve productivity and impact
Cross-team collaboration (25%)- Be a resource for internal stakeholders and external partners, particularly in sharing project management expertise, knowledge management support, and change management, driving a culture of collaboration, learning, and innovation
- Manage cross-functional project teams as a project manager, providing support, Collaborate with project members to identify business requirements
- Manage working group processes to fuel internal strategic planning and participatory design
- Develop internal communications about innovation and strategy work to garner input, feedback, and buy-in
- Operationalize new work within existing organizational processes
- Implement feedback mechanisms to gather input and buy in from across the organization
Qualifications
Experience- 4+ years of experience managing and executing complex projects across multiple stakeholders, ideally in relevant work environments, such as nonprofits, startups, workforce development or education
- 1+ years of people management experience, preferred
Skills & Approach to Work- Excellent project management skills with a passion for keeping multiple, simultaneous work streams on track
- Willingness and aptitude for managing for today while planning for the future; motivated by leveraging learnings from current initiatives and pilots to influence longer term strategy in collaboration with team members
- Exposure and experience with translating strategy to practice, able to draw and communicate connections between organizational strategy and goals, to specific initiatives and projects
- Comfort with data, inclusive of intermediate data collection and entry skills and basic data reporting skills
- Experience facilitating in both in-person and virtual environments
- Demonstrated experience and comfort managing up to various levels of leadership
- Proven ability to make good, proactive, and inclusive decisions in complex situations and/or in the absence of complete clarity; comfortable taking risks. Sound judgment, maturity and the ability to handle sensitive and confidential information with discretion
- Adaptive, flexible, and highly focused, demonstrating a readiness to support organizational growth
- Familiarity with the complex challenges that educators face in their work to support youth who are the furthest from economic and educational opportunity. Service-minded, supportive, and demonstrates care and empathy for stakeholders
- A passion and love for our fellows and their genius. A tenacious desire to smash all barriers in the way of our fellows accessing rewarding, high-paying careers in technology.
- Ability to travel occasionally and participate in evening and weekend networking events
- Experience and comfort in project management tools, such as Asana
- Digital proficiency, including knowledge of or willingness to learn: Google Suite, Zoom, Slack, Asana, and Salesforce
Compensation- $70,000-$85,000/year salary
- Competitive health, dental, and vision insurance
- 2% 401k match
- A monthly tech stipend of $100
- Unlimited days of paid time off
How to Apply
Click on “apply” to submit your resume and cover letter (required). In your cover letter please include an answer to the following question:- Please share an experience you have project managing a pilot program or an innovative initiative and any learnings from that experience
- Please speak to your approach to change management and/or strategic communications
It is the policy of The Knowledge House Fellowship, Inc. to promote and provide equal employment opportunity without discrimination based on age, race, creed, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, marital status, Veteran status, genetic predisposition, or carrier status.