***Please Note: This is an on-site role in Watsonville, CA. This position is not authorized for remote employment***
Enterprise innovation strategy & portfolio leadership
• Own the global New Products innovation strategy aligned to enterprise goals and each region’s commercial realities: Driscoll’s of the Americas (DOTA), Driscoll’s of Europe Middle East and Africa (DEMEA), Driscoll’s of Asia (DOA), Driscoll’s of Australia and New Zealand (DANZ)
• Build and maintain a global innovation portfolio (segments, platforms, concepts, pilots) that balances near-term value creation with longer-horizon bets
• Establish global portfolio governance: decision rights, investment thresholds, prioritization criteria, and kill/scale rules to focus resources on highest-probability winners
Front-end innovation engine (Discovery & Ideation)
Lead a modern, consumer-led ideation system that reliably produces high-quality concepts and de-risks them early:
• Define “opportunity spaces” using consumer insights, cultural trends, category white space, customer strategy, and competitive signals
• Run structured concept generation: design sprints, co-creation, customer ideation sessions, and cross-functional “innovation labs” spanning all regions
• Translate opportunity spaces into clear concept briefs (target consumer, occasions, benefit ladder, sensory promise, price-value hypothesis, channel fit)
• Establish rapid validation loops: sensory tests, concept testing, in-market pilots, and customer feedback—integrating feasibility constraints from breeding, agronomy, nursery capacity, and supply chain early (no “innovation theater”)
• Curate a global concept pipeline with standardized evidence requirements (consumer desirability, customer viability, technical feasibility, IP pathway, economics)
End-to-end delivery:
• Orchestrate cross-functional work to develop, test, deploy, and scale new product segments globally, with regional deployment plans tailored to DOTA, DEMEA, DOA, DANZ
• Partner with Product Leaders and regional commercial teams to define launch strategy, pricing architecture, assortment logic, and customer sell-in story.
• Ensure a robust go-to-market handoff to the Product Business Manager / regional owners with clear playbooks, performance KPIs, and lifecycle plans.
Innovation operating system & governance
• Design and embed an end-to-end Driscoll’s Global Product Innovation Process: Discovery | Concept Ideation | Feasibility | Development | Pilot | Launch | Post Launch Review
• Implement a stage-gate discipline with agile learning loops (fast evidence, fast decisions), including templates, forums, and standardized scorecards.
• Build an enterprise Innovation Dashboard with KPIs (e.g. pipeline funnel value, probability-weighted NPV, trial/repeat proxies, sensory superiority, customer conversion, supply reliability, grower economics, etc.)
• Create a “learning system” after post-launch reviews to codify best practices across the four regions.
Cross-functional influence (R&D / breeding / nursery / operations)
• Influence R&D and breeding priorities by ensuring the pipeline is anchored in the highest-value consumer and customer needs and translated into clear “product outcomes” requirements.
• Partner with Nursery, Supply Chain, and Quality to ensure scalable operational readiness for new segments (capacity, specs, quality standards, seasonality, risk).
• Ensure IP and legal pathways are considered early (where relevant), to protect value creation while enabling speed.
Financial accountability
• Co-own annual and multi-year planning for New Products performance with berry product leaders and regions
• Identify where global scale creates leverage vs. where regional differentiation wins.
• Drive business case discipline: investment sizing, unit economics, pricing corridors, and risk-adjusted returns.
Leadership & capability building
• Lead high-performing cross-functional project teams
• Build innovation capability across regions with training, toolkits and coaching (e.g. consumer-centricity, ideation facilitation, experimentation, portfolio thinking, launch excellence)
Candidate Profile• A successful candidate will have a bachelor’s degree in agribusiness or related field and a minimum of 12 years’ relevant work experience in new product development, ideally at a consumer goods company
• He/she/they will possess a deep understanding of market dynamics, fluency in front-end innovation (i.e. consumer discovery, concept ideation) and end-to-end commercialization and have experience managing product portfolios
• Ability to solve problems, excellent communication, stakeholder management skills, commercial acumen and comfort with ambiguity are essential
• He/she/they must have strong business acumen, intellectual curiosity, and proven leadership capabilities
• Must be a creative and conceptual thinker able to envision future opportunities and act on them
• English required, Spanish a plus
• Must be able to travel up to 30%, including international travel
Compensation & Benefits:
The following information is provided in good faith as a general description of the salary range and benefits for the position posted. The actual compensation offered to the successful candidate is dependent upon experience, skills, education, work location, internal pay equity, and other objective job-related factors.
Salary Range estimated for the Sr Director of Global Product Innovation: $190,000 to $260,000 USD.
Driscoll’s is committed to a culture of care and offers an attractive benefits package that includes comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, life insurance, and disability coverage for positions working more than 30 hours per week. Other benefits include: 401(k) with employer match, profit-sharing participation, paid sick time, paid vacation, paid personal and family care leave, and a free Employee Assistance Program (EAP). More detailed information regarding the benefits package, will be shared during the application process.
#LI-LM1
What We Do
Driscoll’s is the global market leader for fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. With more than 100 years of farming heritage and hundreds of independent growers around the world, Driscoll’s is passionate about growing great tasting berries. Driscoll’s exclusive patented berry varieties are developed through years of research using only natural breeding methods – that means no GMOs. A dedicated team of agronomists, breeders, sensory analysts, plant pathologists and entomologists help grow baby seedlings that are then grown on family farms. Our independent berry growers then work with Mother Nature, using experience and know-how to get the very best out of each strawberry, blueberry, blackberry and raspberry plant. Driscoll’s is serious about yummy berries! Driscoll’s is the trusted brand for Only the Finest Berries ™.
.jpg)
