Department: Advanced Concepts
Reports to: Vice President, Advanced Concepts
Location: North Vancouver, BC
Your opportunity at Arc’teryx:
As a Director, Innovation Management - Advanced Concepts (AC), you direct and lead an interdisciplinary team of innovator, builders, operators, futurists and change-drivers to deliver tangible solutions for the mountain athlete everywhere. You set the direction for the Innovation Management function within the Advanced Concepts team by driving portfolio management, insight and foresight activities, concept strategy, opportunity assessment and tracking, IP portfolio, innovation methodology, operational excellence, and represent the function within the AC Leadership team. You partner cross-functionally to drive incubation, execution and adoption of innovation concepts through the enterprise. In this role, you leverage your passion for delivering industry-shaping solutions to establish and maintain Arc’teryx’ position as a disruptive, bold and relevant design brand.
This role is based out of our North Vancouver office.
Meet your future team:
The Advanced Concepts team drives breakthrough innovation in snow, trail and climb for the mountain athlete everywhere. Fueled by curiosity, we take a holistic approach to identifying future needs and tangible solutions across advanced materials, products, technologies, and experiences. We are a team of builders, problem solvers and outdoor enthusiasts. Our in-house end-to-end capabilities in research, engineering, design, development, digital and validation allow us to innovate head-to-toe solutions that bring the coast mountain experience to the world. Our unique methodology, mindset of sustainability and fanatic passion for product are at the heart of what we do.
If you were the Director, Innovation Management - Advanced Concepts, here are some of the core activities you would be doing:
- Driving and leading the Innovation Management function within the Advanced Concepts team to maintain a strong innovation pipeline
- Driving and balancing a 3-, 5-, and 10-year innovation portfolio, ensuring the right mix of evolution, revolution, and breakthrough initiatives align to product strategy
- Defining clear horizon-specific success metrics, risk tolerance, and investment strategies across near- and far-term innovation bets
- Partnering with Design, Product, Merchandising, Supply Chain and Strategy leadership to translate long-range concepts into seasonal product strategies and drive end-to-end commercialization of innovation concepts, including business case validation, margin targets, and go-to-market alignment
- Leading AC’s tech‑scouting and foresight programs to fuel far‑future pipeline insights and guide cross‑functional strategy
- Establishing and managing processes and clear governance frameworks, including stage gates, criteria and investment prioritization models to ensure teams can execute effectively by clearly defining and aligning on the right scope, brief, budget and deliverables, while mobilizing the right team to achieve the required level of quality
- Identifying and developing scalable innovation platforms (materials, technologies, systems) that unlock multiple product applications over time
- Establishing and tracking innovation KPIs (e.g., adoption rate, revenue contribution, platform leverage, speed-to-market)
- Building and curating a strategic ecosystem (startups, academia, suppliers, venture partners) to accelerate differentiated innovation pipelines
- leading research, building insight, generating unique perspective, creating prototypes and performance validation approach across the innovation portfolio, while holding the highest standard for defining 'state of the art'
- Embedding innovation pathways into inline product roadmaps, ensuring seamless transition from concept to commercialization
- Creating and executing strategic and functional direction for internal engineering and design shop testing facilities, in partnership with the VP of Advanced Concepts
- Mentoring your team; inspiring them to deliver advanced R&D solutions across all product areas
- Creating and maintaining a robust IP portfolio, including identifying IP opportunities and liaising with legal from ideation to commercialization to ensure we are maintaining ownership of our proprietary ideas
- Partnering with Innovation Operations on research- and engineering- specific resourcing opportunities including funding, academic and internship programs (SR&ED, IRAP, NRC, MITACS, and so forth)
- Driving key initiatives to support the future of Arc’teryx with a focus on product circularity
- Ensuring you and your team maintains current industry technology, product innovation, research literature and equipment knowledge through education and hands-on experience
- Travelling quarterly as required
Here are some of the things you could be working on in the future:
- Leading and participating in strategic foresight work with internal and external stakeholders at key strategic milestones
- Driving regional innovation strategies and acting as conduit
- Supporting broader innovation portfolios across functions beyond Advanced Concepts
- Leveraging digital tools, AI, and data-driven insights to accelerate concept development, testing, and portfolio decision-making
Are you our next Director, Innovation Management - Advanced Concepts?
- You have a degree in business strategy, engineering or the equivalent industry experience, with 10+ years of product innovation and concept delivery experience in outerwear, technical apparel, equipment, or advanced innovation and 7+ years of proven management experience leading a team
- You have demonstrated success building and scaling multi-horizon innovation portfolios, delivering both near-term impact and long-term strategic advantage within the outdoor industry/innovation space
- You have a deep understanding technical apparel and/or performance hardgoods design and/or production
- You have experience identifying, creating and protecting a brand IP portfolio with internal and external legal teams
- You have experience building robust business cases for innovation investments, including financial modeling, risk assessment, ROI tracking, technical delivery roadmap from opportunity to commercial launch
- You have experience integrating innovation pipelines into seasonal product creation processes and long-range category strategies
- You have experience leading and working in far-future concept thinking, strategic foresight and scenario planning to drive future direction and balanced portfolio approach
- You have exceptional communication skills, including a proven ability to report findings and complex ideas to both scientists and nonscientists with strong visual and oral presentation skills
- You have built and leveraged external networks to identify emerging technologies and innovation opportunities ahead of competitors
- You have proven success in building high-performing, innovation-driven teams and fostering a culture of experimentation, learning, and accountability
- You have experience coaching and mentoring a multi-disciplinary team of innovators
- You are proactive in identifying the root cause of issues, seeking the best (sometimes not the easiest) solutions with an unwavering commitment to do what is right
- You remain highly flexible and adaptable when faced with ambiguity
- You effectively balance autonomy and collaboration
- Your passion for your work is paralleled by your passion for getting outside and living it
