Sr. Director, Digital Innovation Partnerships

Posting Date

09/22/2026

601 Hawaii St, El Segundo, California, 90245-4814, United States of America

The Senior Director, Digital Innovation Partnerships will lead the development of an enterprise capability focused on aligning the future of digital capabilities to our business needs and goals.

This role sits at the intersection of strategy, innovation, technology, and external ecosystems. The Senior Director will work closely with senior executives and cross-functional leaders to understand strategic priorities, identify opportunities for innovation, assess emerging technologies and market trends, and determine where external partnerships can accelerate our ability to deliver meaningful business value.

This role will take an outside-in perspective to the organization to connect external insights to internal needs and business priorities.

The role will lead a high-performing team responsible for three core capabilities:

1. Innovation & Opportunity Development – partner with senior executives and cross-functional teams to explore, assess, and validate new opportunities to drive impact to company goals

2. Strategic Partnerships & Ecosystem – identify and develop relationships with external organizations, technology companies, startups, and other partners to access capabilities, expertise, and innovation at greater speed

3. Market & Technology Intelligence – anticipate and track industry, competitive, and technology trends to identify implications and opportunities to drive outcomes

Key Responsibilities

Inform the Innovation Agenda

- Partner with senior executives and business leaders to understand strategic priorities, business challenges, and areas where innovation can create meaningful value

- Establish frameworks and approaches for identifying, assessing, and prioritizing emerging opportunities

- Translate market, technology, and competitive insights into actionable opportunities

Drive Opportunity Assessment & Innovation Exploration

- Work with executives and cross-functional leaders to uncover and frame high-value opportunities

- Conduct structured opportunity assessments and create clear recommendations for opportunity spaces that should be explored further, pursued internally, developed through partnerships, or discontinued

- Partner with cross-functional teams to design and execute experiments and test hypotheses

- Establish clear criteria and repeatable process for moving opportunities from early discovery to validation and transition to appropriate organizational teams for execution

Manage External Partner Ecosystem

- Develop and execute a strategic partnership approach to align external innovation opportunities to business needs

- Build relationships with technology providers, startups, innovators, and academic institutions where appropriate

- Facilitate co-creation and ideation sessions with partners, and in conjunction with internal leaders

Lead a High Performing Team

- This role will be responsible for directly managing a small, senior level team, leading them through change and coaching them for growth and developing the team’s capabilities to drive innovation across the Village

- This role will also be responsible for partnerships with research, design, and prototyping teams to establish working teams for each innovation initiative as needed

Leadership Expectations

- Strategic Thinker – able to make conceptual and practical connections across complex business goals, user needs, technology trends, and innovative solutions that bridge those perspectives

- Influencer – able to quickly build trust with executive leaders and serve as trusted strategic advisor

- Communicator – able to create compelling executive narratives that translate complex concepts into clear strategic direction

- Curious – passionate about learning complexities of our business and building empathy with our users

- Collaborative – able to build relationships across teams at the Village, sharing ideas and capabilities that drive change at speed

Up to ~25% travel.

Experience Requirements

- Bachelor’s Degree required; Master of Science or Business Administration (MBA) or equivalent advanced degree highly preferred or equivalent related experience

- 10+ years of relevant experience

- Significant experience leading strategic initiatives in ambiguous environments, incorporating emerging technologies, and driving transformational change

- Experience executing opportunity assessment, translating insights into strategic recommendations, and influencing senior executives to focus innovation initiatives

- Experience establishing and managing external partnership ecosystems

- Demonstrated ability to understand emerging technology and translate it into business opportunities

- Experience leading senior level high performing teams, and managing with a balance of clear direction, empathy, and coaching for growth

- Exceptional communication skills, executive presence, and relationship-building abilities.

What We’ll Provide: 

More than just pay, our DaVita Rewards package connects teammates to what matters most. Teammates are eligible to begin receiving benefits on the first day of the month following or coinciding with one month of continuous employment. Below are some of our benefit offerings.  

• Comprehensive benefits: Medical, dental, vision, 401(k) match, paid time off, PTO cash out  
• Support for you and your family: Family resources, EAP counseling sessions, access Headspace®, backup child and elder care, maternity/paternity leave and more 
• Professional development programs: DaVita offers a variety of programs to help strong performers grow within their career and also offers on-demand virtual leadership and development courses through DaVita’s online training platform StarLearning.  

#LI-MP4

At DaVita, we strive to be a community first and a company second.  We want all teammates to experience DaVita as "a place where I belong."  Our goal is to embed belonging into everything we do in our Village, so that it becomes part of who we are. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and comply with state and federal affirmative action requirements. Individuals are recruited, hired, assigned and promoted without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.

This position will be open for a minimum of three days.

The Salary Range for the role is $181,000.00 - $261,000.00 per year.

If a candidate is hired, they will be paid at least the minimum wage according to their geographical jurisdiction and the exemption status for the position.

New York Exempt: New York City and Long Island: $66,300.00/year, Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties: $66,300.00/year, Remainder of New York state: $62,353.20/year New York Non-exempt: New York City and Long Island: $17.00/hour, Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties: $17.00/hour, Remainder of New York state: $16.00/hour

Washington Exempt: $80,168.40/year Washington Non-exempt: Bellingham: $19.13/hour, Burien: $21.71/hour, Everette: $20.77/hour, Unincorporated King County: $20.82/hour, Renton: $21.57/hour, Seattle: $21.30/hour, Tukwila: $21.65/hour, Remainder of Washington state: $17.13/hour

For location-specific minimum wage details, see the following link: DaVita.jobs/WageRates

Compensation for the role will depend on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience. DaVita offers a competitive total rewards package, which includes a 401k match, healthcare coverage and a broad range of other benefits. Learn more at https://careers.davita.com/benefits  

Colorado Residents: Please do not respond to any questions in this initial application that may seek age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You may also redact this information from any materials you submit during the application process.  You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.