Sr. Manager, Research & Innovation - WEX Technology

Sr. Manager, Research & Innovation – WEX Technology

Location: Remote (US) | Portland, ME | Dallas, TX | Chicago, IL Reports To: VP of Engineering, Architecture, Research & Innovation Department: WEX Technology

About WEX

WEX is a global commerce platform that simplifies the business of running a business. We operate at the intersection of financial technology and benefits administration, serving millions of consumers and thousands of employers through our Health & Benefits, Corporate Payments, and Mobility solutions. Our Health & Benefits business processes billions of dollars in healthcare payments annually and administers benefits for a significant portion of the U.S. workforce.

The Opportunity

We are seeking a Sr. Manager, Research & Innovation to lead our R&I function within the Health & Benefits organization. This role is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and prototyping emerging technologies that will shape our next-generation platform capabilities—from AI-native engineering and agentic workflows to novel approaches in identity, data, and developer experience.

You will own our innovation pipeline end-to-end: scanning the technology landscape, building proof-of-concept implementations, validating business applicability, and partnering with Architecture and Product teams to graduate promising innovations into production roadmaps. This is a hands-on leadership role that balances strategic technology foresight with the ability to build working prototypes that demonstrate the art of the possible.

This role is ideal for a technologist who is energized by what's next—someone who reads research papers for fun, builds side projects to test new frameworks, and can translate bleeding-edge concepts into practical solutions for enterprise-scale problems.

What You'll Do

Innovation Pipeline Leadership

• Own and operate the innovation funnel with Product from Ideation → Validation → PoC → Incubation → Graduation , managing initiatives across both revenue-generating and internal efficiency tracks
• Develop structured intake processes that capture innovation ideas from across the organization and prioritize based on strategic fit and feasibility
• Define success criteria for each pipeline stage and make go/no-go recommendations to leadership
• Maintain visibility into pipeline status and communicate progress to stakeholders through regular readouts

Technology Scouting & Evaluation

• Continuously scan the technology landscape for emerging trends, tools, and techniques relevant to fintech, healthcare, benefits administration, and enterprise platforms
• Monitor competitor and industry developments including product launches, patent filings, conference presentations, and open-source releases
• Evaluate new technologies against our architectu