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Strategic Foresight Lead
Strategic Foresight Lead – Research & Development
Hitachi Europe, London
Company Overview
Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business (SIB) brings together IT, operational technology (OT), and products to drive digital transformation in social infrastructure, enabling a harmonised society balancing environmental wellbeing, economic growth, and sustainability.
With a core focus on Lumada, Hitachi combines data, technology, and domain expertise to address global challenges. FY2025 revenues exceeded 10,586.7 billion yen, supported by 606 subsidiaries and 290,000 employees worldwide.
Research & Development at Hitachi
Hitachi’s R&D enables market-shifting innovations across:
- Energy
- Mobility
- Sustainability
- Smart cities
- Resilient industries
We incubate responsible technology adoption, accelerating business transformation while prioritising people and planet. Our Europe R&D team (including design-first, systems-driven approaches) fosters new growth areas.
What You’ll Be Doing
This is a key role at the heart of Hitachi’s strategic foresight, innovation, and transformation. You’ll:
- Work across R&D, corporate functions, and business units to identify market-making opportunities driven by social/environmental challenges and digital disruption.
- Play a pivotal role in nurturing organisation-wide imagination around future possibilities that drive tangible, vision-led actions.
Core Responsibilities
1. Applied Strategic Foresight & Design Leadership
- Horizon scanning: Monitor market, societal, and tech signals to uncover emerging threats and opportunities.
- Scenario planning: Frame ecosystem challenges and translate them into actionable insights for Hitachi’s core business.
- Pathway development: Design transition strategies for new market/social ecosystems, aligning with near-term business roadmaps.
- Stakeholder facilitation: Build consensus through workshops, engagement, and multi-actor propositions.
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2. Innovation & Pipeline Development
- Partner with internal/external stakeholders to propose and secure funding for R&D innovation projects.
- Lead research-driven prototyping and validation with teams including designers, data scientists, and technologists.
- Develop visually engaging communication materials (e.g., future state service visions, operating models).
3. Commercial & Market Validation
- Translate strategic visions into clear, actionable near-term commercial opportunities for R&D and Business Units.
- Iterate based on feedback to align solutions with market demands.
4. Stakeholder Engagement & Risk Mitigation
- Facilitate workshops from ideation to execution, engaging senior leadership to drive adoption.
- Formulate narratives and visuals to mobilise organisational buy-in for innovation investment.
5. Capability Building & Mentorship
- Enhance future frameworks—elevating Hitachi’s design futures and foresight practice.
- Explore AI tools’ impact and propose efficiency gains in foresight methodologies.
- Mentor/junior team members across disciplines from designers to technical stakeholders.
6. Partnerships & Global Collaboration
- Develop strategic internal/external partnerships to scale capabilities.
- Travel required (UK, Europe, Japan, and the US).
- Visual communication: Help stakeholders understand complex ecosystems via schematics, reports, and presentations.
What You’ll Bring
Experience
✔ Proven success in delivering high-impact innovation projects within enterprise R&D/multidisciplinary settings. ✔ Track record of project management across complex, pipelined timelines, including budget/mitigating concept-to-market risk. ✔ Line-management experience—led teams to deliver measurable impact. ✔ B2B sector expertise in social infrastructure, energy, transportation, or manufacturing. ✔ History of launching transformative, disruptive initiatives/products. ✔ Experience navigating diverse teams/cultures.
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Skills & Mindset
✔ Systems thinking + futures frameworks applied to macro challenges. ✔ Sensemaking skills: Interpret unstructured data into actionable business insights. ✔ Accelerated learning—quickly grasp unfamiliar domains to train for new projects. ✔ Storytelling acumen via visual narratives, presentations, and reports. ✔ Commercial intuition: Translate big ideas into value propositions network-wide. ☀️ Growth mindset—continuously refine your approach and iterate.
Education
- Master’s degree or higher in design, humanities, or social sciences (relevant specialization preferred).
- Fluent English (essential—Japanese or multi-language skills a plus).
Work Arrangements
📍 Hybrid-remote model, with regular days at: 7th Floor, 1 New Ludgate, 60 Ludgate Hill London, EC4M 7AW, UK
Benefits Package
Company Funded
- Generous holiday allowance (option to add 5 paid days extra/year).
- Holiday banking: Roll over unused holiday into the next year.
- Company private pension.
- Private medical insurance (offers family coverage add-ons).
- Employee Assistance Programme (global support network).
- Personal accident insurance.
Self-Funded Benefits
- Cycle-to-Work scheme.
- Gym, dental insurance (with child coverage option).
- Annual health screenings.
- Dining card.
Our Values
Hitachi is an equal opportunity employer. We champion:
- Diversity & inclusion (valorising abilities beyond demographics).
- Hitachi Spirit:
- Wa (Harmony, Trust, Respect)
- Makoto (Sincerity, Fairness, Integrity)
- Kaitakusha-Seishin (Pioneering Spirit, Challenging the Status Quo)
For further details, visit: Hitachi R&D Europe, formerly LinkedIn.
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