Director, Product Research, Academic Partnerships and AI Incubation

Liberty Mutual Insurance•Boston, MA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Solaria Labs is Liberty Mutual’s central innovation function, focused on supporting the business via rapid experimentation with cutting-edge technology. As a Fortune 100 company, Liberty invests meaningfully in incubation programs and research shaping mobility, climate resilience, energy transition, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. Within Solaria, the Applied Science team is our AI R&D lab. Our goal is to translate frontier research and emerging technologies into incubation prototypes and ultimately scaled enterprise impact. We partner with leading academic institutions, including MIT, and collaborate closely with internal business leaders to incubate and deploy high-impact AI programs. We are seeking a Director I, Product Research to operate at the intersection of academic partnership leadership and enterprise program execution. This is a hybrid role requiring strong relationship management paired with the proven ability to translate and steer concepts across domains into tangible business value. This position blends two high impact innovation levers: Academic Partnerships: Managing and evolving Liberty’s relationships with world-class research institutions, translating academic research into business value. Incubation Program Leadership: Driving high-impact AI initiatives from concept through execution and ultimately inform scale decisions. The ideal candidate will execute our academic engagement strategy, while exercising strong autonomy in how initiatives are structured and delivered. Ability to influence, establish credibility with leaders, problem-solve with structured thinking, and generate momentum during the early "zero to one" phase of projects is key.

Requirements

Master's degree or equivalent in mathematics, economics, statistics, or other quantitative field. Masters, PhD, or equivalent helpful given quantitative work they are leading.
Minimum of 7, typically 10 years of experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives in technology, innovation, or AI-enabled environments
Expert skills in Excel and PowerPoint.
Exceptional planning, analytical, decision-making, communication, and project management skills.
Demonstrated success operating in large organizations with proven ability to influence
Experience working alongside AI or engineering teams (AI literacy is required, though deep technical specialization not required)
Strong executive presence, presentation and written communication skills
Track record of delivering measurable outcomes in ambiguous settings

Nice To Haves

External partner-facing experience preferred
Technology product or program leaders in AI-driven environments
Corporate innovation or venture teams
Consultants who have led hands-on enterprise technology implementations
Enterprise leaders with experience translating emerging technologies into scaled solutions
Experience with academic partnerships

Responsibilities

Serve as a primary relationship lead for Liberty's world-class academic partnerships, including MIT
Build and maintain trusted relationships across faculty, research teams, and internal business stakeholders
Align sponsored research and collaborative initiatives to enterprise priorities across domains such as Mobility, Climate, Energy, Cyber, and AI
Facilitate alignment across a matrixed group of senior stakeholders on research investment priorities
Translate frontier research concepts into structured, business-relevant initiatives
Deliver measurable outcomes including sponsored research engagement targets and business sponsor satisfaction
Lead AI incubation programs for internal partners when capacity allows
Partner with business sponsors to define scope, success metrics, and implementation pathways
Ensure programs can move beyond prototypes to tangible business outcomes