Director, New Business Creation

Director, New Business Creation

Shark Ninja | Product Incubation |

Reports to:

SVP, Product Incubation

Shark Ninja is a global product design and technology company, with a diversified portfolio of 5-star rated lifestyle solutions that positively impact people's lives in homes around the world. Powered by two trusted, global brands, Shark and Ninja, the company has a proven track record of bringing disruptive innovation to market and developing one consumer product after another has allowed Shark Ninja to enter multiple product categories, driving significant growth and market share gains.

Headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts with more than 4,100 associates, the company's products are sold at key retailers, online and offline, and through distributors around the world.

This is a future-oriented role that requires skills in creating brand-new categories for Shark Ninja, operating at the fuzzy front end of the innovation development process. No single role today carries the full cross-functional capability needed to take a category from a blank sheet to a fundable, roadmap-ready opportunity – this technical and business leadership role fills that gap. It combines capabilities in product development, technical program management, market and consumer insights, and financial modeling in one leader who can identify, evaluate, recommend, and develop product categories Shark Ninja does not compete in today.

The role serves four purposes:

• Set the vision for a new category and drive the decisions that move it forward.
• Business model development. Shape raw market trends, consumer insights, and ideas into sustainable, high-growth, high-margin businesses and products, backed by financial and quantitative analysis.
• New product development. Identify, define, and develop the product concepts that establish Shark Ninja's entry into the category.
• Partnership development. Find and lead the external product and technology partnerships that accelerate category entry.

Category leadership and vision

• Own selected new-category initiatives end-to-end at the front end: business and product vision, product definition, and portfolio strategy.
• Act as the connective enabler across Product Development, Advanced Concept Engineering, Consumer Insights, Finance, and external partners.
• Drive timely decisions so early initiatives make rapid progress and do not stall.

Market and business case development

• Run market and consumer research to size categories, assess trends, and synthesize insights.
• Map the competitive landscape and define where Shark Ninja can win.
• Build the financial models that test revenue and margin potential and go-to-market scenarios.
• Present a balanced view of risk and opportunity, with the few metrics that matter most.

Product concept development

• Ideate product concepts for Shark Ninja's entry into the category.
• Screen opportunities on Desirability, Viability, and Feasibility (DVF).
• Work with Advanced Concept Engineering to start development and inject concepts onto the Shark Ninja product roadmap.
• Build business cases and present them to the executive leadership for a go decision.

Partnerships

• Initiate and build relationships with external category and technology experts.
• Identify new partner opportunities that support category and product strategy.
• Connect internal teams and external partners to share information and move faster.

• Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, or engineering. MBA preferred.
• 10+ years of experience, including product development, new business creation, or a combined strategy and execution role.

• Exemplary leadership: inspire, motivate, guide, and drive individuals from broad functional backgrounds to deliver significant business results.
• Exercises high judgment in early-stage, ambiguous work.
• Passion for creating game-changing products that solve major consumer problems.
• Strong business evaluation, analysis, and problem-solving to assess and develop new opportunities.
• Excellent critical thinking and thought leadership.
• Manage multiple initiatives at once, each at a different stage of development and across very different consumer categories.
• Develop and manage productive relationships with external partners…