Innovation Program Assistant

Role Overview:
SmartLab is the Innovation Hub of SmartOSC, with the mission is to transform ideas into scalable ventures by combining deep industry expertise, technology innovation, and investment capital. Through SmartLabs’ Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) arm, we invest in and co-build businesses that create new growth engines for SmartOSC.
The Innovation Program Assistant supports the design, operation, and continuous improvement of innovation programs and initiatives. The role focuses on portfolio support, analytical input for decision making, communication enablement, and culture building, ensuring innovation programs and new initiatives are delivered efficiently and aligned with strategic objectives. The ideal candidate should have a passion for entrepreneurship, technology, and innovation, along with strong project management and organizational skills
1. Innovation Program Governance Support
• Support the implementation and day-to-day operation of governance frameworks for innovation programs and pilot initiatives.
• Assist in maintaining, updating, and documenting innovation-related policies, guidelines, decision gates, and approval workflows.
• Coordinate with cross-functional stakeholders to collect inputs, clarify requirements, and support alignment with corporate governance
• Identify governance or policy gaps, inconsistencies, or execution issues during program operations and escalate insights with structured analysis and recommendations.
• Assist in preparing governance materials for review committees, audits, or leadership updates.
2. Idea & Portfolio Management (Decision Support Focus)
• Support management of the innovation idea pipeline (submission, screening, evaluation, prioritization)
• Coordinate program timelines, milestones, deliverables, and internal communications.
• Maintain innovation program playbooks, templates, and standard operating procedures (SOPs)
• Track progress of innovation initiatives against defined KPIs and milestones (e.g: pipeline health, performance metrics, and program effectiveness)
• Assist in evaluating and analyzing innovation proposals using defined criteria, consolidate inputs from business, technical, and financial stakeholders into structured evaluation summaries, aiming at supporting decision-making by Innovation Committees or Senior Leadership
• Develop and maintain innovation portfolio dashboards, status reports, and documentation
3. New Initiatives Programs Support
• Act as a coordination point between business units, technical teams, innovation leads, and external partners.
• Support initiative owners and project teams with process guidance, documentation, and operational follow-up.
• Coordinate workshops, hackathons, innovation challenges, and review sessions.
• Support onboarding and engagement of mentors, experts, and partners when required
4. Innovation Communication, Engagement & Culture Building
• Coordinate internal communication activities for promoting SmartLabs, including new focus, investment scheme, program updates, success stories, and ongoing initiatives, etc
• Assist in designing and executing campaigns to attract new idea submissions from across the organization.
• Support development of communication materials (presentations, internal posts, newsletters, intranet content).
• Contribute to building and sustaining an innovation-driven culture by encouraging transparency, experimentation, and cross-team collaboration.
• Track engagement metrics (idea submissions, participation rates, feedback) and propose improvements.

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Strategic Management, Economics, Innovation Management, or relevant major (with a strong interest in Strategy and Innovation)
• 2+ years of experience in program/project coordination, PMO, incubating new initiatives
• Excellent organizational and coordination skills
• Strong analytical and structured thinking for evaluation and comparison of initiatives, with ability to turn complex information into actionable insights and decision-ready materials
• Experience working in cross-functional environments (business, technology, operations) and decentralized corporate culture with collaborative and service-oriented attitude
• Exposure to innovation evaluation frameworks, portfolio management, or agile initiatives is a strong advantage.
• Familiarity with program/portfolio management/productivity tools (Jira, Confluence, Notion, Miro, Monday, etc)
• Proficient in Excel / Google Sheets for analysis and reporting
• Proactive, detail-oriented, and execution-focused mindset.
• Comfortable working with ambiguity and evolving initiatives.
• Professional English proficiency (IELTS >= 6.5, especially in business and technology)
Desirable:
• Clear communication and stakeholder expectations management capabilities
• Familiarity with ITO industry and have foundational knowledge of IT, preferable Data AI, Cybersecurity, Blockchain, Fintech and Ecommerce