Job Title: Senior Manager, Field Quality
Reporting to: Head, Regulatory and Quality
Location: Durham, North Carolina, Central Valley or Salinas Valley areas of Californa, or Remote
About Pairwise:
Pairwise is a mission-driven food+tech company dedicated to building a healthier world through better fruits and vegetables. Founded in 2017 by eminent scientists in the gene editing and biotechnology fields, Pairwise holds licenses from Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital to base editing and high-fidelity enzymes. We also are tuned in to consumer food trends, and we believe that consumers deserve more variety and innovation in their fresh food choices. Our team is 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 early 2023. Pairwise is based in the start-up friendly Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina.
About This Role:
Quality matters, especially in the food we eat, and you get the best quality products when you care about the quality of every part of the process that goes into making it. At Pairwise, we believe that quality matters from the start, and we’re looking to expand our Quality Team to make sure that this core belief shines through in everything we do. This position will report to the Head of Regulatory and Quality and will work closely with internal and external stakeholders to lead our ongoing development, implementation and continuous improvement of our product quality through an effective field quality assurance program.
To be successful, you must have a demonstrated talent for details, a passion for agronomy and produce quality and experience in leading field agricultural operations. This role requires strong initiative and foresight, and excellent interpersonal skills – we’re a very collaborative and cross functional company, so building relationships is critical. This role will need to be a reliable and competent leader who can assure the high quality of our operations, making this position essential to Pairwise can achieving the long-term success of our business.
Essential Functions:
• Take a lead role in developing, establishing, and maintaining the quality of field-based operations to ensure compliance, safety and stewardship of R&D trials and commercial production from seed to harvest to achieve the highest level of business performance.
• Promote quality by overseeing good agricultural practices, and ensuring SOPs, protocols and permits are followed.
• Establish and lead a Quality Taskforce who meets regularly to discuss crop quality status, customer complaints, and continuous improvement opportunities.
• Lead drafting standard operating procedures and other required documentation as needed.
• Collect, analyze and summarize quality trends and data, compile information into reports, and proactively identify, prioritize, communicate and resolve quality issues for continuous improvement.
• Develop and provide training as needed to ensure compliance and a safe work environment.
• Coordinate the complaint resolution process- investigate and lead the necessary corrective actions to mitigate quality problems. Respond to specific customer requests for quality concerns as needed.
• Partner with function leaders to assess product and process quality-related issues and trends and ensure corrective actions are implemented.
• Regularly review current standards and policies.
• Act as the single point of contact for audits, and inspections. Conduct internal quality audits and facilitate audit preparations to ensure successful audits and external certifications.
• Travel to field activities is necessary and includes Northern and Central CA produce regions and the Yuma area of AZ during winter months (depending on location may account for 50% of all work hours are spent traveling/related to travel).
Required Education & Experience:
• Bachelor’s degree with 10+ years’ experience in agriculture, agronomy or related field, or equivalent experience.
• Knowledge of produce field production and standards.
• Leadership experience with great attention to detail and a results-driven approach.
• Excellent numerical skills and understanding of data analysis.
• Good knowledge of MS Office and databases.
• Ability to coach and mentor other team members to become adopters of culture, processes, and tools.
• Bilingual English/Spanish.
• A proactive approach to collaborative problem solving and priority setting.
• Preferred- 3-5 years of management experience.
• Preferred- PCA license.
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.
Physical Demands:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit and use hands to finger, handle or feel, and techniques that require fine motor skills and repetitive motions. The employee is occasionally required to stand and walk. The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 10 pounds. The employee is regularly required to talk or hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.
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.
No Recruiters please.