Senior Manager - Innovation at KCB Bank Kenya

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: 

•  Responsible for the collection and funnelling of innovation pitches from internal & external stakeholders; concepts& Ideas collection from customers, employees & partners across the group through both virtual and physical channels. Provide an open web portal for acceptance of innovation suggestions and formal submission of innovation pitches by customers and partners.
• Responsible for creating structure and guidance in Innovation management process; Provide guidance templates for business cases across all approval gates (Level 0 – for cost implications modelling and 1 for full GTSC review) prior to GTSC presentations. Leverage innovation panel sessions split into internal & external. For external, invite product owner support (ensure right resources assigned to drive delivery). Provide an aggregated one portal view of all group innovation projects within the three-year innovation deployment pipeline. 
•  Drive innovation management best practise sharing;  market & customer behavior research reviews, innovationbest practice dissemination, innovation case studies, knowledge base management. Stewardship of knowledge base to PIR.
• Ecosystem engagement – Fintechs proposals reviews & Elite club build, hackathons, VC unicorn partnerships & funding opportunities to scale innovations including social efforts & governance for large partners e.g. MasterCard, GCFetc
•  Scheduling Innovation panel meetings; leverage the gate process to optimize and rationalize KCB Group Innovation pipeline portfolio. Review new product / services concept pitches and maximize the banks innovation opportunities, enable effective cross or upselling of the existing product portfolio and define opportunity gaps for development based on customer needs, organization capability, market trends, and competitor activity amongst others 
• Manage and ensure the implementation of the Group Innovation Policy, Process and Ways of working to ensure the process is dynamic and responsive to Business needs. Secretariat to the Innovation panel & Committee of Operational Excellence (COE)
•  Guide internal & external innovation partners on ideation and pitching of all new business propositions, business case development, scheduling of innovation panel presentations & preparing teams for COE & GTSC presentation
• Work with the internal stakeholder teams on innovation panel funneling and business case development of aligned products/services.
• Support product development teams internally and externally by ensuring guidance and clarity in development of business cases and business requirement documents (BRDs) presented at GTSC & COE
• Ensure compliance with all DFS policies and processes in the execution of all tasks by self and team

The successful candidate should have the following:

• A Bachelor’s degree preferably in Technology, Design or business related field
• A Master’s degree will be an added advantage.
• At least 6 years of relevant work experience including leading innovation management, project management, and managing teams.  
• Work experience should also include the below: 
  • Innovation management
  • Gate process management 
  • Digital Product and platform management
  • Business development/Sales &. marketing management.