Senior Consultant - Innovation

Acentra; Chennai District; On-site; INR 2,200,000 - 4,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Acentra in Chennai is seeking an experienced Innovation Leader to drive design thinking, incubation, and enterprise-wide programs within healthcare IT. You will coach cross-functional teams, run hackathons, and coordinate external partnerships to deliver measurable business impact.

You will oversee end-to-end innovation lifecycle from intake to pilot, track ROI, and promote adoption across operations, leveraging emerging tech including AI and analytics.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Healthcare, Engineering, Technology, Business or related field.
• 8+ years of experience in healthcare IT, digital transformation, product innovation or consulting.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate Design Thinking workshops to identify business, customer, operational, and technology challenges.
• Lead ideation sessions, innovation labs, and problem-solving workshops across functions.
• Coach teams on human-centered design, innovation methods, and creative problem-solving.
• Develop and maintain innovation frameworks, toolkits, templates, and best practices.
• Support business teams in identifying, refining, and validating innovation opportunities.
• Plan and manage enterprise-wide innovation programs, campaigns, ideathons, and hackathons.
• Coordinate external hackathons with technology partners, startups, universities, and industry organizations.
• Manage end-to-end logistics, communications, judging processes, mentoring, and outcome tracking.
• Establish innovation communities and champion networks across the organization.
• Drive selected ideas through discovery, prototyping, proof of concept, pilot, and implementation phases.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams to develop and deliver innovation solutions.
• Track progress, risks, dependencies, and business outcomes for innovation initiatives.
• Support solution adoption and transition into business operations.
• Maintain innovation portfolio dashboards
• Measure ROI, productivity and customer impact
• Identify relevant technology trends, tools, vendors, and startup solutions.
• Coordinate collaboration opportunities with external innovation partners.
• Support evaluation and experimentation with emerging technologies including AI, automation, analytics, and digital health capabilities.
• Develop innovation success stories, communications, and engagement materials.
• Track participation, implementation rates, and business impact metrics.
• Present program updates and innovation outcomes to business leaders and stakeholders.

Skills

Design Thinking

Innovation Program Management

Hackathon Leadership

Idea Incubation

Stakeholder Management

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Change Enablement

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Healthcare/Engineering/Technology/Business

Tools

AI & Automation Technologies

Job description

Job Summary and Responsibilities

Design Thinking & Innovation Facilitation (30%)

• Facilitate Design Thinking workshops to identify business, customer, operational, and technology challenges.
• Lead ideation sessions, innovation labs, and problem-solving workshops across functions.
• Coach teams on human-centered design, innovation methods, and creative problem-solving.
• Develop and maintain innovation frameworks, toolkits, templates, and best practices.
• Support business teams in identifying, refining, and validating innovation opportunities.

Innovation Programs & Hackathons (30%)

• Plan and manage enterprise-wide innovation programs, campaigns, ideathons, and hackathons.
• Lead internal innovation challenges that encourage employee participation and idea generation.
• Coordinate external hackathons with technology partners, startups, universities, and industry organizations.
• Manage end-to-end logistics, communications, judging processes, mentoring, and outcome tracking.
• Establish innovation communities and champion networks across the organization.

Idea Incubation & Solution Implementation (25%)

• Manage the innovation intake process and evaluate ideas against defined criteria.
• Drive selected ideas through discovery, prototyping, proof of concept, pilot, and implementation phases.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams to develop and deliver innovation solutions.
• Track progress, risks, dependencies, and business outcomes for innovation initiatives.
• Support solution adoption and transition into business operations.
• Maintain innovation portfolio dashboards

• Measure ROI,productivityand customer impact

Innovation Ecosystem & Emerging Technology Enablement (10%)

• Identify relevant technology trends, tools, vendors, and startup solutions.
• Coordinate collaboration opportunities with external innovation partners.
• Support evaluation and experimentation with emerging technologies including AI, automation, analytics, and digital health capabilities.

Communication, Reporting & Culture Building (5%)

• Develop innovation success stories, communications, and engagement materials.
• Track participation, implementation rates, and business impact metrics.

Present program updates and innovation outcomes to business leaders and stakeholders.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor's orMaster's degree in Healthcare, Engineering, Technology,Businessor related field

• 8+ years of experience in healthcare IT, digital transformation, productinnovationor consulting

• Experience in payer, provider, care, populationhealthor healthcare services environments preferred
• Experience with a leading management consulting or professional services organization is strongly preferred.

Core Competencies

• Design Thinking & Facilitation
• Innovation Program Management
• Hackathon & Ideathon Leadership
• Idea Incubation & Execution
• Stakeholder Management
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Change Enablement

Technical Expertise

• Human-Centered Design
• Agile & Lean Practices
• AI & Automation Technologies
• Innovation Platforms
• PoC & Pilot Management
• Data-Driven Decision Making
• Innovation Reporting & Metrics

Additional Qualifications

• Experience in healthcare, regulated industries, or shared services environments is desirable.
• Strong collaboration skills, and experience scaling innovation programs is preferred.

Strong communication skills and comfort working with both business and technical teams.