Technical Development Mgr

Essential Responsibilities

• Field Research & Product Validation
• Design, implement, and manage field trials and on-farm demonstrations in specialty crops.
• Ensure trials are agronomically sound, statistically defensible, and aligned with intended claims and use-patterns.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret agronomic, physiological, and yield/quality data to support product performance claims.
• Provide feedback to the lab/greenhouse team and Product Management on formulation performance, crop response variability, and use-case optimization, consistent with the organization’s emphasis on scientifically validated product performance.

Agronomic Support & Commercial Enablement

• Serve as the subject-matter expert (SME) for product use in specialty crop systems, integrating products into grower-relevant fertility, stress mitigation, and crop quality programs.
• Partner with Sales and Marketing to support customer meetings, field days, and technical trainings.
• Help sales teams position products credibly by explaining mechanisms of action, realistic performance expectations, and best-fit agronomic scenarios.
• Support the development of crop-specific guidelines, technical bulletins, and decision tools grounded in field data and biological rationale.

Grower & Stakeholder Engagement

• Build trusted relationships with growers, consultants, researchers, and specialty crop influencers.
• Act as a technical face of the company in the field, answering agronomic questions, troubleshooting performance issues, and reinforcing product confidence.
• Provide in-season agronomic support to ensure correct product use and to identify opportunities for program improvement.

Data, Insights & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Translate field data into clear insights for internal teams, including Product Management, Regulatory, Marketing, and R&D.
• Contribute to internal knowledge sharing by documenting learnings from trial programs and customer interactions.
• Support regulatory and stewardship activities by ensuring field use aligns with label requirements and regional crop practices.

Criteria

• Broad agronomy knowledge of specialty crops in the U.S. and around the globe.
• Experience managing the technical aspects of product development projects for crop inputs.
• Experience planning, facilitating or summarizing agronomic field trials.
• Experience in technical support for differentiated products in a competitive market.
• Strong interpersonal and customer relation skills, but also an innovative and creative thinker.
• Strong ability to work well with others to achieve objectives, but Independent and comfortable working from a remote office at their home.
• High level of proficiency for analyzing and summarizing data (i.e. Excel, ARM, etc…).
• Achieves Results: Self-starter, self-disciplined, detailed and organized. Identifies and resolves problem in a timely manner. Prioritizes and plans work activities and uses time efficiently.
• Adaptability & Change Management: Effectively deals with and handles change and uncertainty. Adapts easily and quickly to a changing environment without losing effectiveness. Resilient
• Personal Development: Listens well and is aware of personal strengths and weaknesses and takes continuous action to improve personal capabilities
• Uncompromising ethics; Passionate for excellence; Unaccepting of mediocrity; Efficient with time

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy, Crop Science, Plant Science, Soil Science, or a related field (Ph.D. degree preferred).
• 5+ years of experience in field agronomy, technical services, or crop consulting, with direct exposure to specialty crop systems.
• Strong working knowledge of plant nutrition, soil fertility, crop physiology, and stress responses.
• Demonstrated experience designing and executing field trials or on-farm research.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate complex biological concepts into practical agronomic recommendations.
• Willingness to travel extensively during the growing season

Physical Demands

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to use hands to finger, handle, or feel;
• reach with hands and arms;
• and talk or hear.
• The employee frequently is required to stand, walk;
• stoop or kneel.
• The employee must regularly lift and/or move up to ten pounds, occasionally lift and/or move up to twenty pounds, and rarely lift and/or move more than twenty-five pounds.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.