What are the responsibilities and job description for the Associate Director, Innovation Portfolio Lead position at Royal Bank of Canada?
Job Description
What is the opportunity?
The Innovation Portfolio Lead will own the management and progression of the Innovation Foundry's portfolio of ideas, experiments, and emerging solutions. This role will create the structure and discipline required to move ideas from initial concept through validation, incubation, and ultimately to a clear decision to scale, transition, or stop. Sitting at the intersection of business, technology, and innovation, the Portfolio Lead will work closely with idea originators, Foundry teams, subject matter experts, and senior stakeholders to ensure we invest time and resources in the opportunities with the greatest potential to create meaningful business value.
What will you do?
Own the Innovation Portfolio: Maintain the view of Foundry initiatives, providing visibility into pipeline, maturity, investment, dependencies, risks, and expected business value.
Drive Ideas Through the Lifecycle: Establish clear pathways from intake and evaluation through experimentation, validation, incubation, and scale, ensuring every initiative has defined outcomes and decision points.
Prioritize & Challenge: Partner with business and technology leaders to assess opportunities based on strategic alignment, client or business value, feasibility, differentiation, and potential to scale.
Create Portfolio Discipline: Define lightweight stage gates, success measures, investment criteria, and governance that allow the Foundry to move quickly while making deliberate decisions about where to invest.
Enable Founders & Teams: Work closely with employees bringing forward ideas, connecting them with the right expertise, resources, sponsors, and partners to give strong ideas the best opportunity to succeed.
What do you need to succeed?
Must-Have
7 years of experience leading innovation portfolios, product portfolios, venture building, product strategy, or similar initiatives within a complex organization.
Innovation and product lifecycle expertise - strong understanding of how ideas move from discovery and validation through experimentation, incubation, product development, and scale.
Portfolio management and prioritization - ability to evaluate competing opportunities, balance strategic value against feasibility and investment, and recommend where to accelerate, pivot, pause, or stop.
Business case and value assessment - experience defining hypotheses, success measures, investment requirements, expected business outcomes, and the evidence required to support continued investment.
Technology and emerging innovation fluency - working knowledge of AI, data, digital products, fintech, and emerging technology trends, with the ability to engage credibly with both technical and business teams.
Executive stakeholder management - ability to influence senior leaders, challenge assumptions constructively, synthesize complex information, and communicate clear recommendations and portfolio narratives.
Structured problem solving in ambiguity - ability to bring clarity and momentum to early-stage opportunities where the problem, solution, ownership, or path to value may not yet be fully defined.
Experience working across business, product, technology, and other cross-functional teams to move initiatives from concept toward execution.
Nice-to-Have
Experience within financial services, capital markets, fintech, or another highly regulated industry.
Experience with AI, alternative data, data products, or technology-enabled business models.
Exposure to venture studios, accelerators, corporate innovation programs, product incubation, or internal venture building.
Experience developing commercialization strategies, go-to-market plans, or transitioning incubated products into scaled business or technology teams.
Experience working directly with founders, entrepreneurs, or employee-led innovation programs.
The Expected Salary Range For The Above Position Is $135,000 - $225,000 Depending On Factors Including But Not Limited To The Candidate's Experience, Skills, Registration Status; Market Conditions; And Business Needs.This Salary Range Does Not Include Other Elements Of Total Compensation, Including A Discretionary Bonus And Benefits Such As A 401(K) Program With Company-Matching Contributions; Health, Dental, Vision, Life And Disability Insurance; And Paid Time-Off Plan.
Rbc's Compensation Philosophy And Principles Recognize The Importance Of A Highly Qualified Global Workforce And Plays A Critical Role In Attracting, Engaging And Retaining Talent That:
Drives Rbc's High Performance Culture
Enables Collective Achievement Of Our Strategic Goals
Generates Sustainable Shareholder Returns And Above Market Shareholder Value
RBC is presently inviting candidates to apply for this existing vacancy. Applying to this posting allows you to express your interest in this current career opportunity at RBC. Qualified applicants may be contacted to review their resume in more detail.
Job Skills
Adaptability, Budgeting, Business Oriented, Decision Making, Innovation, Innovation Management, Long Term Planning, Program Management, Resource Management, Results-Oriented, Team Management, Time ManagementAdditional Job Details
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Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the application deadline date above
Our Employment Opportunities
At RBC, we are guided by living shared values of Client First, Integrity, Collaboration, Respect and Excellence and winning together as One RBC. We believe an inclusive workplace that has diverse perspectives is core to our continued growth as one of the largest and most successful banks in the world. Maintaining a workplace where our employees feel supported to perform at their best, effectively collaborate, drive innovation, and grow professionally helps to bring our Purpose to life and create value for our clients and communities. RBC strives to deliver this through policies and programs intended to foster a workplace based on respect, belonging and opportunity for all.
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RBC is presently inviting candidates to apply for this existing vacancy. Applying to this posting allows you to express your interest in this current career opportunity at RBC. Qualified applicants may be contacted to review their resume in more detail.
Employment Type: FULL_TIMESalary : $135,000 - $225,000