Vice President & Chief Research and Solutions Officer

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 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. 

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 DBG’s knowledge leads to healthier desert ecosystems, cooler communities, sustainable landscapes, changed practices and measurable adoption beyond the Garden’s boundaries. 

Position Purpose:
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? 

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 practices and community participation. 
• Establish clear priorities and measures of impact that extend beyond just publications, grants and traditional research outputs. 

Make the Garden a Living Laboratory 

• Partner with our Horticulture team to make DBG a visible model for both climate-ready desert landscapes and research demonstrations. 
• Use the Garden’s 140 acres, living collections and horticultural expertise to test approaches to shade, thermal comfort, plant combinations, irrigation, soils and water harvesting. 
• Work with Education, Marketing and Visitor Experience to help visitors, professionals and partners experience solutions firsthand and understand the evidence behind them. 

Share Knowledge and Support Adoption 

• Translate findings into practical plant and landscape guidance, design resources and tools that help communities, professionals and landowners make informed decisions. 
• Partner with Education and Horticulture to reintroduce a public-facing Desert Landscape School and expand professional education, plant education and certification opportunities. 
• Work with nurseries, landscape architects, developers, HOAs, utilities, municipalities and major landowners to improve access to climate-ready plants and approaches. 
• Establish demonstration projects beyond DBG and help Garden knowledge inform regional landscape practices, conservation decisions and public policy. 

Build Partnerships and Public Participation 

• Build significant partnerships across academic, public, private, nonprofit and community sectors, positioning DBG as a trusted research and solutions partner. 
• Convene organizations around shared challenges and create opportunities for community participation, citizen science and collaborative problem-solving. 
• Develop university and professional collaborations that expand DBG’s capabilities without requiring every area of expertise to reside internally. 
• Represent the Garden with scientific, civic, industry and community audiences, translating complex work into clear, useful and compelling ideas. 

Uphold Scientific Excellence and Stewardship 

• Maintain high standards for scientific integrity, experimental design, data management, analysis and impact measurement. 
• Strengthen scientific collections, documentation and long-term datasets as resources for research and practical solutions. 

Secure Resources and Lead the Research Enterprise 

• Develop ambitious initiatives and work with our Development Department to attract philanthropic, governmental, corporate and sponsored-research support. 
• Manage budgets, externally funded initiatives, research infrastructure and project delivery, aligning resources with priorities and sustainable growth. 
• Contribute to institution-wide strategy, Board engagement and implementation of the 2040 Compass, working closely across Garden departments. 

Competencies & Ideal Candidate: 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. 
• Scientifically Credible and Applied: Has the judgment to lead accomplished scientists, assess evidence and translate knowledge into practical outcomes. 
• Partner and Convener: Builds trust across disciplines, sectors and communities, bringing different capabilities and perspectives together around shared challenges. 
• Systems Thinker: Connects plants, ecosystems, heat, water, landscapes and community needs while making disciplined choices about priorities. 
• Compelling Communicator and Accountable Leader: Makes complex ideas understandable, develops people and combines ambition with sound judgment and measurable results. 

Experience and Qualifications 

Competitive candidates will bring a combination of scientific credibility, executive leadership and demonstrated real-world impact. Desired experience includes: 

• Significant leadership experience in environmental science, conservation, climate resilience, urban ecology, horticulture, landscape systems or a related field. 
• Demonstrated success leading multidisciplinary teams, complex initiatives and significant budgets. 
• A record of translating scientific or technical knowledge into applied projects, conservation outcomes, tools, practices, education or policy. 
• Proven success building partnerships and securing substantial external resources through philanthropy, grants, government support, corporate partnerships or sponsored research. 
• Experience related to deserts, arid lands, plants or landscape systems is preferred; exceptional candidates from adjacent fields are encouraged to apply. 
• An advanced degree in a relevant field is preferred. A Ph.D. is welcomed but not required; equivalent scientific, technical, applied and executive experience will receive full consideration. 

Compensation and Benefits
Job Type: Full-Time, Exempt
 

Salary: Minimum $185,000, commiserate with experience and with additional incentive pay opportunity. Benefits include medical and dental insurance, retirement contribution matching, paid time off and other benefits available to eligible Garden employees. 

Working Conditions: Work takes place in office, outdoor Garden and field environments. Travel, evening engagements and occasional work across varied terrain and desert conditions may be required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals to perform essential job functions. 

Desert Botanical Garden offers a competitive executive compensation package commensurate with the scope of the role and the successful candidate’s experience, including additional incentive pay. Benefits include medical and dental insurance, retirement contribution matching, paid time off and other benefits available to eligible Garden employees. 

Our Commitment
Equal Opportunity Employer: Desert Botanical Garden is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers all applicants without regard to race, religion, color, sex, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, age, national origin, veteran status, disability, or any other status protected by law. 

The Garden fosters and supports workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion to honor the unique perspectives, experiences, and contributions of all, to celebrate successes, and to cultivate individual and institutional excellence.  

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and deliverables of the role. This is not a contract and should not be viewed as such. Other duties may be assigned by supervisor and/or his/her/their designee. 

About Desert Botanical Garden
Founded in 1939, Desert Botanical Garden is a living museum and leading institution dedicated to celebrating, studying and protecting desert plants and ecosystems. 

Across 140 acres of Sonoran Desert habitat, the Garden cares for more than 50,000 plant specimens representing more than 4,000 species, including nationally significant collections of agaves and cacti. Its work extends beyond the Garden through research, stewardship, education and partnerships that protect threatened species, strengthen desert ecosystems and build understanding of the forces shaping deserts worldwide. 

Today, the Garden is entering an ambitious new chapter. 

As desert communities confront rising temperatures, increasing pressure on water resources, changing landscapes, wildfire, biodiversity loss and other challenges, Desert Botanical Garden has an opportunity to bring together its scientific expertise, living collections, horticultural knowledge, public reach and partnerships to help shape a more resilient desert future.