Phoenix.AZ..Vice_President_and_Chief_Research_and_Solutions_Officer

Position: Phoenix.AZ.USA.Vice_President_and_Chief_Research_and_Solutions_Officer
Description

Reports to:

Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer Status:
Regular Full-Time | Exempt

The Opportunity:

Desert Botanical Garden is seeking a visionary, entrepreneurial leader to help define what research can do to protect the future of the desert. The Vice President & Chief Research and Solutions Officer will lead a major expansion of the Gardenâ€TMs 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.

The Chief Research and Solutions Officer 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. Initial areas of opportunity include:
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 DBGâ€TMs knowledge leads to healthier desert ecosystems, cooler communities, sustainable landscapes, changed practices and measurable adoption beyond the Gardenâ€TMs boundaries. Position

Purpose:

Grounded in the Gardenâ€TMs 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?  Essential Duties Lead Research and Desert Solutions
- Establish a focused portfolio of consequential desert challenges where DBG has the expertise, assets or partnerships to make a distinctive contribution.  - Move promising ideas from research through design, demonstration, partnership and broader adoption, with clear measures of scientific quality and practical impact.

- Determine what DBG should lead directly, what partners can best accomplish and where resources should be redirected as priorities evolve.

- Lead a multidisciplinary team of 20+ professionals spanning science, data, project management and expanding community partnerships.

- Create a culture that combines scientific rigor with urgency, experimentation and measurable results for our community.

- Advance signature protection and restoration initiatives that connect research, stewardship…