Senior Innovation Manager

Job Description:

Job Description

What you will do:

• You curate, manage and triage the CE Innovation funnel and Centre for Enablement (C4E) - identifying opportunities, running POCs, scaling winners, and breaking silos across geographies and practices.
• You build conviction through experimentation, not lengthy planning; fail fast, learn, and scale what works.
• You lead a small team (2–8) day to day, and your mandate spans strategy, intake-to-scale delivery, C4E enablement, and celebrating impact.
• Own the innovation funnel: assess emerging technologies, define pitch process and investment criteria, manage POC-to-scale process, and drive rapid iteration cycles.
• Drive strategic technology enablement initiatives (currently AI; emerging opportunities in automation, data intelligence, martech integration, customer experience, and others) from conception through scaled adoption across CE.
• Lead cross-capability collaboration across geographies and practices to unblock pilots and adoption; break silos through shared innovation priorities and aligned delivery.
• Build and grow C4E: define playbooks, tools, training, and support structures that enable consistent delivery and collaboration across practices.
• Own quarterly innovation roadmaps and sprint delivery, prioritizing by business impact and CE strategy alignment.
• Define, track, and communicate key metrics—adoption rates, productivity lift, revenue attribution, time-to-deployment, business value realized—with C-suite visibility.
• Manage the budget, costs, licensing, compliance (AI annexes, data privacy), vendor contracts, and regulatory barriers; negotiate with legal and procurement to unlock value.
• Design repeatable playbooks and scaling strategies for rapid rollout of proven innovations across use cases, verticals, and geographies.
• Own the innovation recognition and celebration program (e.g., “Innovation Champion of the Month”) to build momentum and attract talent.
• Build and coach a team of 2–8 (product, operations, enablement, communications); develop capability and create space for growth.

What you bring

• You combine strong program management expertise with entrepreneurial mindset—comfortable running experiments, surfacing winners, scaling rapidly, and iterating based on real-world feedback.
• You work across business, technical, and creative teams, unblock organizational silos, and deliver tangible value at speed.
• 7+ years leading programs or technology initiatives in enterprise or consulting; experience shipping multiple initiatives from strategy to scaled delivery.
• 5+ years of line management in innovation or delivery; proven ability to build high-performing teams and develop talent.
• 3+ years of C-level stakeholder management in complex, matrixed organizations; comfort presenting emerging opportunities and strategic recommendations.
• 3+ years managing operational budgets (€500K–€2M+), vendor negotiations, and ROI forecasting; track record of resource optimization.
• Proven success driving adoption of new tools or processes across large organizations (2000+ employees); ability to manage change resistance and secure buy-in.
• Track record of delivering MVP-level outcomes in 4–8 weeks; evidence of fail-fast thinking and rapid iteration to build momentum.
• Concrete examples of scaling initiatives—pilot to 50+ teams, across geographies, or to 2000+ end users; ability to replicate playbooks. Experience managing innovation intake funnels; ability to assess emerging technologies, evaluate business fit, and prioritize at portfolio level.
• Strong facilitation skills; experience aligning cross-functional teams on strategy and execution.
• Broad familiarity with technology landscape (martech, data platforms, AI/automation, customer experience); genuine curiosity and learning agility.
• Fluent English (mandatory). German is a plus.

Location:

Belgrade

Brand:

Merkle

Time Type:

Full time

Contract Type:

Permanent