Job Description

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