Manager, Agronomy Sr.

About the Role

This position involves guiding and supporting regional agronomists with hands-on field activities, ensuring alignment across operations, and driving strategic agronomy initiatives. The role focuses on sustainable and regenerative agriculture practices, field diagnostics, data-driven decision-making, and collaboration with production and R&D teams.

Responsibilities

• Guide and support regional agronomists in field activities, including irrigation system design, fertility programs, pest and disease management, pruning practices, and harvesting optimization.
• Collaborate with Harvest, Operations (non-harvest), and Production Services to align and improve agronomic practices.
• Lead the implementation of regenerative agriculture practices such as cover crops, composting, soil biology, and bio-controls.
• Conduct field diagnoses and problem-solving using structured root cause analysis.
• Base agronomic decisions on crop data, field observations, and environmental factors.
• Analyze trial data and create actionable reports for operations.
• Ensure compliance with labor laws, food safety audits, company policies, and workers' safety standards.
• Work with Driscoll’s pathology to develop the Reiter’s organic program.
• Meet biweekly with district managers to align with district needs and participate in quarterly district production meetings.
• Assist local production teams with agronomic planning and embed the agronomy team within local production teams for alignment.
• Prioritize projects with the Agronomy Technical Lead and Agronomy Strategy Lead at district and regional levels.
• Determine and manage growth medium responses to scientific management techniques and implement findings.
• Apply agricultural data into trends, actionable reports, and sustainable methods.
• Set up, execute, and evaluate field trials for Agrodata projects or other agronomic practices.
• Collaborate with Driscoll’s agronomists to enhance the agronomy program.
• Install, maintain, and evaluate horticultural trials, reporting results and driving adoption in areas such as trellis, pruning, tunnels, frost control, and plant date and source.
• Develop acreage study standards to support the expansion of the agronomy model.
• Ensure succession plans for the district agronomy team and create development plans for team retention.
• Collaborate with the agronomy technical lead to provide educational materials and presentations to enhance team skills.
• Create accountability within local agronomy teams to support production.
• Lead field trials and evaluations for new products, technologies, inputs, and tools.
• Develop protocols to assess the efficacy, sustainability, and ROI of new products and tools (e.g., biostimulants, sensors, automation).
• Collaborate with Driscoll’s R&D teams and external partners for innovation scouting and product pipeline evaluation.
• Translate findings into actionable recommendations for production teams and provide technical reports for decision-making.
• Learn and implement best production practices from internal and external resources, including universities and industry peers.
• Engage with internal and external resources, such as universities and substrate grower peers, to advance knowledge and innovation.
• Communicate methods and results to peers and colleagues.
• Advance the use of technology and scientific plant development with Driscoll’s.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Sciences or a related field.
• 7-10 years of relevant experience in Agronomy or a related field.
• 5+ years of leadership experience, either directly or indirectly managing a team of 2 or more.
• Expertise in berry crop management and sustainable practices.
• Strong diagnostic and analytical thinking, with experience in field trial design and statistical interpretation.
• Knowledge of substrate/soil, drip irrigation, biostimulation, plant nutrition chemistry, biocontrols, and pesticides.
• Thorough understanding of agronomic principles and scientific methods, including nutrition through growing media, reverse osmosis systems, and pathogen management.
• Ability to plan and conduct work requiring judgment and independent evaluation of standard procedures.
• Problem-solving skills for unusual and complex issues.
• Outstanding stewardship, relationship-building, and interpersonal skills.
• Excellent managerial and financial skills in crop budgeting and planning.
• High level of organizational and time management skills.
• Ability to manage and/or supervise staff and coordinate activities.
• Effective communication in English and Spanish (75-85% proficiency in Spanish required).
• Ability to test and interpret soil chemistry for pH and EC and correct imbalances.
• Proficiency in performing statistical analysis on a computer.
• Ability to juggle competing priorities and adapt to changing expectations.
• Entrepreneurial spirit and ability to create new and unique ideas.
• PCA, CCA, or similar certification/license is a plus.
• Intermediate proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.
• Ability to travel 10-20% of the time, domestically and internationally.
• 75% of time spent on-farm with production and harvest teams, 15% on administrative and planning functions, and 5% on travel for conferences or district interactions.

Pay

$122,000 to $153,000 per year.