Enterprise Innovation Strategy Lead Director

Job DescriptionThis position will promote innovation, emerging technology research, and product architecture practices through strategic positioning and advocacy of key capabilities. The technology innovation practice is a combined mixture of strategic product-oriented design of emerging technology, innovation aspiration, and lab/incubation that operates with an outside-in perspective. The emerging technology architecture family advocates for monitored change across all lines of businesses and all technology domains. This management role as the Lead Director of Innovation Strategy will support all CVS Health lines of business by building and maintaining an emerging product oriented agenda along with other IT teams and Line of Business representatives. Primary focus is maximizing the innovation advancement of emerging technology in a structure as emerging product architecture and advocating for the innovation culture across the enterprise. The Innovation Strategy Director works with other stakeholders to create a new product experience based on innovation practices including trendspotting, business workshops, crowdsourcing, startup-assessment/ecosystem partnerships, and design sprinting. They work to find market or technological opportunities, using trends, customer feedback, data, and/or emerging technology to create and validate a new offering. They work with developers through the incubation process and provides the direction for decisions regarding priority, business value, and functionality for all the work. The Innovation Strategy Director possesses an in-depth knowledge of LOB strategic goals and desired objectives that would align to new opportunities. The ideal candidate must possess the ability to foster a collaborative approach to achieve strategic goals in a manner consistent with architecture practices and control standards. Weekly scheduling of resources and monthly reporting is required.Strategy & Communication Creates a clear vision and milestones for the initiatives and assigns roles. Represents, interfaces with, and engages the business stakeholders. Makes business decisions and clearly communicates requirements through story telling so they are understood. Communicates status outside the team.Architecture/Incubation Creates an emerging product architecture from themes and features granular enough for a single feature. Prioritizes business value and decides which features are scheduled. Leads planning, stakeholder meetings, reviews, retrospectives, initiative planning, demos, and other executive level meetings.Collaboration Collaborates with and influences other managers and senior leaders. Applies innovation practices and experiments with different ecosystem possibilities including outside of the company. Participates in innovation management exercises.Management Is responsible for innovation management and advancing the culture of innovation across the enterprise. Is always accessible and participates proactively and constantly in the team activities. Steers the initiative to ensure delivery of business value. Is visible, vocal, and objective.To be successful in this role you will: Advance innovation strategy and research-based emerging product architecture - using a risk-based approach - while ensuring measures and processes are aligned with and support the Company's business objectives Coordinates opportunities - including business and technical measures - to ensure they appropriately address the opportunities Follows and implements privacy, IP, NDA and procurement practices. Develops and/or implements policies, procedures and programs to ensure uniform emerging product architecture direction Actively works with vendors and external ecosystem partners and recommends selections when necessary Evaluates program processes to effectively enable innovation for stakeholders Monitors emerging technology and develop appropriate implementation strategies Suggests incubation development by providing solution recommendations Understands business plans and objectives of key clients/business units, serves as a key communicator with business units to ensure responsive service Conducts research to identify potential areas of operational improvement and provide findings through written reports to various internal stakeholders Assesses and catalogues product operations in a playbook for cross-training Develops meaningful metrics that effectively measure key performance indicators and enhance solutions and techniques Partners and develops collaborative relationships across the IT and business organizations to ensure short- and long-term goals are achieved Maintains effective working relationships with infrastructure, security, DevSecOps, and other organizations as needed Performs other duties as assigned Exhibits behaviors outlined in Heart At WorkRequired QualificationsFunctional Experience:1. Functional - Information Technology - 10-15 Years2. Functional - Information Management - 5-6 Years3. Functional - Risk Management - 2-3 YearsTechnology Experience1. Technical - Enterprise Architecture - 8-10 YearsCOVID RequirementsCOVID-19 Vaccination RequirementCVS Health requires certain colleagues to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (including any booster shots if required), where allowable under the law, unless they are approved for a reasonable accommodation based on disability, medical condition, religious belief, or other legally recognized reasons that prevents them from being vaccinated. You are required to have received at least one COVID-19 shot prior to your first day of employment and to provide proof of your vaccination status or apply for a reasonable accommodation within the first 10 days of your employment. Please note that in some states and roles, you may be required to provide proof of full vaccination or an approved reasonable accommodation before you can begin to actively work.Preferred Qualifications Strong interpersonal, organizational and communication skills (both verbal and written) as well as the ability to work and collaborate within the various business units and across all levels of employees, including executives. Sound organizational skills and demonstrated aptitude for relationships and stakeholder management Ability to establish and maintain effective professional relationships with diverse groups of individuals and functions, both internal and external Ability to adhere to instructions furnished in written, oral or diagrammatic form Strong working knowledge of the core concepts of operational excellence. Ability to efficiently manage and complete multiple tasks simultaneously Minimum of ten years of related experience is required Minimum of three years of architecture experience overseeing teams is required Project Management, Product Management, and/or Data Science experience preferred. Thorough understanding of Agile software development methodologies, values, and procedures. Thorough understanding of the software development lifecycle. In-depth knowledge of testing practices and techniques. Understanding of organization's development platform and languages. Ability to understand technical issues.Education BA or BS degree required Master's or advanced degree/certification in related field preferredBusiness OverviewBring your heart to CVS HealthEvery one of us at CVS Health shares a single, clear purpose: Bringing our heart to every moment of your health. This purpose guides our commitment to deliver enhanced human-centric health care for a rapidly changing world. Anchored in our brand - with heart at its center - our purpose sends a personal message that how we deliver our services is just as important as what we deliver.Our Heart At Work Behaviors support this purpose. We want everyone who works at CVS Health to feel empowered by the role they play in transforming our culture and accelerating our ability to innovate and deliver solutions to make health care more personal, convenient and affordable. We strive to promote and sustain a culture of diversity, inclusion and belonging every day. CVS Health is an affirmative action employer, and is an equal opportunity employer, as are the physician-owned businesses for which CVS Health provides management services. We do not discriminate in recruiting, hiring, promotion, or any other personnel action based on race, ethnicity, color, national origin, sex/gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Created: 2025-09-06