Operations Innovation Manager Jobs in Gurnee, IL

Senior Innovation Manager

At Johnson Outdoors, home to some of the world’s most innovative and best-known outdoor recreation brands, we create amazing outdoor experiences - for adventurers, by adventurers. Check out each of the unique Johnson Outdoor brands in Fishing, Watercraft, Camping and Diving!

With 1,300 employees, 19 global facility locations and selling into over 80 countries, the Johnson Outdoors team is continuing to grow!   The Senior Innovation Manager leads and advances enterprise innovation practices by championing the stage-gate process and establishing governance, standards, tools and metrics that promote rigor, consistency, and repeatability across the organization. Partners cross-functionally with brand, engineering, operations, finance, and insights teams to strengthen business cases, improve decision quality, facilitate post-launch learning, and support development and execution of a robust product roadmap grounded in validated consumer insights and aligned with business strategy.

Key Responsibilities:

Innovation Maturity Champion

• Leads enterprise implementation and evolution of the stage-gate innovation process, including governance, standards, and cadence.
• Partners with key stakeholders (brand, engineering, operations, finance, insights) to define and maintain best practices, templates, and decision criteria.
• Coaches cross-functional teams in developing well-thought-out business cases and navigating the innovation process with appropriate rigor, documentation quality, and decision readiness.
• Leads innovation-process adoption by delivering training, onboarding, and reinforcement to build consistent capability across functions and business units, partnering with Enterprise Change Management to align efforts with broader organizational change practices as needed.
• Defines and tracks process health metrics (e.g., gate quality, cycle time, throughput, learning capture) and drives continuous improvement initiatives.
• Supports brand teams in translating strategy into executable plans, ensuring alignment to business objectives, validated consumer needs, and market potential.

Post-Launch Analysis

• Establishes and maintains a repeatable post-launch review process, including timing, inputs, facilitation approach, and outputs.
• Collects cross-functional feedback on strengths, gaps, and lessons learned across discovery, development, launch readiness, and commercialization.
• Partners with Finance to gather and analyze performance data (sales, margin, mix, forecast accuracy, supply/service, etc.) to identify trends and patterns.
• Facilitates root-cause analysis with business teams to distinguish execution issues from strategy/assumption gaps and to document evidence-based learnings.
• Converts post-launch learnings into action by updating standards, training, and best practices and ensuring insights are shared and applied across future and in-flight initiatives.

Innovation Catalyst

• Serves as a strategic thought partner to business leaders, advocating for consumer and business-impact opportunities and clarifying where resources will have the highest return.
• Plans and facilitates ideation, concepting, and strategic planning sessions, ensuring clear problem framing, strong participation, and actionable outputs.
• Collaborates with Consumer Insights and Brand Management to build opportunity landscapes (jobs-to-be-done, segments, white spaces, unmet needs) and synthesize them into prioritized innovation horizons.
• Stays current on industry trends and emerging technologies, evaluating relevance and applicability to near, mid, and long-term innovation pipelines.
• Influences concept quality and clarity by strengthening value propositions, assumptions, validation plans, and success metrics early in development.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

What you need to succeed:

• Bachelor’s degree in design, innovation, business or equivalent.
• Typically requires a minimum of 5 years’ experience leading innovation projects within a stage-gate process.                                                                

• Strong leadership, communication, and influencing skills, with the ability to align diverse cross-functional teams and translate strategy into clear, actionable plans.
• Demonstrated expertise in applying consumer insights, market research, and analytics to identify opportunities, generate concepts, and build prioritized innovation roadmaps.
• Strong financial and business acumen, including development of business cases, evaluation of investment trade-offs, and analysis of post-launch performance to drive decision-making.
• Proven ability to operate effectively in a matrix organization, navigating competing priorities and influencing without direct authority.
• Trained in high-performance teaming, with the ability to build trust, foster accountability, and elevate team effectiveness across cross-functional groups.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office tools (Excel, PowerPoint, Word), including creating project proposals, data analysis, and executive-level presentations.
• Experience with collaborative ideation and project management tools, such as Miro (or equivalent) and Monday.com (or similar platforms).

What you will receive:

• Share in the company’s success with competitive base salary with additional earning potential through participation in the management bonus program, and eligibility for annual pay increases.
• Find work/life balance with generous Paid Time Off and holiday benefits, a full benefits package, and broad range of employee support and fitness and wellness plans.
• Further your career with performance development and training opportunities, including our tuition assistance program.
• Have fun at work, enjoy a collaborative and casual work environment, participating in fun company events, and taking advantage of great employee discounts on all our outdoor recreational products.
• Plan for your future with our 401(k) with company match and deferred retirement contributions, Sons & Daughters Scholarship program, college savings program, life and LTD insurance, and more.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment at Johnson Outdoors (and all subsidiaries) without regard to race; creed; color; religion; national origin; sex; age; disability; sexual orientation; gender identity or expression; genetic predisposition or carrier status; veteran, marital, or citizenship status; or any other status protected by law.  Johnson Outdoors is proud to be an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, please contact Human Resources at HRSpecialAccommodations@johnsonoutdoors.com to let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.

JOHNSON OUTDOORS is a leading global innovator of outdoor recreation equipment and technologies that inspire more people to experience the awe of the great outdoors. The company designs, manufactures and markets a portfolio of winning, consumer-preferred brands across four categories: Watercraft Recreation, Fishing, Diving and Camping. Johnson Outdoors' iconic brands include: Old Town® canoes and kayaks; Ocean Kayak™; Carlisle® paddles; Minn Kota® fishing motors, batteries and anchors; Cannon® downriggers; Humminbird® marine electronics and charts; SCUBAPRO® dive equipment; Jetboil® outdoor cooking systems. Founded in 1970 by Samuel C. Johnson, the Company has delivered double-digit compound annual growth over its history, evolving from a single brand into a nearly $663 million global enterprise.