Innovation Program Manager

Position can be based in France or Italy or Spain or Poland.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Innovation Program Manager will lead various innovation projects internally across the group relying on various teams (design, construction, operations, presales, etc) and the support of suppliers or customers. He/she will create key partnerships with suppliers and lead relationship with other stakeholders (startups, universities/schools, etc.).

He/she will regularly lead operational and strategic steering committees in order to present the progress of projects to Data4 Management team, key technical referents and team leaders.

He/she will prepare and present the business case (technical and financial feasibility) for each innovation to the management team to enable them to validate the effective production and «massive» deployment of the various innovations.

He/she will have to inculcate the spirit of innovation internally by means and a mode of governance that he/she will have to determine in order to make the stakeholders aware of this approach.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The missions of the Innovation Program Manager are:

- Define the group’s innovation roadmap (a significant component of the roadmap will be dedicated to sustainability and optimizing the company’s environmental impact)
- Maintain an active external watch to identify innovative topics/technologies that may be of interest to DATA4 (trade shows, webinars, white papers, etc). If relevant, also be industry leading and evangelize best practices
- Lead cross-functional innovative projects/programs for the group (until the end of the PoC if necessary) to be able to present a final business case to the management to enable them to take decision on the implementation within the group:

- Manage the scoping, study and PoC phases (if necessary):

- Animation of operational and/or strategic steering committees
- In the event of final validation by management, ensure a handover to internal teams to deploy the innovation as standard (e.g.: design/construction teams, operations, IT/Digital, etc.).
- Monitor the progress of the production launch in conjunction with the internal teams in charge
- Build strong relationships with key players and strategic partners (established companies, academic partners and startups) in Europe.
- Instill an innovation culture and mindset in the company
- Promote innovation externally: Prepare scoping notes on innovation topics and make presentations on innovative topics at events (in French or English)

RESPONSIBILITES IN TERMS OF IMS CERTIFICATIONS

The innovation program and approach must include and enable the respect and enforcement of policies in terms of IMS, HSE, Security and energy policies

**REQUIREMENTS**:
Education and experience
- MSc. or similar in science or engineering.
- At least 5 years’ experience in data center activities including strategy definition and implementation, technology scouting, idea pipeline management, KPIs definition and follow-up, governance. (ex: Engineering company, company in the field of building construction or in an industrial company in the data center sector).
- Experience in mission critical designs, working 24*7 with very high reliability
- Previously worked for an international/ global organization or company and can effectively communicate from a global perspective
- Experience in dealing with different working environments (academic, start-ups, established companies)
- Experienced manager with a multidisciplinary team
- Experience on sustainability such as carbon footprint, energy efficiency approaches, is a plus.
- Experience with Intellectual property management (patents, freedom to operate, etc) is a plus

Technical skills
- Curious and passionate about technological innovations (in new technologies) in mechanical and electrical designs as well as civil engineering
- Very good knowledge of innovation management
- Project or program management preferably in the field of new technologies
- Ability to understand business issues and to grasp technical / technological / digital and organizational topics
- Team player with prior leadership experience; work experience in a global organization/setting a plus
- Ability to balance between specification qualities, costs, time, to ensure the right mix of technical innovation, ability to deploy and operate, according to the projects.
- Able to work simultaneously with multiple projects
- Proven knowledge about design thinking is a differential.
- PRINCE2, PMP and ITIL methodology would be a plus
- Fluent in English and French, any other European language is an advantage

Soft skills
- Out of the box thinker, capable of proposing new ideas and defending them, to get teams buy-ins to implement such ideas
- Sense of critical thinking and absolute scientific rigor, to vet and validate projects results
- Sense of confidentiality, integrity and ethics
- High level of rigor, organizational skills and good analytical skills
- Strong verbal and written com