Turf & Ornamental Technical Service Manager, CSI

About the role

The Technical Services Manager for Turf & Ornamental (T&O) plays a pivotal role in supporting product development, marketing initiatives, and sales operations. The position involves extensive collaboration with internal teams, customers, and industry partners to enhance product performance, market penetration, and brand awareness. The role requires domestic travel (50-60%) to support sales efforts, attend industry events, and engage with key stakeholders.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Field Sales Support/Technical Services
• Address product inquiries, complaints, and troubleshoot requests from Territory Managers and other internal team members
• Provide on-site technical support for key customers, including field diagnostics, product recommendations, and program development
• Aid Territory Managers with large or strategic customer meetings by delivering technical expertise and reinforcing value propositions
• Monitor regional pest trends, report emerging issues to Product Development team and relevant Territory Managers, and provide timely product recommendations
• Create new training assets and deploy to field Territory Managers
• Develop new product training materials and content
• Collect and update current training presentations to create a consistent message across all territories
• Support T&O Business Director, Key National Account Managers, or Marketing Director with key accounts where technical support is needed or requested
• Identify new market opportunities within the existing product portfolio to assist Territory Managers in market expansion
• Train new Territory Managers on key products to maintain consistent technical messaging
• Product Development Support
• Ideation for new project/product ideas and concepts for turf care products
• Facilitate thought and development of new concepts for new turf products
• Interface with University researchers and industry cooperators to identify new collaboration opportunities and increase brand awareness
• Contribute field insights to develop comparison efficacy trials for marketing data & sales support
• Use efficacy trial data to inform product development decisions
• Support the management of yearly research and development budgets
• Manage available budget throughout year
• Input new project protocols/contracts into the company budget and project tracking system
• Review budget requests for approval and initiate field work
• Manage available budget throughout year
• Input required documentation (protocol, contract payment, final report) into company project tracking system for accounting chargebacks
• Input final reports and data summaries in internal tracking and repository files
• Marketing Responsibilities
• Serve as a subject matter expert on turf and ornamental issues, providing technical guidance for marketing activities
• Present educational seminars at key marketing events
• Develop content for new turf-related literature pieces
• Develop written content/material for website, social media, videos, online blogs, magazine articles, and other items as requested
• Refresh existing literature pieces/items – content only, with marketing team
• Develop and maintain “Technical Resource Binders” (TRB) to assist product development, Marketing & Sales Teams to support commercial launches

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in turfgrass science, horticulture, agronomy, weed science, or related science (M.S. minimum, Ph.D. preferred)
• Experience with warm-season turfgrass is preferred
• Knowledge of herbicides and how they are used in managed turfgrass systems is preferred
• Minimum 5 years’ experience working with (training, selling, providing technical support) herbicides, fungicides and insecticides as they relate to and are used in the professional turf care marketplace (golf, residential lawn and landscape)
• An entrepreneurial mind interested in creating new and innovative products/solutions for the professional and consumer turf markets
• Ability to travel 50-60%
• Strong oral and written communication skills
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Strong presentation skills
• Ability to interface independently with internal stakeholders, distributors, and end-users
• Strong organizational, time management, prioritization, and decision-making skills