Innovation Director

Not all heroes wear capes — but plenty of them use toilet paper

Want to challenge yourself at a high-growth startup AND make a difference in the world? Come join the revolootion!

Funny name, serious business

We make eco-friendly products and donate 50% of our profits to provide clean water and help build toilets for the billions of people who lack proper access. So far, we’ve contributed over $11.22 million AUD (roughly $7.5 million USD) to fund sanitation projects around the globe. Basically, we’re really good at doing good. 

With hubs in Australia, the Philippines, China, the US, UK and Europe, our amazing team of 200+ work to make the biggest possible impact for people and the planet. Over the next couple of years, we’re hoping to increase our annual donation tenfold to get us closer to our dream of everyone in the world having access to clean water and sanitation services.

A bit about the role

We’re on the hunt for a new Innovation Director! With a commercial eye, this brand new role will spearhead the launch of our next set of new products in our Australian, UK, and US markets. 

You’ll be lending your expertise in the CPG product development space - play an instrumental part in a crystal clear front end process, moving us swiftly from stage gate to stage gate, working closely with contract manufacturing partners - to bring more and more uniquely delightful products to the world of Who Gives a Crap. 

Reporting directly into our Head of Innovation and working alongside a tight knit group of innovation pals you’ll be launching products that will help us all to do a little more good. Refusing to settle for what’s been done before, these products will be uniquely good for mama earth - pulling from the elegant ethos of our original product - we will challenge each new entry to be just as fresh, new, and sustainable as the last.

We think that great products (from concept to development and launch) need a little more in person time than the average role at Who Gives A Crap, as sitting in the same room to discuss prototypes, workshop and rapidly iterate is the name of the game. We’d love for someone to be based in the Greater Los Angeles area, or have the ability to get there once a month for much needed facetime with our team and the latest prototype or meeting with a manufacturing partner. On the partner front, as they may be spread around the world, travel a little further from home may also be necessary.

Collaborating with the wider team is a remote-first dream, we have cross over hours, so on the days you’re not in the office, you’ll enjoy that work from home bliss (and we’ll make sure you’re well set up for the small screen).

If you worked here this past month, here are some things you might have been involved in:

• Spent time in a room with our Head of Product Strategy & Innovation, our Chief Purpose & Product Officer and a few close innovation pals to review the latest product prototypes
• Led external and internal stakeholders to develop and align on a new product commercialization project plan, identifying critical path workflows and defining key milestones
• Geeked out on interpreting and actioning consumer research results with a few Brand buddies to build new product concepts
• Built a series of contingency plans to get a project back on track and added a few more lines to your templated stage gate process to ensure we don’t miss a beat next time.
• Toured our next manufacturing partner’s location with our Head of NPD Supply Chain and sat down to chat requirements, specifications and other technical stuff
• Led a cross functional brainstorm to see how we could move the next set of clever and sustainable products to our customer.
• Partnered with a few innovation and brand buddies to test a few new product prototypes with customers quickly
• Shared insights with a group of Exec & Senior Leaders that identifies the biggest white spaces for development
• Began planning next quarter’s OKRs to keep yourself aligned with your team, holding yourself accountable with cross-functional projects in all the ways that ladder up to company-wide goals.

Let’s talk about you

You live and breathe innovation

You carry the torch for innovation everywhere you go. You lead with ‘what if’, embrace speed, agility, and drive projects forward - inspiring others along the way. You’re comfortable with ambiguity and incomplete information and thrive in the space of possibility. Through it all, you hold the voice of the customer, thinking about them each step of the way to deliver delightful products that make them feel and do good. 

You clear paths and make calculated calls

You excel at creating structure from complexity, seamlessly transitioning between big picture and finer details. With experience navigating the messy middle of innovation, you consistently anticipate roadblocks and dust yourself off after a setback. It’s not all go go go, you are critical and astute in applying your commercial acumen and can confidently and clearly communicate to us all when it’s time to sunset a plan.

You’re a critical and creative thinker

As each innovation sprint takes off, you expand your creative brain and sharpen your commercial eye. You love to translate a strategic product roadmap into products, and translate those products into meaningful business impact. You know how to identify, evaluate, onboard and manage a range of contract manufacturers, ensuring our partnership exudes our values, expectations of sustainability, scale and operational excellence.

You’re there for the launch and around for the landing

You drive multiple processes from conception through to our customers picking them up off our virtual (or physical) shelves. As a champion for continuous improvement, you’ll constantly be working to refine our Front End and Stage Gate development processes to get quicker, and more responsive with every round.  Your project management rhythms helps you build and lead high-performing teams to consistently execute on our product strategy.

You love a lasting relationship

Your expert collaboration skills and strong process orientation foster success across our internal teams and with external partners. Your smooth communication helps you translate requirements that inspire and motivate, and transform disparate feedback into actionable insights and drive collective progress. The special sauce you bring is what keeps our partners partnering and our internal teams collaborating for the long run - building our innovation culture as we go.

Home is where the products are

You care deeply about what products support our customers to live well while doing the right thing for our planet. You drive our mission with innovative, game-changing products while championing sustainability. By keeping a pulse on inspiring and aspirational brands to see throughlines in market direction and blue sky opportunities, finding space for Who Gives A Crap to add unique value and helping us enhance how much good we can do!

You give a crap

Do you want your work to make the world a better place? Do you want to work with other people who feel the same way? What a coincidence — us too!

Why should you work with us?

First off, as a certified B Corp™, we work to make a difference every day while maintaining the highest standards of social and environmental impact. With our most recent score of 125.5 we’re in very good company with other exceptional B Corps around the world.

We also believe that helping to make the world a better place should be rewarded accordingly – that’s why we offer competitive, market informed salaries, meaningful support towards healthcare for our team around the world, generous paid leave, tailored learning and development opportunities, and free toilet paper (yes, you read that right).

Our engagement surveys (thanks Culture Amp!) tell us that our team is really proud (98%) to work for Who Gives A Crap and, well, we couldn’t be more proud of that.

Have you made it this far?

If you’re still reading, we think there’s a strong chance you might be our kind of person. Here’s the thing, though — research suggests that 60% of women and underrepresented folks might have already talked themselves out of applying. Even if you don’t check every box above, we want to encourage you to introduce yourself. We believe a diversity of perspectives and experiences makes a team stronger — and the stronger our team, the closer we are to delivering toilets and clean water for all.