Vice President & Chief Research and Solutions Officer

Position Title:

Vice President & Chief Research and Solutions Officer

Position Type:
Post-Doctoral Position

Final date to receive applications:
Thursday, December 31, 2026

Institution:
Desert Botanical Garden

Department/Division:
Research, Conservation & Collections

Field (e.g., systematics):

City:
Phoenix, Arizona, US

Status:
Regular Full-Time | Exempt

Desert Botanical Garden is seeking a visionary, entrepreneurial leader to help define what research can do to protect the future of the desert.

Will lead a major expansion of the Garden’s work to develop, demonstrate and scale solutions for a hotter, drier and rapidly changing desert.

This executive will build a multidisciplinary enterprise bringing together research, horticulture, landscape design, demonstration projects and powerful community partnerships to tackle some of the most consequential challenges facing the Sonoran Desert and desert cities.

Will identify where Desert Botanical Garden can make a distinctive contribution, build the teams and partnerships to address those challenges, and translate knowledge into solutions that can be tested at the Garden, demonstrated in the community and scaled beyond our boundaries.

• Sonoran Desert Protection and Restoration: advancing research and restoration strategies that help protect the plants, biodiversity and ecosystems that define the Sonoran Desert.
• Cooler Desert Cities: demonstrating how plants, shade and landscape design can contribute to cooler, healthier and more resilient desert communities.
• Climate-Ready Landscapes: researching how plants and designed landscapes perform under changing desert conditions, and translating that knowledge into practical public-facing guidance on plant selection, placement, water use, soils and long-term landscape care.

These areas are intended as starting points, not boundaries. The Chief Research and Solutions Officer will help determine where DBG can have the greatest impact over time as environmental conditions, scientific understanding and community needs evolve.

The position will move ideas through a deliberate continuum:
Research. Design. Demonstrate. Partner. Scale.

Success will not be measured primarily by the volume of research produced. It will be measured by the extent to which DBG’s knowledge leads to healthier desert ecosystems, cooler communities, sustainable landscapes, changed practices and measurable adoption beyond the Garden’s boundaries.

Grounded in the Garden’s 2040 Compass strategic plan, this executive leads research and practical applications that create desert solutions, overseeing a multidisciplinary team of approximately 20 professionals. The role positions the Garden as a living laboratory, builds partnerships that extend its capabilities and reach, and connects research with horticulture, education, storytelling, public engagement and institutional planning. The central question:
What can DBG uniquely solve for the desert and our community?

Requirements

The successful candidate will be an institution-builder, strategist, translator and convener who combines scientific credibility with the ability to turn knowledge into meaningful action. The Chief Research and Solutions Officer does not need to personally be a specialized scientist. The ideal candidate will demonstrate these skillsets:

• Builder and Entrepreneur:
  Has created, transformed or substantially expanded a program, center or enterprise and can turn ambition into a focused, achievable agenda.
• Scie…