THE ROLE:
The Head of Research & Innovation CoE is a senior technology and innovation leader reporting to the Chief Product Officer (CPO). This role is responsible for building and leading the company’s Research & Innovation Center of Excellence, driving ideation, emerging technology evaluation, experimentation, and the development of an enterprise-wide Agentic AI framework.
The CoE acts as the organization’s innovation engine, identifying and validating new technology opportunities that advance the company’s transition toward an AI-driven intelligence platform combining Network Intelligence and Customer Experience (CX) Intelligence.
While innovation, research, and ideation are the primary focus, this role also contributes to the long-term product and platform architecture direction, contributing to the development of a unified reference architecture, and helping steer the transformation toward an integrated, intelligent, and AI-driven platform. The role ensures that research insights, innovation initiatives, and architectural strategies are tightly aligned with customer needs, market evolution, and the company’s long-term growth objectives.
Research & Innovation Center of Excellence (CoE) Leadership:
Build, lead, and scale the Research & Innovation CoE, acting as an internal innovation engine and CTO office extension for strategic future technology exploration.
Lead a team of AI/ML professionals in developing new products and releases.
Develop structured research and innovation processes for ideation, concepting, rapid prototyping, feasibility studies, and emerging technology evaluations.
Oversee a dedicated ideation team responsible for concept exploration, early-stage experiments, technology proofs of value, and innovation pilots, stage experiments, and innovation pilots.
Drive innovation frameworks and methodologies (innovation pipelines, lean experimentation, rapid prototyping cycles) to accelerate concept-to-product transitions.
Champion and shape the Agentic AI strategy, ensuring alignment between innovation research, AI capabilities, and product implementation.
Identify and validate new opportunities for AI-driven, platform-driven, or architectural innovations that differentiate the portfolio and unlock new customer value.
Reference Product Architecture
Define and evolution of the reference architecture, ensuring it reflects emerging research insights and AI-driven capabilities.
Lead the architectural transition from siloed tools to an integrated, AI-first Intelligent Insight Platform with shared components and unified data models.
Collaborate with Engineering and Architecture leadership to create modernization pathways (cloud-native, microservices, common data layers, API-first).
Lead the Architecture Review Board (ARB) to support major architectural and platform direction decisions.
QUALIFICATIONS:
10+ years in innovation leadership, R&D, product strategy, product architecture, or platform technology leadership.
Demonstrated Expertise and contributions in the following areas (GSMA, ITU, TM Forum, CAMARA).
Research in areas of 6G, Customer centric QoE, NTN or other emerging technologies are a plus.
Experience in launching & developing a patent program is a plus
Experience in public funding initiatives related to emerging technologies is a plus
Demonstrated experience running Innovation Labs, R&D organizations, Centers of Excellence, or enterprise innovation programs.
Experience contributing to or defining reference architectures for multi-product or platform environments.
Deep understanding of AI/ML technologies, with practical exposure to implementing Agentic AI, conversational AI, automation systems, or intelligent platforms.
Strong understanding of network analytics, service assurance, and customer experience intelligence domains, particularly in telecom and enterprise digital services environments.
Ability to translate research insights into practical product innovation and measurable customer value.
LANGUAGES:
English – essential
LOCATION:
Global Remote Offices