{"id":1335734,"url":"https://alion.io/job/driscolls-research-development-farm-manager","title":"Research & Development Farm Manager","company":{"id":1757024,"name":"Driscoll's","domain":"driscolls.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/driscolls","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":78,"open_postings":8,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.875,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":45,"computed_at":"2026-10-20T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"HR","role_family":"HR","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Maidstone, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":45000,"max":60000,"currency":"GBP","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":79523},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-06-10T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-06-10","last_verified_at":"2026-10-19T23:51:56Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":132,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":132},"description":"About the Opportunity\nThe Research & Development Test Plot Farm Manager is a people-first leader responsible for building, developing, and leading a high-performing, technically skilled research farm team. This role drives excellence by aligning team capabilities, priorities, and execution with Driscoll’s innovation strategy, ensuring the successful delivery of experimental farming and research trials.Partnering closely with cross-functional stakeholders, the Manager establishes a culture of accountability, continuous learning, and operational excellence, enabling teams to consistently generate high-quality data, implement best-in-class agronomic practices, and deliver strong outcomes for breeding and applied research programs.\nThis leader plays a critical role in talent development, succession planning, and organizational capability building, ensuring the research farm teams are equipped to scale and support the enterprise’s long-term innovation goals. Through strong leadership, strategic execution, and team engagement, this position enables the full expression of new genetic material and maximizes enterprise value.\nGoal of the Position / Key Results Areas\nBuild, lead, and develop a high-performing, engaged research farm team that consistently delivers high-quality trial execution and data.\nEnable team success by fostering strong technical capability, ownership, and accountability across all levels.\nTranslate innovation strategy into clear team priorities and execution plans that maximize the potential of proprietary genetics.\nStrengthen organizational capability through talent development, succession planning, and continuous improvement.\n• Ensure research farms serve as a center of excellence, influencing commercial practices and grower adoption.\n\nResponsibilities\nPeople Leadership & Team Development\nLead, coach, and mentor a team of research farm professionals, fostering a culture of high performance, collaboration, and continuous improvement\nBuild team capability by developing technical expertise, leadership skills, and career growth pathways\nDrive succession planning and talent pipeline development for key operational and leadership roles\nEstablish clear goals, provide ongoing feedback, and conduct performance management, evaluations, and development planning\nCreate an inclusive and motivating work environment that reflects Driscoll’s values of passion, humility, and trustworthiness\nTeam Execution & Operational Excellence\nAlign team priorities with cross-functional partners (Breeding, Agronomy, Applied Research) to ensure seamless execution of trials and initiatives\nEnsure teams consistently execute against best-in-class agronomic and research practices\nDevelop systems and processes that enable teams to efficiently manage labor, resources, and equipment\nChampion a culture of data integrity, accountability, and operational discipline\nStrategic Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration\nPartner with key stakeholders to translate strategy into clear, actionable plans for the research farm teams\nInfluence enterprise decisions by ensuring teams deliver reliable, high-quality data and insights\nLead the adoption of innovative practices, technologies, and process improvements across research farms\nEngage with external stakeholders, including growers, to demonstrate and scale successful practices\nOperational Oversight & Governance\nProvide leadership oversight of farm operations, ensuring safety, compliance, and adherence to company policies\nGuide teams in maintaining accurate records, plant material tracking, and treatment documentation\nEnsure effective budget management through team accountability and resource prioritization\nOversee equipment management, safety programs, and facility standards through delegated team ownership\n\nCandidate Profile\nThe ideal candidate is a strong people leader with deep technical credibility, capable of building and scaling high-performing teams in a research-driven agricultural environment.\nExperience & Knowledge\nBachelor’s degree (8+ years experience) or Master’s degree (5+ years experience) in Horticulture, Agriculture, Biology, or related field\nDemonstrated success leading teams in agricultural, research, or operational environments\nExperience in people management, coaching, and organizational development\nStrong foundation in agronomy, plant physiology, and crop production systems\nExperience with budgeting, resource allocation, and operational planning\nProject management and process improvement experience\nFamiliarity with agricultural research and trial execution preferred\nBerry/soft fruit production experience is highly desirable\nCore Leadership Competencies\nPeople Leadership & Talent Development - Builds strong teams, develops future leaders, and fosters engagement\nCommunication & Influence - Clearly aligns teams and effectively partners across the organization\nPerformance Management - Drives accountability, execution, and results\nStrategic Thinking - Connects day-to-day work to enterprise goals\nOperational Excellence - Implements scalable processes and continuous improvement\nInnovation Mindset - Encourages experimentation and adoption of new technologies\nCollaboration & Team Building - Creates alignment across functions and stakeholders\nCompensation & Benefits:\nThe following information is provided in good faith as a general description of the salary range and benefits for the position posted. The actual compensation offered to the successful candidate is dependent upon experience, skills, education, work location, internal pay equity, and other objective job-related factors.\nSalary Range estimated for the Test Plot Manager: $45,000 to $60,000 GBP.\nDriscoll’s is committed to a culture of care and offers an attractive benefits package that includes, amongst others:\nHealth + Time Off \nWe care for the whole you. Strong health benefits and meaningful paid time off so you can focus on what matters most.\nFinancial + Wellbeing \nPlan your future with employer supported annual profit-sharing bonus, retirement or savings programs and wellbeing resources supported annually.\nCommunity + Balance \nJoin a team that invests in your wellbeing and gives you time to give back. \nEmployee Assistance Program (EAP) \nLife can get complicated and when it does, we offer extra help with our EAP.\nProfessional Growth \nDriscoll's offers employees at all levels opportunities to acquire business, job-based, and leadership skills. It's a win-win combination.\nNote: Benefits and eligibility vary by location/role. Additional country-specific benefit information is currently being developed in our career site; details are provided during the application process.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6686,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":8,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Continuous learning","Equity"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-27T14:04:04Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":18,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.626,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":132,"expected_fill_days":45,"reasons":["conf:5","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-20T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":79523,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/driscolls-research-development-farm-manager","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/driscolls-research-development-farm-manager.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-20T08:39:04Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":9428,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1757024},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1757024"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fdriscolls-research-development-farm-manager"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fdriscolls-research-development-farm-manager"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fdriscolls-research-development-farm-manager"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/driscolls-research-development-farm-manager\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fdriscolls-research-development-farm-manager"}]}