Product Pipeline Risk Manager

Helpful Engineering is a global engineering innovation hub dedicated to developing technologies and solutions that address pressing societal challenges. The Product Pipeline Risk Manager serves as the operational deputy to the Chief Risk Officer, guiding projects throughout the innovation pipeline and ensuring they receive necessary support and operational guidance.

Responsibilities:

• Support the Chief Risk Officer in overseeing the Innovation Portfolio
• Monitor project health, maturity, dependencies, and execution risks
• Identify emerging risks and opportunities across the project pipeline
• Assist project teams in developing mitigation strategies and action plans
• Help establish portfolio-level reporting and governance practices
• Partner closely with Project Team Leads to help advance project objectives
• Facilitate brainstorming, ideation, and solution-development workshops
• Help teams navigate technical, operational, and organizational challenges
• Challenge assumptions and encourage structured decision-making
• Connect teams with subject matter experts and internal resources
• Support development of Innovation Lab operating procedures
• Help establish project lifecycle frameworks and stage-gate processes
• Contribute to portfolio documentation, standards, and best practices
• Support creation of reusable templates, playbooks, and toolkits
• Assist in defining common product engineering standards across projects
• Help teams establish requirements, validation plans, risk registers, and development roadmaps
• Promote systems thinking, design controls, and structured product development approaches
• Support technical review and project readiness assessments
• Prepare portfolio status reports and executive summaries
• Develop portfolio health indicators and performance metrics
• Help identify strategic opportunities for project acceleration and scaling
• Portfolio risk assessments and maturity reviews
• Innovation pipeline dashboards and reporting
• Project health reviews and recommendations
• Governance processes and portfolio playbooks
• Product development standards and guidance materials
• Innovation Lab operational improvement recommendations

Requirements:

• Support the Chief Risk Officer in overseeing the Innovation Portfolio
• Monitor project health, maturity, dependencies, and execution risks
• Identify emerging risks and opportunities across the project pipeline
• Assist project teams in developing mitigation strategies and action plans
• Help establish portfolio-level reporting and governance practices
• Partner closely with Project Team Leads to help advance project objectives
• Facilitate brainstorming, ideation, and solution-development workshops
• Help teams navigate technical, operational, and organizational challenges
• Challenge assumptions and encourage structured decision-making
• Connect teams with subject matter experts and internal resources
• Support development of Innovation Lab operating procedures
• Help establish project lifecycle frameworks and stage-gate processes
• Contribute to portfolio documentation, standards, and best practices
• Support creation of reusable templates, playbooks, and toolkits
• Assist in defining common product engineering standards across projects
• Help teams establish requirements, validation plans, risk registers, and development roadmaps
• Promote systems thinking, design controls, and structured product development approaches
• Support technical review and project readiness assessments
• Prepare portfolio status reports and executive summaries
• Develop portfolio health indicators and performance metrics
• Help identify strategic opportunities for project acceleration and scaling
• Deliver portfolio risk assessments and maturity reviews
• Deliver innovation pipeline dashboards and reporting
• Deliver project health reviews and recommendations
• Deliver governance processes and portfolio playbooks
• Deliver product development standards and guidance materials
• Deliver innovation lab operational improvement recommendations
• Strong systems thinking and problem-solving capabilities
• Product development or innovation management experience
• Project and program management experience
• Familiarity with technology commercialization and startup ecosystems
• Ability to facilitate workshops and collaborative discussions
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
• Candidates from the following backgrounds are encouraged to apply: Product Management, Engineering Management, Systems Engineering, Innovation Management, Technology Strategy, Program Management, Entrepreneurship, Operations Management
• Graduate students and experienced professionals are both welcome