Asia Innovation Director

Position Summary

The Design Center Innovation Leader is responsible for driving the innovation agenda within all design centers in PE Asia, ensuring alignment with both business objectives and the global innovation strategy. This role leads the assigned Design Centers innovation teams, coordinates cross-functional resources, and acts as a key liaison between the Design Center, horizontal innovation leadership, and product/brand teams. The leader fosters a culture of creativity, collaboration, and continuous improvement to deliver breakthrough solutions that support Stanley Black & Decker’s growth and competitiveness.

Key Responsibilities

· Innovation Leadership:

o Lead and inspire the local innovation teams within the assigned design centers, cultivating a high-performing, creative, and collaborative environment.

o Oversee innovation activities across multiple centers within a region

· Matrix Collaboration:

o Maintain a strong dotted-line relationship with the Horizontal Innovation Leadership, ensuring alignment with global innovation priorities, sharing innovation tools, methodologies, and best practices as well as insights across centers.

o Act as the primary innovation point of contact for the Design Center Leader.

· Resource Coordination:

o Identify, mobilize, and coordinate resources from various functions within the design center(s) (e.g., Engineering, Industrial Design, Product Management) to support innovation projects and activities.

· Ideation, Development & Facilitation:

o In partnership with the Horizontal Innovation Leadership, organize and facilitate brainstorming sessions and innovation workshops.

o Drive the generation, development, evaluation, and selection of new ideas and concepts to be handed off to the NPD teams following the standardized SBD “Innovation Phase Gate” process.

· IP Generation

o Foster a culture of actively pursuing the generation and protection of intellectual property within the assigned Design Center teams,

o Ensure new ideas are captured, evaluated, and advanced through appropriate IP processes and IP metrics are met.

· Strategic Alignment:

o Collaborate with Product and Brand teams to ensure innovation initiatives are aligned with business strategy, market needs, and brand positioning.

o Communicate innovation progress, challenges, and outcomes to key stakeholders.

· Project Management:

o Oversee the innovation project pipeline, from ideation through development and transition to NPD.

o Track and report on key innovation metrics and innovation project milestones.

· Culture & Capability Building:

o Champion a culture of innovation within the design centers in PE Asia, encouraging experimentation, learning, and knowledge sharing.

o Mentor and develop innovation talent within the team.

Qualifications

· Bachelor’s degree in Design, Engineering, or related field; advanced degree preferred.

· 7+ years of experience in innovation, product development, or related roles, ideally within a matrixed, global organization.

· Proven leadership experience, including managing cross-functional teams and/or multiple sites.

· Excellent English communication skills and experience in global working environment.

· Strong facilitation, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

· Demonstrated ability to drive alignment between innovation activities and business strategy.

· Experience with innovation methodologies (e.g., Design Thinking, JTBD frameworks) is a plus.

Key Competencies

· Strategic Thinking

· Collaborative Leadership

· Resourcefulness

· Creativity & Problem Solving

· Influence & Communication

· Project Management

· Change Management

Travel

· Willingness to travel between design centers as required to overseeing multiple centers.

We Don’t Just Build The World, We Build Innovative Technology Too.

Joining the Stanley Black & Decker team means working in an innovative, tech-driven and highly collaborative team environment supported by over 58,000 professionals in 60 countries across the globe. Here, you’ll get the unique chance to impact some of the world’s most iconic brands including STANLEY TOOLS, DEWALT, CRAFTSMAN, MAC TOOLS and Black + Decker. Your ideas and solutions have the potential to reach millions of customers as we work together to write the next chapter in our history. Come build with us and take your career to new heights.

Who We Are 

We’re the World’s largest tool company. We’re industry visionaries. We’re solving problems and advancing the manufacturing trade through innovative technology and our Industry 4.0 Initiative. We are committed to ensuring our state-of-the-art “smart factory” products and services provide greater quality to our customers & greater environmental and social value to our planet. We are unique in that we have a rich and storied history dating back to 1843, but that hasn't stopped us from evolving into a vibrant, diverse, global growth company.

Global Benefits & Perks
You’ll be rewarded with a competitive salary plus receive entitlements and benefits unique to your country of hire. 

What You’ll Also Get

Career Opportunity: Career paths aren’t linear here. Being part of our global company with 60+ brands gives you the chance to grow and develop your skills along multiple career paths.

Learning & Development: 
Our lifelong learning philosophy means you’ll have access to a wealth of state-of-the-art learning resources, including our Lean Academy and online university (where you can get certificates and specializations from renowned colleges and universities).

Diverse & Inclusive Culture:
We pride ourselves on being an awesome place to work. We respect and embrace differences because that’s how the best work gets done. You’ll find we like to have fun here, too.

Purpose-Driven Company:
You’ll help us continue to make positive changes in the local communities where we work and live as well as in the broader world through volunteerism, giving back and sustainable business practices.