Are you passionate about helping leaders transform their organizations into innovation engines with the power to shape a better future? Do you have demonstrated success developing and applying organizational and business strategies to drive innovation and growth? Are you skilled at leading others to think creatively about the future and define their path forward in the face of complexity? And are you motivated to have impact beyond yourself -- for your team, for clients, and for the world?

If yes, you may be the right person to join RTI Innovation Advisors (RTI IA). Our team has been helping global corporate, federal, and foundation clients solve their toughest technology and innovation challenges for more than 50 years. As a consulting group within a mission-driven organization, we share your drive to make the world better and your desire for work with purpose: to solve challenges facing science and society, and to learn and grow in a diverse and inclusive global environment. We make that happen by investing in you-dynamic professional development, employee wellness, and world-class benefits which include paid parental leave and childcare subsidies. We empower you to accomplish our shared mission.

We see our work as an act of service, and service as an opportunity to lead our clients along a journey to greater impact and our colleagues along a journey of professional growth. As a business unit of RTI International-an independent nonprofit research institute dedicated to improving the human condition-RTI IA provides an environment that promotes our values of quiet confidence, learning, collaborating, empowered by a culture of trust and respect, responsibility, and accountability. We are a collaborative, growing team, working in a matrixed way, where diverse perspectives are valued and professional growth opportunities abound.

Who Are You?

Because you'll guide our clients through their strategic initiatives and transformations, you'll need to be a creative, competent, and curious leader committed to serving your clients and project teams well. In addition, you:

• Have a proven ability to assess client challenges, to develop hypotheses, frame problems, lead benchmarking research, and generate relevant insights based on research and data.
• Are a self-directed team member and leader with a proven ability to work on complex, ambiguous, and client-facing projects via virtual and in-person engagements; you work well under the pressures of multiple clients, projects, and deadlines.
• Combine technical rigor with creative thinking, approaching your work with intellectual curiosity and a desire to learn many different areas of science, technology, innovation, and development.
• Demonstrate a commitment to productive teamwork through giving and receiving feedback, engaging in personal growth and professional development.
• Possess strong oral and written capabilities, English fluency, and an ability to formulate and persuasively deliver key messages; must have strong MS PowerPoint and MS Excel skills.
• Have a perspective on innovation that aligns with the perspective of RTI IA (see https://rtiinnovationadvisors.org/about/) and the mission of RTI International.

What You'll Do

Our clients seek support with a broad range of innovation, strategic planning, business management, and regional or market ecosystem transformation initiatives that typically involve science and technology. We support our clients with projects that are customized for each client's needs and often include activities such as strategic planning, fore sighting, road mapping, and ideation or alignment workshops. All these activities are delivered through design-thinking techniques which promote a focus on end-user needs and balancing of diverse perspectives. We are looking for an Innovation Advisor who will build trusted partnerships with our clients to support and lead complicated, multi-stakeholder sensemaking discussions, inform and inspire adult learners, and guide client teams through collaborative decision making and planning.

• Lead client engagements supporting strategic innovation and business transformation initiatives. Activities will include developing strategic alignment and requirements, crafting strategic plans and roadmaps, driving research on sector trends, drivers, and best practices, and designing and delivering hybrid, virtual, in-person working sessions and workshops.
• Assess and engage clients to characterize emergent visions and needs to identify opportunities for new engagements. Build long-term relationships with clients to maintain and grow RTI IA's profile as a long-term trusted advisor and partner and bring those engagements to life through thoughtful and targeted business development and proposal writing.
• Provide thought leadership and specialized insights to our internal and external clients around strategic transformation involving innovation, digitalization, global and regional initiatives, and market/sector ecosystem development.
• Collaborate with RTI IA's insights research teams to leverage custom business, technology, or user intelligence research to inform your clients' strategic innovation or transformation initiatives.
• Drive the creation of client deliverables (e.g., reports and presentations), including executive summaries, futures scenarios, and detailed research (market and technology) deliverables and recommendations.

What You'll Bring

• Bachelor's degree with at least 8 years of expience, with 4 years of those years as a business strategy or innovation consultant (or equivalent education and experience)
• At least 2 years of experience managing engagement with either internal or external clients, including consultative strategy development and problem-solving experience.
• At least 2 years of experience, or equivalent training, in foresight or futures methodology, scenario planning, experiential learning, or workshop design and facilitation
• A willingness to travel to headquarters in Research Triangle Park, N.C. and to client sites 8-12 times each year
• Authorization to work in the United States

Ideal candidates will also have:

• Formal training or certification in project management or innovation/user-centered design processes
• Varied experience across the innovation life-cycle, including both theory and practice at the front-end of innovation, conducting user-centered research and ideation, and new product development
• United States citizenship

For San Francisco, CA USA Job Postings Only: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Further information is available .

The anticipated pay range for this role is listed below. Our pay ranges represent national averages and may vary by location as a geographic differential may be applied to some locations within the United States.

RTI considers multiple factors when making an offer including, for example: established salary range, internal budget, business needs, and education and years of work experience possessed by the applicant. Further, salary is merely one element to our offer.

At RTI, we demonstrate our commitment to rewarding individual and team achievement through a total rewards package. This package includes (among other things) a competitive base salary, a generous paid time off policy, merit based annual increases, bonus opportunities and a robust recognition program. Other benefits include a competitive range of insurance plans (including health, dental, life, and short-term and long-term disability), access to a retirement savings program such as a 401(k) plan, paid parental leave for all parents, financial assistance with adoption expenses or infertility treatments, financial reimbursement for education and developmental opportunities, an employee assistance program, and numerous other offerings to support a healthy work-life balance.