Responsibilities

Program Leadership

• Lead top Corporate and/or CASE growth programs, ensuring high quality decision making and speed of execution
• Serve as the primary contact for program related inquiries and ensure consistent and clear communication at all levels
• Drive project planning and execution by creating project plans and meaningful milestones, managing changes in team and scope, removing barriers, holding team accountable for on-time completion
• Ensure team has necessary functional expertise, foster engagement and commitment to drive decisions and fully leverage strengths of team members
• Collaborate across functions, including Business, Marketing, Technology, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Legal, Engineering, etc., driving accountability and a sense of urgency
• Take a stand and resolve important issues, confronting problems early and challenging up as necessary

Capability Development & Coaching

• Drive continual improvement and development of project leadership best practices and tools across Eastman
• Coach and develop less experienced Innovation Project Leaders in the use of project leadership framework, best practices and tools (including but not limited to Root Cause Analysis, FEMA and other Six Sigma Tools)
   

Qualifications

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's or higher in an engineering or science-based field of study
• Master’s in Business Administration preferred
• Proven track record (5+ years) of excellent project/program/platform leadership and execution with appropriate outcome/decision, including leading a cross-functional team, effectively planning/scheduling and regularly communicating with internal stakeholders
• Substantial hands-on experience with a new product development methodology, stage-gated process, driving commercial excellence and new business development either serving on cross-functional teams or preferably leading innovation programs
• Market-facing and customer engagement experience is strongly preferred

Most Critical Enabling Competencies
Influential: 

• Can effectively and efficiently influence global, cross-functional team members and stakeholders using hard and soft skills
• Ability to develop a vision, gain buy-in, and energize a team to accomplish goals
• Develop cooperative relationships with groups and individuals
• Address and resolve difficult situations/conflict effectively using appropriate communication and interpersonal skills

Adaptable: 

• Make timely and sound decisions under conditions of uncertainty while remaining flexible
• Show resilience from failure by learning and adjusting future actions
• Ability to navigate in areas where they have not had previous experiences and develop an effective competency quickly

Judgment: 

• Demonstrate the ability to strategically think and assess challenges, then articulate a clear vision to overcome
• Passionately objective
• Ability to judge when barriers to success are too great to continue
• Make judgment calls about when and why to diverge or converge and to what extreme
• Effectively tailor the level and rigor of work to ensure critical hypotheses/experiments are in support of high impact choices

Effective communicator: 

• Able to write and speak effectively, clearly and confidently as dictated by circumstance and audience, including telling a compelling story and constructively delivering difficult information

Bias for action: 

• Convey a sense of urgency, drive issues to closure and persist despite obstacles or opposing viewpoints
• Take a stand and resolve important issues, confronting problems early and challenging up as necessary

Business acumen and customer focus: 

• Can provide relevant financial analysis and understand business implications of  project/program
• Identifies and anticipates customer needs consistent with business strategy, creates value for customers by asking why and what if

Major Responsibilities:
Program Leadership
•    Lead top Corporate and/or CASE growth programs, ensuring high quality decision making and speed of execution
•    Serve as the primary contact for program related inquiries and ensure consistent and clear communication at all levels
•    Drive project planning and execution by creating project plans and meaningful milestones, managing changes in team and scope, removing barriers, holding team accountable for on-time completion
•    Ensure team has necessary functional expertise, foster engagement and commitment to drive decisions and fully leverage strengths of team members
•    Collaborate across functions, including Business, Marketing, Technology, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Legal, Engineering, etc., driving accountability and a sense of urgency
•    Take a stand and resolve important issues, confronting problems early and challenging up as necessary

Capability Development & Coaching
•    Drive continual improvement and development of project leadership best practices and tools across Eastman
•    Coach and develop less experienced Innovation Project Leaders in the use of project leadership framework, best practices and tools (including but not limited to Root Cause Analysis, FEMA and other Six Sigma Tools)

 Education & Experience
•    Bachelor's or higher in an engineering or science-based field of study
•    Master’s in Business Administration preferred
•    Proven track record (5+ years) of excellent project/program/platform leadership and execution with appropriate outcome/decision, including leading a cross-functional team, effectively planning/scheduling and regularly communicating with internal stakeholders
•    Substantial hands-on experience with a new product development methodology, stage-gated process, driving commercial excellence and new business development either serving on cross-functional teams or preferably leading innovation programs
•    Market-facing and customer engagement experience is strongly preferred
 

Most Critical Enabling Competencies
•    Influential: 
o    Can effectively and efficiently influence global, cross-functional team members and stakeholders using hard and soft skills
o    Ability to develop a vision, gain buy-in, and energize a team to accomplish goals
o    Develop cooperative relationships with groups and individuals
o    Address and resolve difficult situations/conflict effectively using appropriate communication and interpersonal skills
•    Adaptable: 
o    Make timely and sound decisions under conditions of uncertainty while remaining flexible
o    Show resilience from failure by learning and adjusting future actions
o    Ability to navigate in areas where they have not had previous experiences and develop an effective competency quickly
•    Judgment: 
o    Demonstrate the ability to strategically think and assess challenges, then articulate a clear vision to overcome
o    Passionately objective
o    Ability to judge when barriers to success are too great to continue
o    Make judgment calls about when and why to diverge or converge and to what extreme
o    Effectively tailor the level and rigor of work to ensure critical hypotheses/experiments are in support of high impact choices
•    Effective communicator: 
o    Able to write and speak effectively, clearly and confidently as dictated by circumstance and audience, including telling a compelling story and constructively delivering difficult information
•    Bias for action: 
o    Convey a sense of urgency, drive issues to closure and persist despite obstacles or opposing viewpoints
o    Take a stand and resolve important issues, confronting problems early and challenging up as necessary
•    Business acumen and customer focus: 
o    Can provide relevant financial analysis and understand business implications of  project/program
o    Identifies and anticipates customer needs consistent with business strategy, creates value for customers by asking why and what if