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Director Innovation Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Western Growers

Senior Director - Innovation

Salinas, CA · On-site +1

$123K - $169K/yr

... the innovation ecosystem. QUALIFICATIONS Master's degree (MBA, Masters of Science, or equivalent) degree and ten (10) years of direct experiencein fresh produce industry agriculture operations ...

AbbVie

Associate Director, Innovation

North Chicago, IL · On-site

$141K/yr

As Associate Director, Innovation, you will partner with leaders across AbbVie to optimize the value of our portfolio of current and future assets. The team is seeking a high-performing individual ...

AB InBev

Director, Innovation - S&F

New York, NY · Hybrid

As a Dir., Innovation - Strategy & Finance, you will play a key role in enabling the successful execution and commercialization of Anheuser-Busch's innovation pipeline. This role will partner closely ...

AB InBev

Director, Innovation - S&F

New York, NY · On-site

As a Dir., Innovation - Strategy & Finance, you will play a key role in enabling the successful execution and commercialization of Anheuser-Busch's innovation pipeline. This role will partner closely ...

Houston Methodist

The Director Innovation position also partners with new health technology vendors to identify appropriate solutions to solve consumer and/or patient journeys, clinical workflow enhancements and ...

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How much do director innovation jobs pay per year?

As of Jul 4, 2026, the average yearly pay for director innovation in the United States is $117,480.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $80,000.00 and $157,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What does a Director of Innovation do?

A Director of Innovation leads an organization's efforts to develop and implement new ideas, technologies, and strategies that drive growth and competitive advantage. They research market trends, foster a culture of innovation, and collaborate with teams to bring new products, services, or processes to life. Their role involves strategic planning, identifying opportunities for innovation, and managing projects that enhance business performance.

What are the main challenges a Director of Innovation typically faces in this role?

A Director of Innovation often deals with balancing the need for creative, out-of-the-box thinking with the practical requirements of business viability and risk management. Navigating resistance to change and securing stakeholder buy-in across different departments can be significant challenges. The role usually involves managing cross-functional teams and building bridges between R&D, marketing, and operations to drive projects forward. Being able to translate visionary ideas into actionable initiatives, while ensuring alignment with organizational goals, is essential for long-term success in this position.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive in the Director Innovation position, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Director of Innovation, you need expertise in strategic planning, product development, and business analysis, typically supported by a relevant bachelor's or master's degree. Familiarity with project management tools, innovation frameworks, and data analytics platforms is highly beneficial. Strong leadership, creative problem-solving, and excellent interpersonal communication set standout candidates apart in this position. These capabilities are crucial for effectively driving change, fostering a culture of innovation, and ensuring the organization remains competitive in a dynamic marketplace.

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Senior Director - Innovation

Senior Director - Innovation

Western Growers

Salinas, CA • On-site, Remote

$123K - $169K/yr

Other

Posted 7 days ago

Job description

You spend more than half of your waking hours working. Make these precious, fleeting moments matter by working for an organization and a cause you can believe in.
Western Growers exists for one reason only: to ensure the future viability of its members - the hard-working, salt-of-the-earth farmers who grow the fruits, vegetables and tree nuts that feed our nation and nourish our bodies.
Our members depend on us to help them remain competitive and profitable as they face challenges that make it increasingly difficult and expensive to do business. Our goal is to fight for them- heart and soul -every single day. We passionately advocate, facilitate technological advancements and provide insurance for our members. We do all of this, and more, from a position of leadership in the agriculture industry. This mission requires a team of intelligent, inquisitive and innovative individuals connected for our common purpose.
The core company philosophy that strengthens our mission is that everything starts with people. Every employee of the organization has access to research-based training to encourage and support Outward Inclusion philosophy and our DEI initiatives. As an element of this training, employees are encouraged to recognize that thereisn'ta worklife anda homelife, there is one life. This recognition throughout the organization emphasizes the value of finding a healthy and happy balance in every employee's life. One way that is realized for employees of Western Growers is flexible work arrangements with work-from-home, in-office or hybrid options.
At Western Growers, we recognize and welcome the many qualities you can bring to the team.
Grow with us.
Compensation: $123,544.85-$169,874.55with a rich benefits package that includes profit-sharing.
JOB DESCRIPTION SUMMARY
This position is responsible for advancing a portfolio of high-potential innovation opportunities that can improve the competitiveness, profitability, and resilience of Western Growers members. This position works directly with the organization's members, colleagues, agricultural industry, startups, researchers, industry partners, and investors to identify, validate, and scale innovation solutions in priority segments beyond automation. The position works to leverage the WG Innovation team's automation platform elements to focus on identifying new innovations, evaluating the provider and technology, and providing feedback to WG members on those that are showing promise and/or commercializing successfully.
The key focus areas for
this position includes chemical crop input alternatives such as biologicals (with a focus on bio-controls), genetics (with a focus on pathogen and pest resistance), and regenerative agriculture practices. The key requirement for this position is to own the innovation funnel from identification of technical innovation in any of these key areas and then push the identified innovations through an evaluation process with results shared with WG members. An additional area this role will work with in a similar platform fashion is the circular economy. With this portion of the role, the focus will be to identify innovators in the circular economy that is based largely on woody biomass (often from orchards and vineyards) and food waste streams from food production facilities (Including packaged salad and other processing facilities). The final element to focus on in this segment is theinnovation around films, fibers, and other materials with, cost-parity, utility and scalability as alternatives tocurrent approaches in fresh produce packaging in response to increasing regulatory pressure.
This role applies the commercialization model developed for automation - including grower discovery,startup evaluation, field validation, economic analysis, case studies, strategic partnerships, acceleratorrelationships, and industry events where thought leadership can be demonstrated. The role will helpsolutions move from promising concept to commercial adoption faster and with improved economics.
This position reports to the Senior Vice President of Innovation and is expected to operate as a senior-levelindividual contributor with substantial autonomy, external visibility, and responsibility for building platformsand partnerships across the innovation ecosystem.
QUALIFICATIONS
Master's degree (MBA, Masters of Science, or equivalent) degree and ten (10) years of direct experiencein fresh produce industry agriculture operations, AgTech, biologicals, crop inputs, sustainability, circulareconomy, biomanufacturing, produce packaging, food systems innovation, or related commercializationroles preferred.
Proven record of working with growers, shippers, startup companies, researchers, industry partners, ortechnology providers to evaluate whether innovation solutions are ready for commercialization andscale.
Strong understanding of specialty crop production economics, grower decision-making, operational risk,labor constraints, crop protection needs, food safety requirements, and the practical requirements foradopting new technologies in production agriculture.
Ability to evaluate innovation opportunities across multiple technical categories, including biologicals andbio-controls, genetics and crop resistance, regenerative agriculture practices, circular economy,biomanufacturing, biomass and food waste streams, plastic packaging alternatives, and other emergingsegments.
Proven record of developing economic frameworks for solution evaluation, including grower ROI, costreduction, yield protection, risk reduction, sustainability outcomes, labor impact, input reduction, andimplementation complexity.
Ability to develop strategies for deeper integration with startups, growers, commodity groups, inputsuppliers, processors, packaging companies, research institutions, accelerator partners, corporatepartners, and investors.
Proven ability to develop and manage partner efforts with minimal supervision, including field trials, casestudies, events, grower education, startup toolkits, strategic partnerships, pilot programs, and industry[1]facing communications.
High degree of flexibility and autonomy, with the ability to prioritize competing opportunities and produce the best outcomes for WG growers, startups, and innovation partners.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate technical innovation topics into practical grower economics and industry adoption pathways.
Internet access provided by a cable or fiber provider with 40 MB download and 10 MB upload speeds.
Home router with wired Ethernet (wireless connections and hotspots are not permitted).
A designated room for your office or steps taken to protect company information (e.g., facing computer towards wall, etc.).
A functioning smoke detector, fire extinguisher, and first aid kit on site.
Verifiable, clean DMV record and the ability to travel to various locations throughout the U.S. (mainlyCalifornia and Arizona) up to 50% of the time.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Innovation Portfolio Strategy & Market Mapping
Develop and maintain a strategic portfolio of innovation opportunities that can improve WG membercompetitiveness, with initial focus on chemical input alternatives, circular economy (biomass and otherreuse streams), biomanufacturing, film, fiber and other packaging material alternatives, and otheremerging innovation segments.
Work with partners, including Plug and Play and Mixing Bowl, to identify startups in the AgTech segmentsabove that are in the emerging and commercializing categories and then work on technical and businesseconomics validation strategies to help provide information on the solutions to help growers make trialand purchase decisions.
Identify the most promising innovation areas where WG can play a platform role by convening growers,validating solutions, accelerating pilots, publishing case studies, and building commercializationpartnerships.
Develop a prioritization framework for comparing innovation opportunities based on grower economics,market readiness, regulatory complexity, adoption barriers, environmental benefit, and ability to scaleacross WG member operations.
Prepare regular updates for industry suppliers regarding market opportunities and grower needs in a 3-5year time horizon to help them identify R&D / M&A opportunities.
Prepare regular updates for WG leadership on portfolio progress, market trends, startup readiness,partnership opportunities, and potential member impact. Chemical Input Alternatives, Biologicals, Genetics & Regenerative Agriculture
Work with WG members, colleagues, startups, biologicals companies, seed and genetics companies,researchers, and crop advisors to identify solutions that can reduce chemical input dependency whilepreserving or improving crop outcomes.
For promising innovation technologies, isolate a single key crop to measure results against and then workwith the innovation team, grower partners, WG colleagues, and test partners to determine the baselinemetrics and incremental improvement delivered in the test.
Depending on the results of each test, determine if an internal tech validation tool or an externalvalidation tool such as a WG Case Study is the appropriate mechanism to move forward. Work withpartners to drive that result. Partners in this case may include UC ANR, co-op extension team members,Reservoir Farms, and WG Science colleagues. The primary objective for WG Science team members inthis deliverable is establishing the correct key metrics to measure and how to measure them from ascientific perspective. This role will then execute and measure the tests and decide which steps toproceed with for each individual startup.
The focus for this role will be on pre-market, new-to-the-market bio-controls that can replace orsupplement pesticide functionality without traditional chemistry, with emphasis on effectiveness,reliability, cost, grower fit, and regulatory pathways. This role will not focus on bio-stimulants.
The role will also evaluate: (1) genetics-based solutions that create crop resistance or resilience and reduce the need for chemical applications; (2) precision spraying solutions that optimize the efficiency of chemical applications; (3) regenerative agriculture solutions that measure the impact and incremental benefit of practice adoptions; and (4) UV light treatments for pests and pathogens. Finally, once all of the evaluations are complete, this role will develop a strategy for delivering practical grower-facing analysis that separates early-stage claims from commercially validated solutions and helps WG membersunderstand where these categories are ready for adoption versus further field validation. From a WGInnovation team perspective, we are agnostic on which of the functional solution areas above deliver thebest results - we just want to identify the best results from any segment.
AgTech Economic Analysis
Working with colleagues in WG state, federal and science team as well as industry leaders develop aflexible framework for economic analysis of the complete portfolio of solutions for reducing chemistryusage in anticipation of usage restrictions from both governmental regulations and buyer specifications.
The framework will provide a comparative analysis of solutions, including precision spraying, bio controls, genetics, regenerative ag practices, and UV light treatments. The economic outcome of this analysis will be to help align WG resources with both current and future innovation solutions that have a high potential for grower impact in terms of mitigating the risk of chemical applications getting regulated (restricted or banned). Solution segments with high impact potential commercialization outcomes will bethe focus of this role.
Measuring the baseline metrics and the incremental progress from solutions will be a key deliverable forthis role. The output is targeted to match the current WG Case Studies for automation solutions informat and detail, but with metrics that are appropriate for the chemistry alternatives portfolio. This rolewill require working closely with multiple departments inside WG member organizations to measurecross-department economic baseline analysis and incremental impact analysis.
Circular Economy, Biomanufacturing & Waste Stream Innovation
Similar to the Automation Platform that extends into biological, genetics, and regenerative aginnovations, this role will develop WG's innovation platform around circular economy opportunities infilms, fibers and other materials through reuse, recycling, and value-added conversion of biomass, cropresidues, processing byproducts, food production waste streams, and other agricultural residuals.
Identify biomanufacturing innovation opportunities that can create new markets, new products, reduced waste, or new revenue streams for growers and processors.
Work with innovators to identify industry partners to work with to evaluate feedstock availability, logistics, processing requirements, economics, policy incentives, and potential commercialization pathways for circular economy and biomanufacturing solutions.
Once innovation technologies are evaluated, leverage the WG Innovation platform to develop casestudies and market intelligence on the likely economic impact and conditions to achieve the impact ifpurchased by WG members.
Grower Integration, Field Validation & Commercialization
Work with WG members and innovation companies to validate that solutions are ready forcommercialization and scale and meet the requirements of grower economics.
Develop regular communication channels with growers, startups, researchers, and industry partners toevaluate solution readiness, trial design, field performance, adoption barriers, and commercializationpathways.
Work with education and research partners on roadmaps for field validation, including early technicalvalidation, scaled operational validation, and grower economic validation.
Work with WG members and growers from partner organizations on trials that answer the corecommercialization questions: does it work, does it work at scale, and does it work within growereconomic requirements.
Develop repeatable reporting on pilots, field trials, case studies, and commercialization mil...

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