Innovation Manager

Description

Background:

Tulsa Innovation Labs LLC (TIL) is a tech-led economic development organization headquartered in Tulsa, OK pioneered by the George Kaiser Family Foundation. The organization is responsible for catalyzing Tulsa’s leadership in advanced industries such as energy tech, advanced air mobility, virtual health, and cyber. We believe that by building a world-class tech hub in America’s heartland, we unlock opportunity for all.

The organization was founded in January 2020 and has already experienced significant momentum including its $38.2M Build Back Better Regional Challenge win and EDA Tech Hubs Designation. Now, TIL is emerging from startup-phase and has established itself as a system hub and community leader, requiring additional emphasis on scaling-up operations and organizational capacity.

Rose Rock Bridge (RRB) is TIL’s deployment studio for advanced technologies. RRB works from the corporate problem backwards. It identifies the operational constraints that most materially affect its corporate partners’ business across cost, reliability, risk, compliance, or growth; translates those constraints into deployment-grade problem statements owned by a named business unit; sources technology nationally against them; and structures pilots inside the partner’s live operating environment that close with a commercial contract, a scale decision, or a documented no-go. Rose Rock Bridge is supported by strategic partners across Oklahoma and beyond, including George Kaiser Family Foundation, Devon Energy, Helmerich & Payne, Microsoft, ONEOK, and Williams.

Position Summary:

The Innovation Manager of Rose Rock Bridge owns the technical translation layer between a corporate partner’s operating problem and a deployed solution. The role runs the corporate partner engagement sequence end-to-end constraint identification with the partner’s engineering and operations leadership, translation into deployment-grade problem statements with success criteria and a named business unit owner, national solution sourcing against those constraints, pilot design and execution inside the operating environment, and conversion into a contract, a scale decision, or a documented no-go. Success is measured on pilots deployed, commercial contracts or follow-on investment secured, and no-go decisions delivered with the deployment intelligence behind them. This role requires technical credibility with a partner’s engineers, and working command of the safety, security, integration, and procurement gates that govern industrial deployment.

Responsibilities / Essential Job Function:  

The following functions represent most of the duties performed by the position. The description is not meant to be all-inclusive or prevent other duties from being assigned when necessary: 

Corporate Partner Engagement & Problem Definition

• Run structured constraint identification with the partner’s engineering, operations, and business unit leadership. Produce a prioritized set of operational constraints tied to named business units, affected assets or workflows, measured baselines, and the cost of inaction.
• Author investment theses that relate to our partners key constraints, deployment-grade problem statements, and a deployment design specifying the path from problem to pilot. 
• Apply a disciplined filter to every candidate opportunity before committing resources: who specifically needs this solved, what breaks if it does not happen, when the decision gets made, how much is at stake, and who owns making it happen.
• Recruit and activate a network of technical SMEs to assist Rose Rock Bridge in understanding the key constraints and steps needed to take for implementation, translating the partner’s own technical and commercial decision criteria in a way startups can understand and react to.  

Solution Sourcing & Diligence

• Source nationally from startups, research institutions, national laboratories, and industry partners that can solve the corporate problem identified.
• Scout, qualify, and track these energy-tech startups; keep a live pipeline dashboard feeding on-going diligence and potential cohort participants.
• Lead team members in the performance of due diligence and market analysis for prospective startup participants in Rose Rock Bridge and their technologies to assess commercial viability of their innovations as it relates to the innovation priorities of our energy partners.

Pilot Deployment

• Map deployment conditions before a pilot is scoped. Document what it takes to operate inside the partner’s environment.
• Prepare companies to clear enterprise vendor qualification: safety documentation, insurance, security questionnaires, field procedures, and the commercial terms a first purchase order requires.
• Design, execute, and measure the pilots inside the partner’s operating environment, coordinated with the corporate teams responsible for implementation.

Team Leadership, Reporting & Program Development

• Support each partner engagement and work collaboratively with TIL strategy leaders and stakeholder relationship managers, to secure resources, align objectives, and deliver annual partner commitments. 
• Analyze market, industry, and program data and best practices to craft actionable recommendations for Rose Rock Bridge’s evolution and sustainability based on qualitative and quantitative data. 
• Provide monthly partner and internal updates; in collaboration with marketing and communications team, develop and publish deployment case studies; and represent Rose Rock Bridge and TIL at technical and industry ventures to elevate our local and national presence. 
• Other duties as assigned

QUALIFICATIONS 

Education & Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of relevant experience combining technical and commercial work in energy or industrial markets. Qualifying paths include an operating role inside an operator, utility, oilfield services, or industrial technology company; corporate development, corporate venture, or M&A evaluating and deploying emerging technology; or leading deployment engagements between technology providers and industrial buyers.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, physical science, or related technical field preferred. Equivalent operating experience will be considered.
• Direct experience taking technology into a live industrial operating environment: field trials, commissioning, management of change, or vendor qualification.
• Working command of the gates that govern industrial deployment: health and safety requirements, management of change, operational technology and information security review, data access and intellectual property terms, contractor qualification, and enterprise procurement vehicles including master service agreements, statements of work, and pilot agreements.
• Ability to read a process flow diagram, a P&ID, or an asset data schema well enough to test a technology provider’s claim and to engage a partner engineer’s objection on the merits.
• Demonstrated ability to quantify operational and financial impact against a measured baseline, in the buyer’s own units and reporting metrics.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Demonstrated experience writing technical, market, or investment analysis for a senior engineering or industrial audience.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and collaborate with team members
• Demonstrated experience in diligence on early-stage technology companies across technical, commercial, and deployment risk.
• Experience structuring paid pilots in regulated industrial environments
• Existing networks across industrial corporates, technology companies, research institutions, national laboratories, and venture funds.

Competencies, Skills & Abilities:  

To be successful in this role, you must have excellent communication, organizational, and project management skills. You must also be able to actively listen, engage, and connect with a diverse group of people, fostering meaningful relationships with our partners. Our team must be nimble and adaptable to the growing and changing needs of our organization and stakeholder groups, creating solutions and improving processes to achieve TIL goals. 

• Integrity – honesty and directness in all things, especially regarding the true status of the initiative and when in need of help from teammates and stakeholders.
• Intentionality – the desire to act now, and not later, on tasks and initiatives. Exhibit hunger for success and results.
• Interest – an attitude of constant learning, curiosity, and humility with respect to what has yet to be understood.
• Interconnectedness – respect and appreciation for teammates and stakeholders: their backgrounds, skills, history, challenges, fears, and expectations that influence how to approach shared tasks and relationships. 
• Organized – Demonstrated ability to manage complex, sometimes conflicting, objectives and tasks.
• Decisive – Demonstrated ability to act even with incomplete information.
• Collaborative – Demonstrated ability to convene, facilitate, and develop shared understanding.
• Intelligent – Demonstrated ability to understand quickly and exhibit good judgement.
• Communicative – Demonstrated ability to listen, understand, and share information with others.
• Technically credible – holds a substantive conversation with a partner’s engineers and a founder’s chief technology officer and is trusted by both.
• Deployment literate – anticipates the safety, security, integration, and procurement gates that stall a pilot, and sequences them before they bind.
• Commercially quantitative – builds the impact case in the buyer’s units and defends the assumptions under scrutiny.
• Disciplined in declining – protects partner and team time by killing weak opportunities early and documenting why.
• Quantitative and qualitative research, analytical skills, and ability look at challenges strategically to formulate creative solutions
• Project management skills, including demonstrated ability to lead complex projects against narrow timelines and various constraints
• Prioritize projects among competing needs
• Confidence in managing multiple tasks with little supervision
• Partnership-building skills, including ability to engage and manage important stakeholders in a professional manner and build diverse coalitions

Physical Requirements:  

• Communicate: Frequent phone, in-person, and messaging communication via various platforms. Must be able to exchange information effectively and accurately in all elements of verbal and written communication. 
• Operate: Constant operation of computers, phones, and other office productivity tools.
• Willingness and ability to travel between initiative and related stakeholder locations, and service provider/vendor offices as required.
• Must be able to lift and carry up to 25lbs., for lifting supplies and materials, as needed
• Position continually requires the ability to talk and hear both in person and over the phone, visual acuity; ability to operate equipment, read, and use a keyboard

Hours & Location:  

• This position is in Tulsa, Oklahoma, centered on office spaces provided by TIL.
• Typical work hours are Monday – Friday from 8:00 to 5:00, with flexibility required for various events, meetings, and relevant business needs.
• Travel regionally, nationally, and internationally required up to 25% of the time
• Need regular access to a vehicle that can be used for in state travel
• Must maintain a valid passport
• Required to maintain a valid driver’s license and proof of liability and property damage insurance on vehicle