Concept Research Manager

Work Flexibility: Hybrid

Stryker’s Digital, Robotics and Enabling Technologies organization is looking for a hybrid thinker—part designer, part marketer—who thrives in the early front-end of innovation. This role bridges design strategy and upstream marketing, focused on identifying white space opportunities and advancing them through the discovery and early validation process. You won’t be taking ideas all the way through commercialization, but rather setting the strategic vision and ensuring strong handoff to our New Product Development (NPD) teams. Join us to help shape what’s next—before the market even knows it needs it.

Get to know Stryker’s DRE: Careers Blog - DRE

This role is hybrid with the expectation to be on-site in Weston, FL, 3 days a week.

What you will do:

• Lead early-stage opportunity development by combining user-centered design and marketing strategy to identify, define, and prioritize new innovation opportunities.
• Conduct design-thinking workshops to explore and ideate around unmet user needs.
• Create compelling visual assets including journey maps, storyboards, renderings, and animations to communicate ideas and strategies.
• Drive initiatives through the DRE Discovery Process, ensuring alignment with cross-functional partners and stakeholders.
• Build strong business cases based on desirability, feasibility, and viability assessments.
• Collaborate with key stakeholders - Market Insights, R&D, and Business Unit Leaders - to translate research findings into actionable strategies and present recommendations to executive leadership.
• Collaborate with stakeholders in Marketing, R&D, and the Business Unit to ensure a smooth transition from concept generation to new product development.
• Works on both hardware and digital design concepts and creates wireframes, renderings, prototypes, and other design artifacts to communicate concepts and associated value propositions to project teams, leadership and customers.

What you need:

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design, Graphic Design, Interaction Design, UX Design, Engineering or related.
• 8+ years experience
• 4+ years product development/design experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated ability to lead and facilitate design-thinking and ideation sessions.
• Demonstrated proficiency in Design software tools (Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, ProE, SolidWorks, Keyshot, Blender) and Microsoft Office (Excel, Word & PowerPoint)
• Strong skills in visual storytelling tools such as journey mapping, storyboarding, or rapid concept rendering.
• Experience working in upstream marketing or front-end innovation with cross-functional teams.
• Familiarity with translating qualitative and quantitative research into actionable opportunity areas.
• Ability to craft strategic business cases for early-stage concepts.
• Clear understanding of the handoff process from discovery to new product development, including stakeholder management and alignment.

Travel Percentage: 20%

Stryker Corporation is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status. Stryker is an EO employer – M/F/Veteran/Disability.

Stryker Corporation will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information.