Business Context

The Plant Pathways Company (PPC, hereinafter) improves food crops to satisfy the needs of growers, processors, and consumers.  PPC is by all means a science and technology company resulting in the commercial deployment of its products, those being crop varieties or other product formats subjects to future definition.  In the case of stevia, PPC extends its operations into field production of leaves in partnership with farmers.

PPC is an early-stage corporation with an initial IP portfolio built around stevia breeding and genetics between 2014 and 2019.  PPC’s leadership brings significant experience and proven success in plant breeding and agricultural systems improvement and is seeking additional, highly qualified team members to lead to commercial success and company expansion.

Values & Culture

At PPC, we value team members’ contribution and self-management.  We want to be accountable to each other and to the mission of our company, to be dedicated to success as a team and of the team.  Our leadership team provides guidance frameworks for how to operate but rarely imposes strict policies, in a continuous attempt to liberate and enhance people’s skills and passion, rather than securing blind compliance.

PPC’s ultimate goal is to improve lives of billions of people each year through its products, while making a significant contribution to improve the environment and save our planet, by bringing the best science and technology to crop improvement and flawless execution.  In doing so, PPC operates with the highest standards of ethics and compliance with the law and the established positive ways of the community where it operates.

Ethical and inclusive behavior, respect of others and others’ needs are foundational in PPC’s environment.

Role Overview

Stevia leaf production starts with the clonal or seed-based propagation of varieties in greenhouses on or near farm to achieve over time the target acreage.  Harvest happens 2-3 times per year, depending on location: stevia is grown for our purposes in an increasing number of locations in the Southern US, East to West, from North Carolina to Florida.  While growers generally understand how to grow stevia, best practices for yield and quality remain to be aggressively developed over years and by adopting the most advanced crop management techniques and technologies nowadays available to industrial agriculture in America.

This role is designed to coordinate, enhance, and supervise and execute trialing of stevia varieties and production of stevia leaves via cooperating farmers.  Coordination requires outstanding planning experience and ability to define and negotiate parameters for finalization of trialing and production contracts.  Enhancement of stevia production requires deep domain expertise in production agronomy, propagation of horticultural crops (i.e., by cutting or seeded transplants), interaction with farmers and scientists alike, and keen curiosity and desire to experiment with novel techniques while landing their use in a commercially-relevant practice.

This role will also take responsibility for executing research and product evaluation trials in the same farms/region as the production fields.  This is a support role operating in a matrix relationship with breeders, portfolio managers, and seed/plants supply chain.  Ultimately, this aspect of the job will result in commercialization of new varieties and in the expansion of our R&D and trialing networks and locations in the US.

Responsibilities

Trialing and Agronomy

• Execute and evaluate trials on behalf of breeders/researchers and product evaluation colleagues.
• Own and execute pre-commercial trials.
• Own and execute agronomy trials to develop best practices for stevia cultivation.
• Identify cooperative growers and organizations for trialing.
• Cooperate with R&D leadership in identifying and validating via trialing new potential R&D and/or production location in the US.
• Interact with IR-4 programs and chemistry ciompanies to promote the registration of products for stevia.
• Establish, improve, and communicate to farmers stevia agronomic protocols.
• Engage with public and private research organizations, in partnership with PPC’s R&D, to enhance the agronomic knowledge of stevia and the toolkit available to American farmers for yield and quality.

Production

• Support and enable the execution of production contracts with growers to meet production goals.
• Develop and lead clonal or seed propagation in greenhouses on or near farm, leveraging farm personnel and temporary labor.
• Act as PPC’s representative and relationship manager on farm with farm management.
• Plan and enable production in partnership with chosen farmers.
• Take an active role in continuously improving yield over time and locations.
• Train farm personnel as necessary and as agreed with farmers.

Qualifications

• BS or MS in Agronomy, Horticulture, or other disciplines related to production agriculture.
• Minimum three years of experience in a similar role required.
• Experience in development, deployment, and continuous improvement of agronomic protocols required.
• Demonstrated working knowledge of applied agronomy/horticulture, crop protection, crop monitoring, and crop planning required.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication in English strictly required.
• Authorization to legally work and a valid driver license for driving in the US required.
• Value characteristics:self-motivated, entrepreneurial, team and customer oriented, proactive, dedicated to professional development, inclusive, values diversity, self-accountable, acts as an owner.

Miscellaneous

• This role reports into our developing commercial team and reporting lines may change over time.
• This role initially reports to our CEO.
• This role is initially home-based and ideally located in Southern Georgia or Northern Florida.
• Travel and on-farm work: estimated up to 75% time, primarily in the production areas in Southern US.
• A adequate mode of transportation is provided in execution of the role.

Applications

If interested in this job, contact PPC at gabe@plantpathco.com.  For applications, a CV and a list of three or more references are required.  PPC reserves the right to conduct a background check and to request a physical examination and drug screening of post-offercandidates prior to confirming employment.

Employment Policies

Equal Employment Opportunity

Our company is committed to the principles of equal employment.  We shall comply with all federal, state, and local laws providing equal employment opportunities, and all other employment laws and regulations.  We will promote and strive to maintain a work environment that is free of harassment, discrimination, or retaliation because of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression (including transgender identity), physical or mental disability, AIDS/HIV status, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation, or related conditions), marital status, disability, public assistance, age and familial status, genetic information, local commissions activity, veteran status, uniformed servicemember status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local laws.  Our commitment applies to all aspects of employment, including but not limited to recruiting, hiring, placement, transfer, training, promotion, rates of pay and other compensation, termination, and all other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment.

Non-Discrimination

In our company, we do not discriminate against anyone based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression (including transgender identity), physical or mental disability, AIDS/HIV status, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation, or related conditions), marital status, disability, public assistance, age and familial status, genetic information, local commissions activity, veteran status, uniformed servicemember status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local laws.

Anti-Harassment

Any form of harassment in the workplace based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression (including transgender identity), physical or mental disability, AIDS/HIV status, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation, or related conditions), marital status, disability, public assistance, age and familial status, genetic information, local commissions activity, veteran status, uniformed servicemember status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local laws, and any form harassment at all are not tolerated in our company.  We are fully committed to a safe and engaging work environment for all.