At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead innovative projects that shape the future of smart systems and social infrastructure.
- Company: Join Hitachi, a pioneer in merging digital and physical environments.
- Benefits: Enjoy generous holidays, private medical insurance, and a supportive work culture.
- Other info: Collaborative environment with opportunities for travel and personal growth.
- Why this job: Make a real impact by tackling complex challenges with cutting-edge technology.
- Qualifications: Master’s degree and experience in transformational innovation required.
Hitachi is shaping our social infrastructure through the convergence of digital and physical environments into smart and intelligent systems. This is an exciting opportunity to join a creative team working at the core of Hitachi’s research, innovation and transformation across Europe and beyond, to identify market making business opportunities driven by complex social and environmental challenges and enabled by technology disruptions and new business models. The role will also be responsible for nurturing organisation-wide imagination on preferred futures that will inspire and enable business action today.
You will be responsible for bringing strategic foresight into the development and delivery of vision-led and human-centred research and innovation programmes through:
- Horizon scanning and monitoring of market, societal and tech signals.
- Scenario planning and framing ecosystem challenges and opportunities to show relevance to our core business.
- Development of transition pathways to new market and social ecosystems and interpreting insights to business development roadmap and near-term action.
- Facilitation and engagement with internal and external stakeholders to build consensus.
- Development of multi-actor propositions that will shape new technology and business solution concepts aligned to long term visions.
- Collecting evidence and creating compelling outputs to support business case for innovation and incubation investment, including creating storytelling narratives and documentation to support organisational mobilisation.
Leadership and Visioning
Leverage strategic foresight and systems thinking approaches together with human-centred design to develop business transformation strategies across energy, environment, and mobility sectors in a highly collaborative environment. Analysis of macro trends, developing human-centred foresights and future state service and system visions. Lead planning, management and reporting tasks and deliverables for yourself and other project members. Present, monitor, and mitigate risks.
Innovation Pipeline and Portfolio Development support
Work with other internal leads to propose projects and secure internal or external funding for research and innovation programmes. Execute projects in collaboration with other designers, researchers, solution architects, data scientists, and creative technologists including:
- Lead activities to define and validate project assumptions and hypothesis through research and speculative prototyping activities.
- Defining and developing visually engaging communication material for re-imagined service experiences, operating models and touchpoints.
Commercial and Market validation
Aligning visions to clear near-term commercial opportunities for R&D and the Business Units.
Stakeholders and Ecosystem Engagement
Engage and influence relevant stakeholders through workshop facilitation at different stages of the innovation lifecycle – including planning and shaping project scope, strategy development, project execution. Engage with senior management and executives to mitigate risks and build support.
Capability Building
Support development and enhancement of foresight and value creation frameworks by integrating methodologies in an actionable and effective manner that brings consistency of practice within members of Hitachi’s R&D organisation and beyond. Explore impacts of new AI driven tools on our Foresight and Design Futures practice and propose ways to drive efficiency, productivity for more effective ways of working. Manage and mentor other team members from designers to non-designers in strategic foresight.
Partnerships
Help develop partnerships with internal and external organisations to develop our capabilities and delivery models. Travel within UK, Europe, Japan and US. You will also be guiding team members and colleagues through communicating and visualising complex ecosystems and concepts in visual, written and schematic formats with designers, researchers, engineers and external partners.
What you bring to the team
We’re looking for a team player, who is motivated by delivering great work and the Hitachi vision. The role will be a mixture of remote-hybrid work with days in the Hitachi Office: 7th Floor, 1 New Ludgate, 60 Ludgate Hill, London, EC4M 7AW, United Kingdom.
Experience
- Proven experience in delivering transformational innovation programme activities within enterprise environments working across multidisciplinary research and innovation functions.
- Experienced project management and leading multiple project schedules to set deadlines and budgets, while mitigating risk.
- Line management experience and led teams to delivering impact.
- Working knowledge and experience of B2B social infrastructure domains, incl. energy, transportation and manufacturing.
- Demonstrable success in launching transformative and change making initiatives or products.
- Experience of working across different cultures and diverse environments.
Skills
- Ability to apply futures thinking, systems thinking, and foresight frameworks to broad business challenges.
- Big picture thinking and the ability to map and grapple complex macro system challenges and value flows using systems thinking tools and methods.
- Sensemaking, insights synthesis and interpretation ability of macro and micro level unstructured information into business relevance.
- Ability to quickly become familiar with specific industry and business challenges to prepare for projects.
- Proven written/visual/verbal communication skills to articulate narratives and future scenarios in a creative and compelling manner through storytelling, visualisations presentations and research reports.
- Strong commercial acumen to identify and understand how to unlock business value within new propositions.
- Curious and growth mindset for continuous improvement.
Education
Master’s Degree or higher in a humanities, social science or design related field. Languages: English proficiency (essential).
Benefits Package
- Generous holiday entitlement - with the option to buy up to an additional 5 days per year.
- A Holiday Banking scheme allowing you to bank untaken holiday to use another year.
- Group Personal Pension.
- Private Medical Insurance with self-funded option to cover family members.
- Employee Assistance Programme available to all employees.
- Personal Accident Insurance.
Voluntary Benefits
- Cycle To Work scheme.
- Gym Membership.
- Dental Insurance with option to include dependent children.
- Health screening.
- Dining card.
Our Values
We are proud to say we are an equal opportunity employer and welcome all applicants for employment without attention to any factor that doesn’t impact your ability to do the job, including race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status. We are proud of Japanese heritage, with our values expressed through the Hitachi Spirit: Wa – Harmony, Trust, Respect; Makoto – Sincerity, Fairness, Honesty, Integrity; Kaitakusha-Seishin – Pioneering Spirit, Challenge.
Strategic Foresight Lead employer: Hitachi
Hitachi is an exceptional employer that fosters a collaborative and innovative work culture, where employees are empowered to shape the future of social infrastructure through cutting-edge research and technology. Located in the heart of London, the company offers generous benefits, including a comprehensive holiday package, private medical insurance, and opportunities for personal and professional growth, making it an ideal place for those seeking meaningful and impactful careers.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Strategic Foresight Lead
✨Leverage Innovation Hubs
Tap into local innovation hubs and research centres. These places often host events and workshops where you can meet like-minded people and industry leaders. Plus, they might have job openings that aren't widely advertised, so keep your ears open!
✨Showcase Your Projects
Turn your past innovation projects into compelling stories. Create a portfolio showcasing your creativity and problem-solving skills. This can give hiring managers a real flavour of what you can bring to the table at companies like Hitachi.
✨Connect at Industry Conferences
Make it a point to attend industry conferences and seminars focused on R&D and innovation management. These events are fantastic for networking and often have job boards or career fairs where you can connect directly with firms looking for talent.
✨Use Your University’s Resources
If you're fresh out of university, don't forget to tap into your institution's career services. They often have exclusive partnerships with companies seeking new talent in R&D, especially for full-time roles. It's a good shortcut to landing a gig at places like Hitachi.
We think you need these skills to ace Strategic Foresight Lead
Some tips for your application 🫡
Showcase Your Creative Thinking:In innovation and R&D management, it's all about thinking outside the box. Make sure your CV highlights any projects or experiences that showcase your creative problem-solving skills. Use specific examples to illustrate how you've developed and implemented innovative ideas in previous roles.
Tailor Your Experience to R&D:When you're crafting your CV, focus on your experience in research and development. Highlight any relevant projects you've worked on, including methodologies used and results achieved. This will show us at Hitachi that you understand the R&D process and can contribute meaningfully to our projects.
Let Your Passion Shine in the Cover Letter:For a full-time role like this, your cover letter should reflect your genuine passion for innovation and development. Share your excitement about the opportunity to work at Hitachi and touch on how your goals align with our mission. This helps us see your motivation for wanting to join our team!
Quantify Your Achievements:Numbers speak volumes in R&D! Whenever possible, quantify your achievements in your CV. Whether it’s a percentage improvement in project outcomes, the budget size you’ve managed, or the number of successful products you've launched, these figures will help paint a clearer picture of your impact and capabilities.
How to prepare for a job interview at Hitachi
✨Show Off Your Innovative Thinking
In an Innovation R&D Management role at Hitachi, they're going to want to see how you approach problem-solving. Be ready to discuss previous projects where you introduced a new idea or process. Highlight your ability to think outside the box and provide examples where your innovations drove significant results.
✨Familiarity with Tools and Technologies
Make sure you're clued up on the latest tools and technologies related to innovation management, such as project management software and data analysis platforms. Being able to discuss specific tools you’ve used or have experience with will show Hitachi that you’re ready to hit the ground running.
✨Demonstrate Collaboration Skills
Since this is a full-time gig, emphasising your teamwork skills will be essential. In innovation, collaboration often sparks the best ideas, so be ready to talk about how you've worked effectively within cross-functional teams in your past roles. Have concrete examples at the ready!
✨Prepare for Scenario-Based Questions
Expect some scenario-based questions in your interview that reflect real challenges you might face in the role. £At Hitachi, they might want to see how you handle tight deadlines or manage conflicting ideas within a team. Prepare some responses that demonstrate your critical thinking and decisiveness in high-pressure situations.
