Innovation Manager Jobs in Indiana (NOW HIRING)

About Arcwood

Every advancement—from the products we use to the medicines and technologies we depend on—creates waste that must be handled responsibly. For more than 50 years, Arcwood Environmental has helped organizations across the United States manage the byproducts of progress safely and thoughtfully. With deep expertise and innovative waste management technology across a growing nationwide footprint, Arcwood protects people, communities, and the environment through work that often happens behind the scenes.

Our Values

We move forward together, one team with a shared purpose, counting on each other every day. Our core values demonstrate how we work together to deliver value for our customers, putting them at the center of all we do:

• Lead with Safety: We uphold the highest safety and compliance standards to protect our teams, our customers and the communities that count on us.
• Solve Problems Creatively: We push for better – advancing technologies, processes, and ideas that protect human health and the environment.
• Own It Together: We are individually and collectively accountable for our work and our impact, knowing that progress is only achieved by working together – with our customers, and with each other.
• Deliver for Customers: We put customers at the center of all we do. When we live our values – lead with safety, solving problems creatively, and owning our work together – the result is clear: we deliver exceptional value for our customers.

We’ve reached a unique point as a company: big enough to deliver broad capability and consistent performance, while striving to be nimbler and more responsive to our customers’ evolving needs. Come join Arcwood and be part of our legacy of environmental leadership!

Director, Innovation & Commercialization 

Developing and deploying innovative solutions for our customers to help them handle their waste safely, compliantly, and economically is at the core of what we do at Arcwood every day. Many of these solutions leverage our existing capabilities – incineration, wastewater treatment, fuels blending, stabilization and landfill – or we work with external partners to find the best existing options in the market. However, as customer processes, waste profiles, and expectations change while regulation continues to evolve, we also need to advance and bring new technical solutions and new business models to market.

We are seeking a dynamic, entrepreneurial leader who will develop innovative solutions and business models and drive their commercialization and growth. Reporting directly to the Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer (CSTO), the Director of New Business Development will be responsible for the innovation and new solutions roadmap, create business plans and go to market strategies, and work directly with our customers and our sales team to expand new service lines. The most important measure of success will be to (a) create new business/delivery models (b) demonstrate pilot revenue that validates the hypothesis and (c) work with broader team to scale up revenue growth that meets or exceeds business plan projections for a small number of new solutions prioritized for commercialization.

While we have not yet finalized our innovation and new solutions roadmap, opportunities for new solutions and business models include:

• Onsite treatment and closed loop solutions for PFAS
• Onsite concentration of liquid hazardous waste
• Subscription model for small Haz waste generators
• Vendor-managed bulk waste inventory
• Digital offerings

The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in business model innovation and new business development, ideally in a B2B service context. They also need to have an entrepreneurial “hunter” mindset and be motivated by the challenge and excitement of building a new business from scratch – our goal is to manage these new solutions like startups within a broader established company.

To be successful, the Director, Innovation & Commercialization will be able to translate high-level strategic concepts into actionable business plans, build minimally viable solutions to test and improve them with our customers, and leverage our existing Sales teams to scale quickly, our Operations team to deliver high quality service, and external partners to close capability gaps. Additionally, they should be adept at managing multiple projects, analyzing data to inform decisions, and engaging key internal and external stakeholders. If you are passionate about sustainability, innovation, and growth and ready to make a significant impact, we invite you to join our team.

• Develops a pragmatic innovation and new business roadmap focused on accelerating growth through new technical solutions, new services, and / or new business models
• Establishes business plans for new solutions with clear financial targets and milestones
• Owns the execution of the business plans and deliver revenue growth that meets or exceeds business plan projections
• Establishes Arcwood’s “innovation ecosystem” – strategic partnerships with technology companies or other service providers that we need to bring new solutions to our customers
• In collaboration with our Regional and Corporate Sales teams, brings new solutions to existing and new customers and sees opportunities through to deal close

• Regularly monitors, analyzes, and reports on progress against business plan milestones and metrics
• Takes on additional duties as assigned to support the team and organization

• 10+ years of experience in strategy, innovation, new business development or commercialization roles (required)
• Direct experience launching and scaling new service lines or business models with measurable revenue and EBITDA impact (required)
• Previous experience within B2B services for waste disposal and environmental sustainability (preferred)
• Prior exposure to startup, venture or corporate innovation environments (preferred)