Director, AI Innovation – Emerging Capabilities

CSL

Director leading AI innovation and digital technology scaling at CSL Behring. Monitoring external tech landscape and translating it into R&D opportunities.

Posted 6/9/2026full-timeKing of Prussia • Massachusetts, Pennsylvania • 🇺🇸 United StatesLeadWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

The Director, AI Innovation & Emerging Capabilities leads the scouting, introduction, and scaling of AI and disruptive digital technologies across R&D.
This role serves as the function's primary horizon scanner and innovation translator, converting external signals into concrete R&D opportunities and building structured pathways from early-stage pilots to scaled capabilities.
The Director operates with a future-back mindset, ensuring the organization is not caught off-guard by technological disruption but instead positioned to capitalize on it.
Continuously monitor the external AI and disruptive technology landscape to identify signals, trends, and emerging capabilities with potential R&D relevance.
Maintain a living map of the external innovation environment including academia, startups, vendors, and adjacent industries.
Establish and manage a network of external relationships (research institutes, technology partners, innovation ecosystems) to maintain leading-edge awareness.
Triage and assess emerging threats and opportunities using structured evaluation frameworks before they surface in mainstream discourse.
Translate complex external technology signals into concise, R&D-relevant opportunity briefs that leadership can act on.
Identify and articulate capability gaps between the current R&D operating model and what disruptive trends demand.
Introduce capabilities and approaches that would not organically surface through internal channels, deliberately expanding the organization's aperture of what is possible.
Develop compelling narratives and business cases for disruptive capabilities, tailored to senior R&D and cross-functional audiences.
Design and govern a structured pipeline from exploratory pilot to production-scale capability, with defined stage-gates, success criteria, and go/no-go decision logic.
Lead proof-of-concept and pilot initiatives for high-potential disruptive technologies, ensuring rapid learning cycles and clear value demonstration.
Partner with delivery and product teams to transition successful pilots into scalable, embedded capabilities that measurably improve R&D execution.
Define and track performance metrics demonstrating that disruptive capabilities are delivering tangible, quantifiable impact on R&D outcomes.
Provide R&D leadership with a clear, regularly updated view of the innovation landscape; presenting insights in formats that drive decision-making, not just awareness.
Serve as a credible internal voice on AI and digital disruption, challenging conventional thinking and advocating for proactive capability investment.
Contribute to strategic planning cycles by ensuring innovation foresight is embedded as a structural input, not an afterthought.
Support team operating model design and contribute to intake and prioritization processes.

Requirements

What you’ll need

8+ years of experience in technology strategy, innovation, AI/ML, or digital transformation roles
Demonstrated track record of translating emerging technology trends into adopted value-generating capabilities within a large organization
Deep knowledge of the current and near-future AI and digital technology landscape, including generative AI, machine learning, agentic systems, and adjacent disruptive technologies
Experience designing and running pilot programs with defined success criteria, stage-gate governance, and clear pathways to scale
Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to senior, non-technical audiences with clarity and conviction
Comfortable operating with ambiguity; skilled at structuring undefined problem spaces and creating frameworks where none exist
Strong external network across technology vendors, research institutions, and innovation ecosystems.

Benefits

Comp & perks

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Hard Skills & Tools

AImachine learninggenerative AIdigital transformationtechnology strategypilot program designevaluation frameworksperformance metricsinnovation foresightdisruptive technologies

Soft Skills

communicationleadershipstrategic planningproblem-solvingnetworkingadaptabilityinnovation translationnarrative developmentdecision-makingclarity in complex concepts