Innovation Specialist

Reports to: Technology and Innovation Leader
Department: Technology and Innovation
Location: Watsonville, CA. On-site. Part-remote option available (if remote, will require travel to Watsonville 1x week)
Type: Full-time
Compensation: $85,000 to $140,000 per year, depending on experience

About K&D

K&D Landscaping has been raising the bar in commercial landscaping since 1986. We are a family-founded company in Watsonville, CA, now about 160 people strong, serving commercial properties, HOAs, municipalities, and luxury estates from Santa Cruz to San Luis Obispo. We are putting real investment behind AI and automation, not as a buzzword, but as a practical way to give our teams back their time and let them focus on craft and judgment. This role exists to make that investment land with every person in the company, and to help build the tools that make it real.

About the role

This is the bridge between the technology we build and the people who use it every day. You will not architect our core systems. The Technology and Innovation Leader owns the hard architecture. You will work under that direction to build and maintain the everyday tools, automations, and integrations that keep the program moving, and make sure those tools actually get used and that we can clearly see the value they create.

Two things live in this role at once. You are a teacher who can win over a skeptical crew leader, and you are a builder who can take a clear spec and ship it. We are early in this journey, which means you get to help shape how an entire company adopts a new way of working.

What you will do

• Train and coach our teams on AI. This is the heart of the role. Run hands-on sessions, build simple how-to guides, and sit shoulder to shoulder with office staff, crew leaders, and managers. Some will be excited, some skeptical. You win both over with patience and plain language.

• Build and maintain tools and automations. Under the direction of the Technology and Innovation Leader, build the automations and integrations that connect our systems, write and refine the prompts and AI assistants our teams rely on, and test everything before it goes wide. You own the routine, repeatable builds. You do not need to be a software engineer, but you do need to make AI work reliably against real company data.

• Catalog the efficiencies we create. Track what is actually saving time, where, and how much, and turn it into a clear record of value leadership can see at a glance. This is how we prove the program is working and decide where to push next.

• Own the knowledge base. Build and maintain the playbooks and quick guides that let people help themselves. If a question gets asked twice, you write it down once.

• Stay ahead of the curve. Keep learning, test new tools, and bring back what is worth our attention. Part of the value you add is being a half-step ahead of everyone else.

What we look for

We care more about how you think, teach, and build than about a specific resume. The strongest candidate will bring:

• A natural teacher. You can explain a new tool to someone nervous about technology and leave them feeling capable, not talked down to. This is the single most important quality.

• Strong communication. Clear, warm, and patient, in writing and in person. You adjust how you explain things depending on who is in the room.

• Hands-on AI fluency. A confident daily user of tools like Claude, capable of real prompt and context engineering, and of building assistants that hold up against messy, real-world inputs.

• Real comfort building. You can read API documentation, wire systems together, work with data in a database, and write or adjust light scripts to get something working.

• A documentation habit. You write things down by instinct. If it is not written down, it did not happen.

• Curiosity and follow-through. You are already building with these tools on your own time, and you can run a training schedule, keep a catalog current, and own outcomes without being chased.

• A solutions mindset. When something is not working, you bring an idea for how to fix it, not just the problem.

Required technical skills

This role carries a real build component, so these are required, not optional:

• Building automations and workflows with Claude and custom architecture

• Working knowledge of SQL and a database such as Supabase or Postgres

• APIs, webhooks, and connecting software systems together; building or extending integrations and connectors

• Testing AI output for reliability before it ships

• Light front-end work for internal tools (HTML, JavaScript, or React)

What we offer

• A defined role inside a company making a serious, multi-year investment in technology

• Direct mentorship from the Technology and Innovation Leader and room to grow your technical skills

• The chance to help shape how an entire company adopts AI, from the ground floor

• Base salary of $85,000 to $140,000 per year, depending on experience, plus potential for a performance bonus tied to the efficiencies you help document and deliver