Innovation Program Lead

Innovation Program Lead

Remote - work virtually from anywhere in the United States

The QC EcoSystem's Innovation Program gives employees a visible, supported path for turning practical innovative ideas into better tools, workflows, programs, and potential service offerings. ai2io manages the program on the EcoSystem's behalf, helping contributors develop promising concepts, recognizing valuable contributions, and guiding solutions toward the right level of support and adoption.

As Innovation Program Lead, you will own the health, direction, and outcomes of the full innovation portfolio. You will evaluate submissions, investigate promising concepts, run the program's recurring forums, and take part in decisions to advance, redirect, pause, consolidate, or respectfully decline ideas. Just as importantly, you will help innovators find the right path forward, encouraging ideas to come into the open early so they can benefit from technical guidance, organizational visibility, and alignment with existing tools and priorities.

The role requires strong/broad AEC and Revit knowledge, sound technical judgment, and the ability to see across affiliate companies. You will identify duplicate or overlapping efforts, recognize when grassroots solutions show broader value, and coordinate the path from local concept or prototype toward a scalable, maintainable, formally supported enterprise solution. You will work closely with the Operations & Innovation Program Specialist, as well as software engineering, product, operations, and business stakeholders, while operating with a high degree of independence.

• Own the end-to-end idea intake and scoring workflow, applying a consistent evaluation rubric to assess technical feasibility, AEC/MEP relevance, business value, effort, strategic fit, and potential for broader adoption.
• Maintain a prioritized, accurate portfolio of submissions, investigations, proofs of concept, active development efforts, awards, adoption decisions, and closed items.
• Make and document clear disposition decisions for each submission, including advancing, redirecting, pausing, consolidating, returning for clarification, or respectfully declining an idea.
• Lead, and facilitate recurring Innovation meetings, setting agendas, driving decisions, documenting outcomes, and ensuring action items move forward.
• Partner closely with the Operations & Innovation Program Specialist to keep intake records, scoring documentation, metrics, meeting logistics, communications, awards, and portfolio tracking current and accurate.
• Administer the award workflow in coordination with the appropriate internal partners, tracking approvals and status through completion.

• Use hands-on Revit and AEC experience to assess ideas involving MEP design workflows, families, templates, shared parameters, add-ins, automation concepts, and related design-technology practices.
• Conduct structured investigation meetings with submitters to understand the problem, current workflow, proposed approach, intended users, dependencies, and expected value.
• Determine whether a concept is technically credible, duplicates an existing capability, overlaps work already underway, or requires evaluation by another technical specialist.
• Engage software engineering, product, AI, automation, data, or other subject-matter experts when a submission exceeds the role's technical depth, and incorporate their findings into a clear recommendation.
• Translate submitter input and technical assessments into concise, decision-ready recommendations for committee or leadership review.

• Own the overall health, quality, throughput, and strategic alignment of the Innovation Program portfolio across the EcoSystem.
• Maintain visibility into emerging tools, prototypes, automations, and grassroots solutions across affiliate companies so promising work can be supported early and overlapping efforts can be identified.
• Identify duplicate or closely related submissions and development efforts, then guide contributors toward reuse, collaboration, consolidation, or a shared enterprise approach.
• Recognize recurring themes across submissions, including common Revit pain points, MEP workflow bottlenecks, automation opportunities, and internal-tool needs, and surface them as portfolio-level opportunities.
• Balance encouragement with sound judgment, helping contributors understand why an idea should advance, change direction, combine with another effort, pause, or close.
• Ensure portfolio attention and organizational support remain focused on the opportunities with the strongest combination of value, feasibility, adoption potential, and strategic fit.

• Act as a trusted advisor to innovators, helping shape early concepts into solutions that are useful, supportable, maintainable, and capable of scaling beyond a single person or team.
• Guide contributors toward alignment with existing platforms, tools, standards, and organizational priorities rather than allowing avoidable fragmentation or duplication.
• Evaluate adoption signals and identify when a locally developed tool or prototype demonstrates enough organizational value to warrant formal review for broader support.
• Partner with engineering, product, operations, and business stakeholders to define the appropriate path for promising ideas, including proof of concept, limited pilot, further investigation, formal development, or transition into an enterprise-supported solution.
• Coordinate ownership, documentation, support expectations, and transition planning when a successful grassroots solution is selected for formal adoption.
• Position the Innovation Program as a helpful, credible path for bringing ideas forward, so contributors seek guidance and partnership early in the lifecycle.

• Prepare and deliver polished monthly Innovation updates that translate submissions, investigations, decisions, awards, adoption progress, and portfolio health into a clear narrative for leadership and staff.
• Facilitate live discussion with confidence, manage questions, and keep broad cross-functional audiences focused on decisions, outcomes, and opportunities.
• Highlight program wins, lessons learned, portfolio themes, and successful transitions from idea to supported capability in company-wide forums.
• Provide transparent, respectful feedback to submitters and explain decisions in a way that maintains trust and encourages future participation.
• Strengthen program visibility and engagement through consistent communication, practical guidance, and examples of ideas that successfully moved from concept to broader organizational value.

• Recommend and lead structural or process changes that improve idea quality, evaluation consistency, throughput, transparency, contributor experience, or adoption outcomes.
• Refine the scoring rubric, investigation framework, decision records, portfolio taxonomy, and adoption criteria based on lessons learned and changing organizational priorities.
• Lead the design and rollout of a unified application or automated workflow supporting the idea lifecycle from intake through scoring, review, proof of concept, award, adoption, and closure.
• Establish practical program measures that show portfolio health, decision timeliness, participation, proof-of-concept progress, consolidation opportunities, and enterprise-adoption outcomes.
• Build a close, trusted partnership with the Operations & Innovation Program Specialist, setting shared expectations and reviewing outcomes together across the full pipeline.

• Working knowledge of Revit families, templates, shared parameters, add-ins, and automation concepts, with the judgment to evaluate whether proposed approaches are feasible and appropriate.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate technical or process-improvement ideas for feasibility, effort, value, adoption potential, and strategic fit.
• Experience owning a program, portfolio, review process, or cross-functional pipeline with responsibility for prioritization, decisions, follow-through, and outcomes.
• Ability to work independently with minimal oversight and make sound decisions to advance, redirect, pause, consolidate, or decline submissions.
• Strong facilitation skills, including agenda setting, structured discussion, decision documentation, and action-item follow-through.
• Clear and efficient written and verbal communication, with the ability to distill technical detail into concise recommendations for varied audiences.
• Ability to create executive-level presentations and speak confidently and persuasively to leadership and broad employee audiences.
• Collaborative judgment and interpersonal credibility to guide contributors without discouraging experimentation or participation.
• Experience reviewing software applications, scripts, databases, integrations, or technical solution designs.
• Familiarity with software development lifecycles, product management, application support, or transition from prototype to enterprise ownership.
• Proficiency in Microsoft 365, including Teams, Outlook, Excel, and SharePoint, and comfort with program-tracking tools such as Microsoft Lists or Power Automate.
• Experience identifying duplicate technology efforts and guiding teams toward reuse, consolidation, or shared solutions.
• Experience running internal innovation, continuous-improvement, citizen-development, design-technology, or recognition programs.
• Process-improvement mindset with a record of identifying workflow gaps and carrying improvements through implementation.
• Experience partnering closely with a support-level teammate while providing functional direction without formal people-management authority.

• Up to 5%, this may include travel to any or all 50 US states
• Travel is defined as physically leaving home on behalf of business activities including but not limited to client sites, meetings with other employees, meeting for business development purposes, running errands on behalf of the business, attending industry conferences, etc.

• 7+ years of relevant AEC experience across multiple roles, including substantial hands-on Revit/AEC design or BIM experience.
• Bachelor's degree in Architecture, Engineering, Construction Management, Building/Construction Technology, or equivalent experience preferred; equivalent AEC industry experience and Revit expertise may substitute for formal education.

• Shape how practical ideas move from individual insight to solutions that can benefit multiple teams and affiliate companies.
• Work at the intersection of AEC expertise, Revit, internal software, automation, and organizational innovation.
• Own a visible program with established participation while having meaningful authority to improve its direction, decision quality, and outcomes.
• Help create an environment where employees bring ideas forward early, receive useful guidance, and see a credible path from concept to sustainable adoption.
• Join a positive, transparent, and highly collaborative remote-first team culture.