Associate Director, Digital R&D & Innovation - NA?

You were made to do this work: designing new technologies, diving into data, optimizing digital experiences, and constantly developing better, faster ways to get results. You want to be part of?a performance culture dedicated to building technology for a purpose that matters. You want to work in an environment that promotes sustainability, inclusion, wellbeing, and career development. In this role, you’ll help us deliver better care for billions of people around the world.  It starts with YOU. 

As the Digital R&D and Innovation Senior Manager, you will be a self-starter, strategic thinker, creative problem solver and driver of results. This approach to disruptive innovation is new within the NA Consumer (B2C) and Professional (B2B) organization so the individual needs to be flexible, have a growth mindset, and be comfortable with ambiguity. This role will require a high level of stakeholder management and collaboration across the entirety of the organization.

Through this comprehensive role, you will have the unique opportunity to make a significant contribution to the business by leading teams, strengthening innovation, and driving a funnel of ideas to value.

Your leadership will not only influence the trajectory across our portfolio but also cultivate innovation across the organization. Your responsibilities will extend beyond managing and being hands-on in projects; you will be a key architect in building a sustainable innovation ecosystem that nurtures creativity, encourages risk-taking, rewards groundbreaking ideas, and monitors the markets trends.

In this role, you will:

• Drive R&D and innovation strategy for the NA Consumer, B2B, Thinx $11B+ business through best-in-class Engineering and Application capabilities and products, implement differentiated technologies and support business operations to enable $11B+ NA business growth.  
• Lead innovation strategy aligned with business goals. Explore new digital opportunities to disrupt the market and gain a competitive edge.
• Foster a culture of creativity and improvement. Lead innovation hackathons, use design thinking and agile methodologies to validate ideas that meet market needs and business objectives.
• Oversee innovation projects from ideation to commercialization. Define project scopes, timelines, budgets, and deliverables. Ensure effective resource allocation.
• Build and maintain relationships with key internal and external stakeholders. Bridge gaps between areas of expertise to drive collaborative innovation to product teams.
• Monitor technologies, trends, and market dynamics. Use insights to inform innovation strategy. Identify and establish relationships with strategic partners.
• Define and manage a connected R&D data-driven ecosystem integrated across the value chain.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Innovation Leadership: Lead the development and execution of the NA disruptive technological innovation strategy, aligning it with overarching business goals. You will spearhead cross-functional teams to explore and validate new digital opportunities that can disrupt the consumer, the market, the industry, business models and provide us with a competitive edge.
• Idea Generation & Validation: Foster a culture of creativity and continuous improvement, encouraging the generation of innovative ideas and concepts. Lead innovation hackathons and utilize design thinking and agile methodologies to validate and bring these ideas to life, ensuring they meet market needs and business objectives.
• Portfolio Management & Execution: Lead the innovative portfolio, from ideation to commercialization (business value delivery). This includes defining project scopes, timelines, budgets, and deliverables, as well as ensuring the effective allocation of resources. This is expected to be done following leveraging the Innovation framework that encompasses an agile mindset.
• Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement: Build and maintain strong relationships with key internal and external stakeholders, including R&D, marketing, IT (cloud and infrastructure), and external innovation partners. Your role will be crucial in bridging gaps between different areas of expertise to drive collaborative innovation to products teams.
• Market Intelligence & Analysis: Managed watchtower on emerging technologies, industry trends, and market dynamics. Leverage these insights to inform our innovation strategy and ensure our solutions remain at the forefront of digital commercial advancements. Front runner in strategic partners identification and relation establishment.

Scope/Categories:

Role will report to the North America CIO. This position has direct reports, it is also expected to be hands-on in projects, leading hackathons, works with startups, Universities, and oversight on external resources.

Key Interfaces:

Internal: NA R&E Vice President, NA B2B and Consumer Business President, NA Strategy Vice President, NA Chief Marketing Officer, Global R&E Team, NA Senior Leadership, Chief Digital and Technology Data Officer, NA CX & Marketing Senior Leadership, Business Product Managers, NA CIO, DTS R&E Global Team, DTS Global CTO COE Teams, Cyber Security & Assurance Team.

External: Startups, Universities, Contractors, Consulting Partners, 3rd Party service providers.

?

About Us

Huggies®. Kleenex®. Cottonelle®. Scott®. Kotex®. Poise®. Depend®. Kimberly-Clark Professional®. You already know our legendary brands—and so does the rest of the world. In fact, millions of people use Kimberly-Clark products every day. We know these amazing Kimberly-Clark products wouldn’t exist without talented professionals, like you.

At Kimberly-Clark, you’ll be part of the best team committed to driving innovation, growth, and impact. We’re founded on more than 150 years of market leadership, and we’re always looking for new and better ways to perform – so there’s your open door of opportunity. It’s all here for you at Kimberly-Clark.

Led by Purpose. Driven by You.

About You

You perform at the highest level possible, and you appreciate a performance culture fueled by authentic caring.  You want to be part of a company actively dedicated to sustainability, inclusion, wellbeing, and career development.

You love what you do, especially when the work you do makes a difference. At Kimberly-Clark, we’re constantly exploring new ideas on how, when, and where we can best achieve results. When you join our team, you’ll experience Flex That Works: flexible work arrangements that empower you to have purposeful time in the office and partner with your leader to make flexibility work for both you and the business.

In one of our technical roles, you’ll focus on winning with consumers and the market, while putting safety, mutual respect, and human dignity at the center. To succeed in this role, you will need the following qualifications:?

• 5+ years of hands-on experience in designing and developing end-to-end cloud solutions.
• Proven experience with architectural design patterns such as Microservices, APIs, event-driven data flows, serverless architectures, containers, connectivity, and device management.
• Proven experience experimenting and unlocking new digital frontiers. Stablish the pipeline strategy for innovation to value proven delivery.
• Demonstrated expertise in industry standards for securing digital products.
• Deep understanding of designing solutions for scalability and resiliency.
• Comprehensive knowledge of state-of-the-art technologies such as Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT) for natural language processing (NPL), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) algorithms for predictive analytics, seamless cloud-to-cloud integrations for scalable infrastructure, and GraphQL for efficient data queries and APIs.
• Proven track record in creating scalable and available cloud services using platforms like Azure.
• Strong familiarity with Agile and Product team workflows, including epics, features, stories, sprints, and backlog management.
• Dissecting complex challenges, crafting visionary strategies, and leveraging data-driven insights to guide decision-making and achieve impactful outcomes.

Leadership and Management:

• 7+ years of experience leading large, remote, global IT teams, with 5+ years focused on development lifecycle leadership within a product team framework.
• Background in coordinating hardware & software development teams and business owners, with the ability to influence SMEs directly.
• Experience leading multi-cultural and global teams in a matrix organization, adept at influencing stakeholders and working proactively with business and IT peers globally.
• Excellent strategic and analytical skills, strong big picture perspective, while also delivering for today.

Specialized Skills:

• Ability to engage in rapid prototype development using iterative techniques.
• Direct experience managing relationships with outsourcing and consulting partners.
• Expertise in leveraging AI and ML for predictive analytics, automating processes, and enhancing decision-making, ensuring solutions are both innovative and data driven.
• Deep understanding of cloud solutions and architectures, enabling scalable, flexible, and resilient digital infrastructures that support rapid innovation and development.

Soft Skills and Others:

• Demonstrated skills in application delivery, client relationship management, and maintaining high cross-cultural awareness.
• Proficient in English with outstanding written and verbal communication skills, capable of strong collaboration across teams and departments.

Total Benefits

Here are just a few of the benefits you’d enjoy working in this role for Kimberly-Clark. For a complete overview, see www.mykcbenefits.com.

Great support for good health with medical, dental, and vision coverage options with no waiting periods or pre-existing condition restrictions. Access to an on-site fitness center, occupational health nurse, and allowances for high-quality safety equipment.

Flexible Savings and spending accounts to maximize health care options and stretch dollars when caring for yourself or dependents.

Diverse income protection insurance options to protect yourself and your family in case of illness, injury, or other unexpected events.

Additional programs and support to continue your education, adopt a child, relocate, or even find temporary childcare.

To Be Considered
Click the Apply button and complete the online application process. A member of our recruiting team will review your application and follow up if you seem like a great fit for this role.

In the meantime, please check out the careers website.

And finally, the fine print….

For Kimberly-Clark to grow and prosper, we must be an inclusive organization that applies the diverse experiences and passions of its team members to brands that make life better for people all around the world.  We actively seek to build a workforce that reflects the experiences of our consumers.  When you bring your original thinking to Kimberly-Clark, you fuel the continued success of our enterprise. We are a committed equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, pregnancy, genetic information, citizenship status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

The statements above are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this classification. Statements are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities and skills required for this position.

Employment is subject to verification of pre-screening tests, which may include drug screening, background check, and DMV check.

Additional information about the compensation and benefits for this role are available upon request. You may contact 866-444-4516 – when prompted for employee ID, say “OTHER CALLER” - or kcchrprod@service-now.com for assistance. You must include the six-digit Job # with your request.

Veterans and members of the Reserve and Guard are highly encouraged to apply.

Kimberly-Clark will support in-country relocation for the chosen candidate for the role. The benefits provided will be per the terms of Kimberly-Clark’s applicable mobility policies. The benefits/policy provided will be decided at Kimberly-Clark’s sole discretion.

#LI-Onsite

Standort