Innovation Manager

Pioneer your career! Körber is the home for passionate people who innovate, collaborate, and love what they do. Entrepreneurial spirit is our joint DNA. We develop future technologies and support talents to deploy their skills and reach their full potential. Together, we aim to be the first to do the right thing at the right time. Join the home for entrepreneurs! We are seeking an experienced professional to manage and lead the customer maintenance organization. The role requires strong expertise in maintenance contracts, customer relations, and quality management, with the ability to drive operational excellence, ensure contractual compliance, and maintain customer satisfaction.

About Körber

Körber is a global technology group with deep industrial expertise and a strong innovation agenda. We operate across three Business Areas - Pharma, Supply Chain, and Technologies - delivering high-tech machinery, software, digital, and service solutions that are critical to our customers’ success. Within the Group Innovation function, we define and drive the central innovation and technology roadmap for the Group. Our focus is on advancing strategic technology topics, enabling cross-business collaboration, and creating scalable innovation programs that support long-term, sustainable growth.

Role Overview

We are seeking an Innovation Program Manager – focused on Smart factory and process solution topics. This role sits within Körber’s Central Group Innovation function and serves as a key interface between the strategic innovation roadmap and the Business Areas leading development and deployment. The ideal candidate brings strong technology Project management expertise combined with hands-on and operational experience in topics like Robotics and autonomous Systems, Industrial IoT etc. The expectation from the candidate is to effectively guide cross-functional teams, anticipate integration challenges, and support scalable execution across Körber’s industrial environments.

Key Responsibilities ::

Program Coordination & Governance

• Coordinate one or more innovation programs aligned with Körber’s strategic technology roadmap, with focus areas such as robotics automation and AMR-enabled workflows
• Establish program structures, milestones, KPIs, and governance frameworks to ensure transparency and progress tracking
• Prepare materials for steering committees, senior reviews, and decision forums
  
  
  

Cross-Business Enablement

• Act as the interface between Group Innovation and Business Areas to ensure clarity on objectives, scope, timelines, and interdependencies
• Support decentralized execution by enabling structured collaboration across engineering, operations, and digital teams
• Translate strategic robotics topics into clear workstreams, deliverables, and action plans Stakeholder & Partner Management
• Drive structured communication across internal stakeholders, technology partners, and system integrators
• Support vendor landscape evaluation and partner collaboration for robotics innovation initiatives
• Ensure stakeholder alignment across diverse, matrixed environments
  
  
  

Risk, Dependency & Resource Oversight

• Track program risks, dependencies, and change impacts across concurrent innovation workstreams
• Support mitigation planning and timely escalation where required
• Contribute to resource planning and budget oversight for multi-business innovation initiatives Standardization & Scaling
• Develop common templates, playbooks, and best-practice frameworks to enable consistent execution across robotics innovation programs
• Promote operational excellence through Lean and continuous improvement principles
  
  
  

Core Competencies (Preferred / Value-Add)

The following experience is considered a strong advantage, enabling effective program leadership in robotics innovation contexts:

Robotics & Automation Exposure (Plus)

• AMR Navigation and Deployment Environments
• SLAM, LiDAR, Sensor Fusion awareness
• Fleet Management Systems and multi-robot operations
• Industrial safety and automation constraints
  
  
  

Methodologies & Tools

• Agile / Scrum, Kanban, hybrid delivery models
• Stage-Gate familiarity for hardware-driven programs
• Jira, Confluence
• Python or SQL for operational/data-driven insights
• ROS familiarity is a plus
  
  
  

Program Management Strengths

• Stakeholder management across senior and cross-business audiences
• Risk mitigation and dependency tracking
• Vendor and partner collaboration
• Structured execution in matrix organizations
  
  
  

Your Profile ::

• 5–8+ years of experience within innovation, automation, robotics, or smart factory environments
• Proven experience managing cross-functional, cross-business initiatives in a matrixed organization
• Ability to work confidently with technology-focused topics without needing to be a deep technical expert
• Strong planning, structuring, and execution skills, with attention to detail and follow-through
• Comfortable operating in an environment where execution is decentralized and coordination, alignment, and governance are central to success
• Familiarity with agile or hybrid project management methodologies is a plus
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills; confident interacting with senior and diverse stakeholders
• Excellent English communication skills (written and verbal); German is an advantage
• Proactive, hands-on mindset with a strong sense of ownership
  
  
  

Your working environment at Körber Körber Business Area Pharma is the leading provider of MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) software to the pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturing industry. Our first-in-class Werum PAS-X software offering allows our customers to control and record the making of life-saving therapies to ensure the best possible business and patient outcomes. We are seeking talented individuals as we look to transform our business and products to meet the constantly shifting demands of the ongoing revolution in factory digitization and automation.

Your benefits ::

• Competitive compensation package.
• Opportunities for professional growth within a global organization.
• A work environment that values collaboration, efficiency, and commitment.
• Continuous learning and development opportunities.
  
  
  

Can you find yourself in this profile? Then you are right at Körber. We are looking forward to getting to know you

Please apply exclusively via the “Apply now” button. We value diversity and therefore welcome all applicants - regardless of gender, nationality, ethnic or social origin, religion/belief, disability, age, sexual orientation and identity, and any other protected status

Can you find yourself in this profile? Then you are right at Körber. We are looking forward to getting to know you

Please reach out on [email protected]