Senior Manager, Agricultural Operations

You may know McCormick as a leader in herbs, spices, seasonings, and condiments – and we’re only getting started. At McCormick, we’re always looking for new people to bring their unique flavor to our team.

McCormick employees – all 14,000 of us across the world – are what makes this company a great place to work.

We are looking to hire a Senior Manager, Agricultural Operations immediately at our Jurado Farms site in Las Cruces, NM.

What We Bring To The Table:

The best people deserve the best rewards. In addition to the benefits you’d expect from a global leader (401k, health insurance, paid time off, etc.) we also offer:

• Competitive compensation

• Career growth opportunities

• Flexibility and Support for Diverse Life Stages and Choices

• Wellbeing programs including Physical, Mental and Financial wellness

• Tuition assistance

POSITION OVERVIEW:

This is a new role at McCormick that will be responsible for leading agricultural operations of McCormick’s Frank’s Red Hot Sauce and will have one direct report to support on these activities. Primary activities the role will oversee include partnering with procurement and plant operations to plan and forecast each year’s crop plan, leading direct grower contracting in accordance with the plan and budget; and over-seeing all aspects of the cultivation and harvesting.  This role will also play a critical role in commercial seed development activities.

The Senior Manager will play a strategic role in developing a long-term yield improvement strategy and implementation of that strategy to include: close coordination with seed breeder(s), R&D and University Research groups, and the Sustainability & Agriculture, R&D, Product Development, and Quality teams at McCormick to improve varietals and commercial scale of seed for yield optimization and integration of McCormick’s sustainability targets into the supply chain. This will also include providing strategic recommendations of sourcing regions, farms, and longer-term transformational efforts that will create competitive advantage for McCormick.

Throughout the season, the other primary focus of the role will be to maintain and develop grower relationships.  The Senior Manager will be responsible for all aspects of grower contracting and monitoring the crop to ensure the crop hits each years’ planned forecast.  This includes leading on scouting, grower pricing recommendations, contract structuring, incentives, and providing growers with feedback and recommendations, ensuring compliance to all regulations and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), and reporting on grower pre-plant, plant, cultivation management, and harvest activities. The Agricultural Operations Senior Manager will lead the harvest readiness and planning in coordination with the plant and logistics team.  This will include collaborating to ensure adequate and timely dispatch of trailers to growers to pick the crop and coordinate grower deliveries to the plant to ensure the receipt of fresh product at the processing plant and optimize operational efficiencies and cost.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

1.  Grower Relationship Management, Grower Contracting, and Field Scouting

• Visit each potential growers’ fields prior to contracting to identify optimum fields for growing
• Take soil and water samples and oversee tracking of results and analytics
• Gather market intelligence / pricing data: current cost of pesticides, fertilizer, irrigation equip, water quality & availability at each farm & delivery to field, farm equipment, availability & cost of labor, transportation costs & distance estimates etc.
• Gather info on processor & competitor pricing and price of competing crops
• Meet growers regularly to build trust & rapport
• Contract acreage
• Review MKC Supplier Code of Conduct and sustainable agriculture code w/ growers and obtain signatures
• Participate in local grower / community events

2. Crop Forecasting, Planning, and Industry Participation

• Develop & manage agricultural input cost model to determine grower contract pricing
• Develop & execute annual grower contracting plan
• Develop & run yield forecasting model-  Provide forecasts in July & Sep within +/- 3% accuracy (or target TBD)
• Coordinate / gather inputs from MKC R&D team on sensory requirements to incorporate into seed breeding / development & testing of peppers based on growing regions
• Brief management / secure approvals
• Participate in relevant industry boards and trade associations
• Cultivate relationships w/R&D and University partners (NMSU especially) for program improvement thru field trials, soil health programs, and local presence / community development

3. Crop Cultivation Oversight and Reporting

• Distribute seed and transplants to growers
• Check fields for proper pre-plant practices (e.g. no plastic use for bed coverage).
• Understand and track all relevant data points and KPIs for each grower to provide accurate yield forecasting and crop improvement strategies (including and not limited to: plant dates, bed sizes, irrigation methods, date of first flowering, 1st chili pod, and date of first red pod, pod size, no. pods per plant avg., and presence of pests, disease and weather damage)
• Ensure that all seed & seedlings distributed match acres planted
• Observe & track germination rates
• Visit every grower and each field once per week to oversee /manage crop progress
• Ensure growers are following recommended IPM, fertilization, and watering schedule. Provide advice and remediation as necessary to ensure yields.
• Support / train growers on regenerative practices to support MKC claims
• Work with growers to obtain appropriate certifications and improve practices to meet standards (Minimum + future improvements to sustainable and regenerative)
• Support sustainability and marketing teams to meet growers and to gather stories to support PLP

4. Harvest Readiness & Harvest Management

• Update crop forecast model and review weekly or bi-weekly with procurement and operations team to prepare harvest readiness plan
• Train growers on appropriate harvest methods to reduce foreign material
• Ensure social conditions met (e.g. water provided for laborers, bathrooms available, documentation, fair wages etc.)
• Coordinate harvest schedule and logistics to optimize delivery to mash facilities and maximum yield
• Ensure actual crop is delivered to facility and best quality
• Work w/internal team to develop improved harvesting / transition to mechanical harvesting to reduce cost and improve yield and efficiency

5. Seed Management / Commercial Seed & Varietal Development Integration

• Collaborate with Agriculture & Sustainability Team, PD, R&D, and 3rd party seed breeders to manage requirements / characteristics and develop yearly seed trial plans to improve varietals to meet collective goals
• Build foundation for development of commercial volumes of seed for global plan
• Manage seed collection program and overall varietal development
• Test seeds for germination rates, moisture content, time to germination (ensure yield + uniform fruiting)
• Coordinate seed for Quality lab testing: salmonella, total plate count, ASTA, Scovilles
• Run greenhouse for development of transplants (to stagger harvest and ensure better yield)
• Develop proprietary seed program over time

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's Degree Agriculture or Agriculture Business or Ag Tech.
• 10-15 years experience in contracting growers and close monitoring of cultivation and harvest activities and influencing growers to improve practices
• Fluency in Spanish and English is a MUST
• Deep knowledge of chile pepper cultivation for fresh harvest
• Knowledge, relationships, and experience in the U.S. southwest and Mexico growing regions
• Extremely strong self-initiative, and sense of ownership and urgency to deliver targets in budget
• Strong personal network & industry reputation and willingness to leverage this to maintain and develop new grower relationships, negotiate the best grower contract pricing for both parties, obtain the best ground, and build McCormick as the processor of choice in the region
• Innovation and ability to think outside the box. The ideal candidate will have a deep sense of respect for traditional farming, but also know how to lead growers to new ways of thinking and break down barriers to encourage new more sustainable farming practices and lead R&D activities to support these efforts.
• Ability to effectively communicate barriers and risks to corporate team and recommend solutions to mitigate and resolve issues
• Vision and strong people management skills: ability to help integrate new agricultural capabilities into the McCormick organization thru knowledge, expertise, and vision
• Demonstrated effective execution skills with little to no oversight and guidance needed
• Good knowledge of Microsoft Office- ability to work effectively in MS Excel to build and manage crop forecasts and conduct analysis on crop yields and ability to prepare powerpoint presentations for management-level audiences
• Strong knowledge of and experience implementing agricultural certification schemes including FSA/SAI, Global GAAP
• Substantial experience in implementation of regenerative agriculture practices

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McCormick & Company is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.

As a general policy, McCormick does not offer employment visa sponsorships upon hire or in the future.