Grower Operations Sr. Manager

About the Opportunity

The Grower Operations Sr. Manager oversees all aspects of production management and execution within the region, including plant distribution, production timing execution, forecasting across Driscoll’s grower base, delivery of delightful fruit, and driving resolution for opportunities and concerns that emerge within the district from growers or employees.

Leads the efforts to develop and deliver upon the longer-term strategic outlook for the region, to provide a reliable supply of delightful blueberries for the marketplace, and an attractive investment outlook for Driscoll’s independent blueberry growers. These efforts should be holistic, considering emerging genetics, production systems, and plant types, environment and labor resource constraints and cost inflation.

Responsibilities

Meet or exceed Enterprise business objectives:

· Oversee execution of all aspects of supply management with growers to deliver on plan, including plant distribution, application timing, sharing of best blueberry farming practices, and supporting grower engagement on all aspects of blueberry production, including agronomic troubleshooting, quality challenges, supply chain processes, food safety and social compliance.

· Effectively forecast and communicate supply outlook for blueberries, from week one through the life of the crop.

· Develop the annual budget for Grower Operations Management OPEX, CAPEX, and headcount, and ensure adherence to budget throughout the year.

· Ensure that Grower Operations is well represented with crisis management, leading crisis incidents as necessary.

Ensure team members are supported in their core efforts by all functions throughout Driscoll’s.

Strengthen the strategic outlook of the Enterprise:

· Oversee region engagement in the development of the annual five-year strategic planning process, including overall growth, new genetic deployment and new production technology, labor requirements, environmental impact. Facilitate highly engaged grower participation in this process.

· Ensure that Region plans are highly connected with company strategy at the global level, business unit level, and within blueberry business plans.

· Directly support development and execution of critical supply strategies.

· Manage the development of production targets by application for inclusion in the annual operating plan.

· Maintain connections to global knowledge sources, both within Driscoll’s and external to the Enterprise.

Increase grower alignment and strengthen grower relationships:

· Ensure grower relationships are productive for both parties, including accountability for the execution of our contractual business relationship, and development of meaningful relationships at all levels of growers’ organizations. Measurable through Grower Survey results.

· Support the Blueberry Production Manager to connect closely with growers to develop well-informed multi-year business plans by grower that make sense for the grower and for the business.

· Manage the portfolio of growers to ensure healthy and sustainable individual grower businesses and support the needs of the marketplace. Develop new grower relationships as appropriate.

Maintain strong personal relationships with growers, based on mutual trust.

Cultivate high levels of employee engagement and effectiveness across the grower operations management organization and region teams:

· Develop an environment and culture within Grower Operations Management team that reflects Driscoll’s Values and insurgent attitude.

· Support talent development across all members.

· Support and navigate South America engagement with functional leadership across departments.

Candidate Profile

• Bachelor’s degree in agriculture, business, or a related field and 10 plus years of production experience, or equivalent experience in production management required
• Master's degree desirable
• Bilingual and bi-literate (Spanish/English) required
• 10 plus years of progressively responsible management experience necessary
• Experience with production processes.
• Experience in forcating

• Experience in developing strong connections with blueberry growers
• Strong business knowledge of perishable commodities
• Team player with the ability to work in an environment in which processes and systems are being developed.
• Proven leadership ability to influence, develop, and empower employees to achieve their personal potential in addition to corporate objectives.
• Excellent skills in communication, motivation, innovation, adaptability, and interpersonal relationships.
• Proven ability to set effective strategy and lead execution.
• Proven ability to deal with conflict and complexity.
• Proven ability to learn on the fly and deal with ambiguity.

• Able to represent Driscoll’s to external stakeholders, including local agricultural leaders and community-based organizations.
• Travel availability