Innovation Business Development Lead

The opportunity

Hitachi Energy is seeking an Innovation Business Development Lead to join the Global Innovation Organization within the Transformers Business Unit. In this pivotal and influential role, you will drive the creation, validation, and scaling of transformative technology solutions that directly shape the future of our products, engineering capabilities, and digital innovation.

Acting as the strategic bridge between technology, business, and external ecosystems, you will lead high-value initiatives that leverage open innovation, advanced engineering tools, and cross-functional collaboration. Your mission is to turn emerging technologies into competitive advantages, starting with the opportunities identification and leading the process of roadmap execution, pilot validation, and global rollout.

This is an exceptional opportunity for a senior innovation leader for transforming innovation opportunities into validated business cases, strategic partnerships, pilot projects, and scalable growth opportunities. The role bridges technology, market needs, customers, and external ecosystems to ensure innovation delivers measurable business value. In this role you will drive customer discovery, market validation, partnership development, startup engagement, and commercialization activities from a disruptive perspective while collaborating closely with technology, product management, R&D, and business leadership.

How you will make an impact

• Identify and evaluate emerging business opportunities, market trends, customer needs, and disruptive technologies.
• Translate market intelligence, competitor analysis, and ecosystem assessments, strategic priorities into innovation initiatives, pilots, and growth opportunities.
• Develop business cases and recommendations for investment decisions.
• Support innovation portfolio prioritization and roadmap development.
• Lead customer discovery activities and voice-of-customer programs.
• Validate use cases, value propositions, and market attractiveness.
• Identify, evaluate, and engage startups, scale-ups, universities, research institutes, and strategic partners.
• Provide strategic direction and hands-on leadership to ensure successful execution of global technology pilot projects and proof-of-concept initiatives with external partners on time, within budget, and to the highest quality standards.
• Support due diligence and partnership evaluations.
• Transform innovation concepts into scalable business opportunities.
• Develop go-to-market strategies for validated solutions together with internal and external stakeholders
• Support business models definition, value proposition, and market entry strategies.
• Build internal support for scaling successful pilots.
• Negotiate and manage collaboration opportunities/partnership alongside Legal and Procurement.
• Support the establishment of co-development, licensing, venture clienting, and partnership agreements.
• Develop and maintain strategic external relationships.
• Coordinate activities across R&D, product management, engineering, sales, marketing, sourcing, finance, and legal. Foster collaboration and alignment across global teams and stakeholders, ensuring seamless communication and issues resolution.
• Facilitate innovation workshops and business validation sessions, present recommendations to executive stakeholders.
• Cultivate strategic partnerships with global research institutions, industry stakeholders, and external collaborators to accelerate technological advancements.
• Champion innovation by promoting design thinking, entrepreneurship mindset, and the development of disruptive technologies within programs.
• Ensure compliance with governance frameworks, technical standards, and regulatory requirements while maintaining audit readiness.
• Monitor performance through KPIs and deliver data-driven insights to enable informed decision-making and continuous improvement.
• Proactively manage risks to safeguard innovation to ensure responsible innovation and our freedom to operate.

Your background

• Degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Computer Science Engineering, or a related technical field.
• A MSc or MBA in Business, Engineering, Innovation or Technology Management, or a related field is a plus.
• 7+ years of experience in innovation, strategy, business development, product management, venture building, management consulting, or corporate innovation.
• 7+ exposure to industrial, energy, technology, engineering, or other B2B sectors.
• Proven experience working with startups, scale-ups, research institutions, and innovation ecosystems.
• Strong financial and analytical skills, including business case development, ROI analysis, portfolio management, KPI definition and tracking, and data-driven decision-making.
• Demonstrated experience in developing strategic partnerships, negotiating commercial agreements, and managing complex stakeholder networks.
• Solid understanding of open innovation, venture clienting, technology commercialization, and innovation governance frameworks.
• Exposure to industrial, energy, technology, engineering, or other B2B sectors is highly desirable.
• Strong market intelligence and customer discovery capabilities, with the ability to identify emerging trends, validate opportunities, and translate market needs into business growth initiatives.
• Excellent communication, influencing, and relationship-building skills, with the ability to engage effectively across all organizational levels and with external partners.
• Strategic thinker with strong problem-solving skills and a track record of converting innovative ideas into measurable business outcomes.
• Entrepreneurial mindset, comfortable operating in fast-paced and ambiguous environments while driving execution and delivering results.
• Willingness to travel internationally to meet R&D and Engineering teams and stakeholders.

More about us

At Hitachi Energy, we recognize that our people are at the heart of our success. We are committed to providing a supportive and inclusive workplace, competitive rewards, and opportunities for professional and personal growth. Our benefits package is designed to help employees thrive both at work and in their personal lives.

Our benefits offering for this role generally includes:

• Private medical care and life insurance

• Access to fitness and wellness programs

• Access to benefits platform with discounts and perks

• Employee Capital Plans (PPK)

• Equipment for working from home or allowances for setting up a workplace at home

• Spectacles and contact lenses allowance

• Company events and team-building activities

• Psychological support program

• Free parking available

You will receive more specific information during the recruitment process.

Apply now

Current employees apply here