Job Title: Director, Leafy Field Operations
Reporting to: Vice President, Supply Chain
Location: California; driving distance to Santa Maria
About Pairwise:
Pairwise is a mission-driven, food+tech company dedicated to building a healthier world through better fruits and vegetables. Pairwise was founded in 2017 by scientists at Harvard University, MIT, and Broad Institute who are eminent in the field of gene editing, as well as biotechnology industry pioneers. Our team is tuned in to consumer food trends, and we believe that consumers deserve more variety and innovation in their fresh food choices. We are primed to deliver that innovation through one of the best gene-editing platforms in food and agriculture. Pairwise has an exclusive 5-year research collaboration with Bayer to develop products in corn, soybean, wheat, canola, and cotton. Plus, Pairwise is developing new types of leafy greens, berries, and stone fruit, with the first product expected in late 2023. Pairwise is based in the start-up friendly Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina.
About This Role:
As we expand our footprint across the food, agriculture, and biotechnology landscape, we are seeking an individual to leverage commercial agricultural understanding to deliver operational expertise, mitigate risks, and enhance capabilities resulting in increased company value. This role requires a combination of tactical and strategic skills to provide direction to partner and contract growers and ensure best possible agricultural production of leafy greens.
In this role, being motivated to provide feedback in the product development and commercialization processes, working with many internal stakeholders and be excited to do this in a fast-pacedp environment where ownership and action is encouraged will make for a the most successful addition to our team.
Essential Functions:
• Responsible for all aspects of commercial field production including, but not limited to, working with external growers on the care of leafy greens, identifying and qualifying new commercial growers, and overseeing field data collection and analysis.
• Act as the main point of contact for relationships with existing grower network.
• Participate in the S&OP process and provide communication of crop progress of raw leafy green materials.
• Responsible for establishing, maintaining, and improving key performance indicators including quality, yield, seed cost/usage, harvest costs, cut to cool, and transportation costs.
• Support the development of grower marketing materials.
• Ensure grower contracts are in place and in compliance with provisions.
• Represent Pairwise in commercial agricultural industry events to cultivate relationships with current and prospective growers.
• Support and contribute to ESG/sustainability activities.
• Provide agronomic updates to the Commercial Operations team to include timely and accurate communication of changing field conditions that may impact volume.
• Provide input and guidance to R&D on field challenges and objectives for field trials.
• Collaborate with Quality & Regulatory to ensure compliance with relevant regulatory rules and standards.
• Build operational and execution-oriented plans to deliver on key priorities, including revenue goals, growing strategies, margin attainment and commercial reporting.
Required Education & Experience:
• Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent experience, in crop/plant science, agronomy, or related field; Master’s degree preferred.
• At least 5 years of experience working in commercial vegetable agriculture with preference for growing commercial leafy green or brassica.
• Capability to develop and influence strategy at senior levels for both internal and external stakeholders.
• Solid analytical skills and ability to suggest recommendations through data-driven processes.
• High emotional intelligence and conflict resolution; able to effectively maintain relationships via flexibility, collaboration and negotiation.
• Ability to build strong working relationships with clients and colleagues across departments, geographic locations, and time zones.
• Public speaking skills and ability to articulate complex concepts to cross-function audience
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail with the ability to set clear priorities in a fast-paced environment.
Offerings:
• Comprehensive Benefits Plan, including Medical, Dental, Vision, HSA/FSA, 401k, Life Insurance, Short-Term & Long-Term Disability, and more! • Flexible PTO (use what you need, when you need it), in addition to company holidays.
• Casual work environment.
• Mission-driven organization focused on creating healthier fruits and veggies.
• A cutting-edge, driven community looking to lead the industry in innovation and nutrition.
EEO Statement:
We're an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.
Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Pairwise we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.