Innovation and Growth Manager

Job Description

ITW (Illinois Tool Works) is a Fortune 300 global manufacturer with approximately 44,000 employees across 51 countries. With over 100 years of experience, we deliver innovative, customer‑focused solutions in automotive, aerospace, construction, electronics, and other industries. Our Core Business model—80/20 approach, customer‑backed innovation, and decentralized entrepreneurship—drives operational excellence and continuous product innovation in the commercial construction market.

We are looking for an Innovation and Growth Manager based in Glenview, IL who will lead a team of marketing professionals and act as the strategic bridge between Voice of Customer insights, market trends, and innovation strategy to unlock full Customer‑Back Innovation (CBI) yield potential within CCNA’s Anchors business.

• Lead and promote a culture of innovation and drive ITW’s CBI framework to gain and/or retain value‑added differentiation in key markets.
• Define and implement clear governance and measurement of the full CBI process.
• Drive Voice of Customer (VOC) process for clear understanding of customer pain points through primary research techniques.
• Identify and prioritize new applications for current CCNA products through discovery with contractors, builders, distributors, and OEM partners.
• Leverage the ITW CBI framework to drive and govern the division’s strategic pipeline and ensure critical alignment with the division’s growth strategies.
• Deliver on Customer‑Back Innovation revenue targets.
• Surface and define Targeted Selling (L1) and Core Market Expansion (L2) action plans.
• Collaborate with Engineering to deliver high‑impact opportunity list that increases the quality and capacity of CBI projects, feeding into a high‑impact pipeline.

• Develop strategic innovation roadmaps by extracting customer needs and utilizing a disciplined Stage‑Gate process to drive results.
• Accelerate profitable growth by maximizing penetration and value from existing products and customer relationships through disciplined execution.
• Drive sustainable growth by expanding how and where existing products are used within core markets and customer segments.
• Deliver growth plan centered around priority initiatives.
• Evaluate where to play and how to win through assessment of attractive sub‑segments, identifying viable growth opportunities, developing differentiated value propositions and validating against customer pain‑points.

• Lead, identify and develop talent to maximize individual, team and organizational effectiveness.
• Coach team through feedback, development planning and performance management to develop team members and contribute to ITW’s talent pipeline.
• Foster a culture of engagement, inclusion, and accountability, and drive an aggressive growth mindset through collaborative problem‑solving and utilizing ITW values.
• Additional responsibilities as assigned.

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing or a related discipline.
• 8+ years in progressive marketing leadership in a fragmented market, including strategic marketing and new product development; construction industry experience preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to build teams, develop key talent, and deliver great results through team members.
• Proven track record in developing and driving strategic innovation roadmaps that drive growth.
• Consistent demonstration of 80/20 principles and aggressive growth mindset, with commitment to use and drive the ITW Toolbox and principles.
• Exceptional interpersonal, communication and presentation skills, with ability to influence and collaborate across all levels of the organization.
• Expertise in market research, VOC and analytics; strong communication and storytelling with data.
• Ability to listen and observe to truly understand customers’ experiences and insights, knows how to navigate the grey zone, thrives in ambiguity, and has an innate curiosity.
• Strategic thinker with ability to connect insights to business outcomes.
• Willingness to travel 35% or more of the time.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office and business intelligence/reporting…