Manager - Innovation Operations & Industry Engagement

About the Role :

Drive the adoption and operationalization of new technology initiatives driven by AI adoption across Entertainment Cluster 1’s portfolio (e.g., Studios, Colors, Colors Rishtey, Kids, Infotainment, Hindi Movies TV Channels, JioHotstar Hindi, International Business, and Youth) by delivering structured rollout, vendor and partner management. The role coordinates with business, technology, vendors, legal, commercial, PR, and other cross-functional stakeholders to ensure new tools are evaluated, onboarded, and embedded into workflows efficiently. The role also involves building thought leadership, shaping industry narratives, identifying events which we can participate to drive cluster-wide messaging for senior leaders.

What You Will Help to Drive

1. Cluster Initiatives & Cross-Functional Alignment

• Drive cluster-wide AI initiatives that span multiple businesses, ensuring enterprise-level alignment, shared standards, and reuse of tools and learnings.
• Build initiative trackers covering milestones, owners, timelines, dependencies, and KPI progress; report outcomes versus objectives and propose course-corrections.
• Drive the rollout of new technology tools and AI-led solutions across all businesses within the Entertainment Cluster and push for consistent, high-quality adoption.
• Maintain rollout trackers, adoption dashboards, and progress reports; identify gaps in uptake and work with teams to close them.
• Stay current on emerging AI tools relevant to media and entertainment and recommend new solutions for evaluation.
• Coordinate with business and functional teams to maintain governance rhythms, decision logs, and follow-ups that sustain execution velocity.
• Bring together diverse inputs into cohesive recommendations and shared roadmaps across the cluster.

Expectation: Drive consistent adoption of new technology and AI-led tools across the cluster portfolio, manage dependencies and escalate risks proactively.

2. Stakeholder Engagement & Needs Assessment

• Conduct regular check-ins with individual business units to gather feedback on existing tools, surface pain points, and understand evolving requirements.
• Identify specific unmet needs or capability gaps within business teams and proactively research and source new vendors who can address them.
• Translate business feedback into actionable inputs for the technology team and vendors to drive continuous improvement.

Expectation: Convert business needs into a clear, prioritised pipeline of AI interventions.

3. Vendor & Partner Management

• Manage end-to-end vendor onboarding: evaluation support, NDA execution, commercial negotiations, and contract facilitation in coordination with Legal and Commercial.
• Maintain a vendor tracker with up-to-date documentation (NDAs, SOWs, MSAs, data processing agreements) and manage ongoing relationships including periodic reviews, escalations, and renewals.

Expectation: Run a reliable vendor lifecycle from evaluation to renewal.

4. Operations & Process Management

• Establish and maintain SOPs for AI tool evaluation, approval, and onboarding.
• Coordinate and document outcomes of operational discussions, steering committees, and review forums related to AI initiatives.
• Maintain a centralised repository of all AI tools in use across the cluster, including status, business owners, vendor details, and usage metrics.
• Support preparation of reports and presentations for senior leadership on AI initiative progress.

Expectation: Maintain process discipline and a single source of truth for AI operations.

5. Compliance & Governance

• Ensure all AI tools and vendor engagements comply with the organisation’s data privacy, information security, and IP policies.
• Flag risks and escalate issues related to tool performance, data handling, or vendor non-compliance in a timely manner.

Expectation: Keep AI adoption compliant, secure, and risk-managed.

6. Industry Narratives, Thought Leadership & Leadership Communication

• Track events and editorial opportunities, competitor moves, and regulatory shifts across media and entertainment; translate them into concise implications for the cluster.
• Build industry narratives and point-of-view notes for senior leadership forums that connect external trends to cluster priorities.
• Drive thought leadership for the cluster by developing distinctive points of view and spokesperson-ready narratives that position the business as a driver for key messaging and innovation in media and entertainment.
• Identify relevant industry events, forums, and panels for participation; map speaking and visibility opportunities to leadership priorities and recommend where the cluster should be represented.
• Partner with PR and Communications teams to build and maintain a calendar of industry events, align messaging, and prepare leadership for participation across the year.
• Convert complex data and establish concise storytelling for our key messages into clear slides, frameworks, and one-pagers for leadership decision-making.
• Maintain a repository of standard decks, templates, and briefing notes for faster, consistent leadership communication.

Expectation: Establish the cluster’s thought leadership and equip leadership with a clear, current view of the industry landscape and a planned calendar of event participation.

Success Metrics

• Adoption levels of AI tools across cluster businesses against rollout targets.
• Quality, accuracy, and timeliness of trackers, dashboards, vendor documentation, and leadership materials.
• Measurable progress on assigned cluster initiatives (milestones achieved, blockers resolved, governance maintained).
• Compliance posture: zero unmanaged data-privacy, security, or IP exposures across AI engagements.
• Stakeholder satisfaction: clarity of outputs, responsiveness, and ability to simplify complexity for leadership.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong organisational and project management skills; ability to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills; ability to engage business, legal, commercial, technology teams, and external partners.
• Detail-oriented with a process-driven mindset and a bias for execution.
• Comfortable with AI tools and technology concepts; able to bridge business needs and technical capabilities.
• Ability to craft crisp narratives and decks (PowerPoint/Slides) for senior leadership.

Candidate Profile

• Relevant experience across operations, program/project management, strategy, consulting, or technology-enablement roles, ideally in media & entertainment.
• Exposure to AI/technology tool evaluation, vendor management, and cross-functional coordination.
• Comfort with ambiguity; ability to break down complex problems into clear workplans.
• Stakeholder management in cross-functional environments (without direct authority).

High ownership, attention to detail, and bias for action