Senior Innovation Concept Owner

At BBH, Partnership is more than a form of ownership—it’s our approach to business and relationships.  We know that supporting your professional and personal goals is the best way to help our clients and advance our business. We take that responsibility seriously. With a 200-year legacy and a shared passion for what’s next, this is the right place to build a fulfilling career.

About the Role 

Brown Brothers Harriman’s Innovation organization is seeking a Senior Concept Owner to lead the early-stage development of new digital products, services, and business models. This role is designed for a strategic thinker and facilitator who thrives in ambiguity, brings structure to complexity, and guides multidisciplinary teams toward clarity and value. 

As a Senior Concept Owner, you will operate as a strategic lead, framing problems, shaping hypotheses, and orchestrating streams of activity across disciplines. You will lead a multi-disciplined pod through coaching and collaboration. You will ensure we run a transparent, evidence-based practice, grounded in a series of fact-finding activities that validate the desirability, business viability, and feasibility of the concept you inherit.

This is a senior-level role with executive visibility and influence. 

The Innovation organization at BBH is responsible for the discovery of new ideas from Ideation through Minimum Viable Product. Our work involves navigating uncharted territory, with more unknowns than knowns. We operate with ambiguity and a startup mentality—quickly pivoting, embracing challenges, and diving into the messiness of innovation. As part of our multidisciplinary team, you should be adept at presenting ideas and pitching solutions to diverse internal and external senior stakeholders across various stages of the process.

We value a culture of experimentation and continuous evolution. You will need to adapt rapidly to emerging tools and ways of working as we continuously push the boundaries of what is possible. We are looking for someone who contributes immediately to our group and can apply their knowledge, capacities, and experience to our current portfolio of ideas, and help support emerging concepts.

Key Responsibilities:

Problem Solving & Strategic Thinking

• Clearly define and frame anticipated future problems in unformed or early stage markets, and lead rigorous, hypothesis-driven research activities that result in strong evidence.
• Connect your research insights to the broader market context to form convictions and deliver strategic recommendations. 
• Apply structured innovation frameworks to navigate ambiguous, future-focused problem spaces shaped by emerging or to-be-created technologies, evolving regulations, shifting market dynamics, and evolving customer expectations.
• Craft compelling narratives that align with the evidence gathered.
• Design and lead outcome-focused workshops, adapting tone and format in real time to meet diverse needs, with an ability to cater to and derive insights from executive decision makers, influencers, and process-oriented teams.

Team Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Drive and oversee the day-to-day operations of a multidisciplinary team, including researchers, designers, engineers, and data/analytics experts in close partnership with the Concept Owner Functional Lead.
• Build trusted relationships across functions within the Innovation team and serve as a reliable point of contact for the concept you will lead.
• Steward strategic relationships with senior-level internal and external stakeholders, representing the BBH Innovation organization.
• Manage the delivery of high-quality, on-time projects using agile approaches. 
• Foster a positive team experience through intentional planning, coaching, and communication. 
• Continually identify opportunities for process improvement and efficiency.
• Identify and surface learning needs of team members, with a goal toward continuous improvement and ongoing excellence.
• Accountable for achieving operational targets that directly impact department performance and reputation.

Project Management & Craft Development

• Align design, research, and engineering efforts into a clear project plan to ensure the seamless delivery of high-quality, on-time artifacts. Move team towards evidence-led decisions.
• Own/oversee complex and ambiguous concepts
• Anticipate project needs and proactively engage with the right stakeholders.
• Builds positive team experience through consistent communication and intentional planning.
• Create tools, guides, and playbooks that codify best practices and support future teams. 

Ideal Qualifications 

• 7+ years of experience in roles where you owned outcomes in ambiguity: product strategy or management, venture architecture, digital business design, strategy consulting, innovation consulting, or an analogous discipline.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams in ambiguous environments.
• Demonstrated problem-solving abilities and creative thinking.
• Strong facilitation skills and comfort leading workshops with senior stakeholders. 
• Fluency in strategic storytelling, agile delivery, and hypothesis-driven thinking is a plus. 
• Demonstrated ability to orchestrate multidisciplinary teams and aligning their contributions into a decision (not a deck)
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence and adapt across audiences. 
• Familiarity with innovation frameworks such as design thinking, lean startup, and lean canvas. 
• AI fluency – knowledge of what AI is good for, what it isn't, and how to design work around its current limits.
• Comfort in a function whose work has a 7-10 year horizon, and whose concepts will more often be killed than scaled.
• An advanced degree in business, design, or related field is a plus.
• Experience in digital assets is a plus.

Salary Range

$130,000 - $180,000 base salary + annual target bonus

BBH and its affiliates' compensation program includes base salary, discretionary bonuses, and profit-sharing. The anticipated base salary range(s) shown above are only for the indicated location(s) and may differ in other locations due to cost of living and labor considerations. Base salaries may vary based on factors such as skill, experience and qualification for the role. BBH's total rewards package recognizes your contributions with more than just a paycheck—providing you with benefits that enhance your experience at BBH from long-term savings, healthcare, and income protection to professional development opportunities and time off, our programs support your overall well-being. 

We value diverse experiences. We value diverse experiences and transferrable skillsets. If your career hasn’t followed a traditional path, includes alternative experiences, or doesn’t meet every qualification or skill listed in the job description, please do go ahead and apply.

About BBH:

Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) is a premier global financial services firm, known for premium service, specialist expertise, technology solutions and partnership approach to client management. Across Investor Services and Capital Partners, we work with an enviable roster of sophisticated clients who make BBH their first call when they are tackling their hardest challenges. Delivering for our clients and each other energizes us.

We believe that how we do our work is just as important as what we do. We are relentless problem solvers who know our best ideas come from collective debate and development—so we are never possessive about our ideas. Every day we come together as a diverse community of smart and caring people to deliver exceptional service and expert advice—creating success that lasts. No matter where you sit in the organization, everyone is empowered to contribute their ideas. BBHers can pick up the phone and call any colleague, and they are happy to help. Expanding your impact beyond your daily role is part of how we operate as trusted partners to one another. 

We believe stability is a competitive advantage, but being stable means having the knowledge, skill, and discipline to evolve, often—pushing the boundaries of innovation.  As a private partnership, every investment we make is in the relationships, technologies, products and development we believe are in the long-term interests of our clients and our people. Our long-tenured leaders are experts in their areas and are actively involved in the day-to day business, taking the time to provide guidance and mentoring to build the next generation of BBHers. Because we know, our success begins with yours.

Go to BBH.com to learn more about our rewards and benefits, philanthropy, approach to sustainability or how we support you to thrive personally, physically and financially.