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Regional Agronomist Potatoes

Department: Farming Operations

Location: Based in Arizona, with regular travel to California and other PGH farming locations

Reports To: President & COO

Employment Status: Full-time, exempt, permanent

Travel: Approximately 50%, depending on the growing season

Company Background

Plant Grow Harvest is a vertically integrated potato company operating across multiple U.S. regions. PGH manages farming, packing, supply chain, brokerage, and consulting services while building a disciplined, data-informed system for consistently producing high-quality potatoes as the company expands.

Role Description

The Regional Agronomist protects and improves potato crop performance across PGH-owned and partner farms. The role develops agronomic plans, interprets field and scientific data, and provides practical recommendations related to soil, seed, fertility, irrigation, crop protection, plant health, and harvest readiness. It is a hands-on position requiring deep potato expertise, strong judgment, adaptability, documentation, teaching, and cross-functional leadership.

Tasks and Accountabilities

1. Comprehensive Crop Planning: Develop season-long agronomic plans that integrate variety, soil, fertility, irrigation, crop protection, harvest readiness, operational capacity, and expected economic return.
2. Crop and Soil Monitoring: Inspect fields regularly, evaluate crop and soil conditions, identify emerging risks, and provide clear weekly recommendations to farming leadership.
3. Agronomic Data Collection: Create and maintain standardized procedures for sampling, scouting, test digs, yield estimates, and harvest evaluations, while ensuring field data is collected accurately and consistently.
4. Soil Health and Crop Rotation: Design rotation and soil-management strategies that improve long-term productivity, reduce pest and disease pressure, and protect the economic value of farmland.
5. Fertility and Crop-Protection Strategy: Develop nutrient and crop-protection recommendations and support purchasing decisions for fertilizers, crop-protection products, and soil amendments.
6. Integrated Pest and Disease Management: Monitor biological risks and implement practical, timely strategies that balance crop health, resistance management, compliance, environmental stewardship, and return on investment.
7. Irrigation and Soil-Moisture Management: Develop and oversee irrigation strategies that reduce crop stress, improve water-use efficiency, and protect tuber quality.
8. Tillage and Field Preparation: Create field-specific tillage and soil-preparation plans and adjust execution based on field conditions, equipment capability, and crop needs.
9. Records, Analysis, and Continuous Improvement: Maintain accurate agronomic records, analyze results across locations and seasons, capture lessons learned, and establish repeatable PGH standards.
10. Cross-Functional Partnership and Teaching: Collaborate across farming and business functions, translate technical information into practical direction, and build agronomic knowledge throughout the organization.
11. Partner and Customer Agronomy Support: Provide professional agronomic guidance to selected growers and customers while protecting confidential information and maintaining strong working relationships.
12. Financial Stewardship: Support crop-input budgets and evaluate agronomic decisions based on yield, quality, cost, risk, asset productivity, soil health, and overall farm return.

Core Competencies

1. Potato Agronomy and Crop-Health Expertise: Apply deep potato-specific knowledge to evaluate crop and soil conditions, diagnose risks, and improve plant health, yield, quality, and economic performance across different fields and growing environments.
2. Agronomic Planning and Adaptive Execution: Develop comprehensive seasonal crop plans while adjusting quickly and responsibly to changing weather, field conditions, labor, equipment, and operational priorities.
3. Data Analysis and Agronomic Judgment: Interpret field observations, sampling results, crop data, and economic considerations to identify patterns, determine likely causes, evaluate risk, and make practical evidence-based recommendations.
4. Process Discipline and Knowledge Management: Create clear SOPs, records, and repeatable systems that improve consistency, preserve agronomic knowledge, and support reliable execution across locations and seasons.
5. Communication, Partnership, and Teaching: Build trust across farming and business teams, communicate technical information clearly, raise concerns assertively, and strengthen organizational capability through coaching and knowledge sharing.
6. Business and Financial Stewardship: Connect agronomic decisions to input costs, crop value, yield, quality, risk, asset productivity, and long-term farm returns while collaborating effectively with Finance and Procurement.

Key Performance Outcomes

• Quality and timeliness of annual crop plans
• Consistency and usefulness of weekly agronomy reports
• Compliance with sampling and scouting schedules
• Accuracy and completeness of crop records
• Early identification and escalation of crop risks
• Effectiveness of soil-moisture and irrigation recommendations
• Effectiveness of fertility and crop-protection programs
• Marketable yield, quality, and packout performance
• Agronomic cost management against approved budgets
• Reduction of preventable crop losses
• Quality and adoption of agronomic SOPs
• Development of agronomic knowledge across farming teams
• Documented post-season learning and continuous improvement

Work Environment and Physical Requirements

• Regular field walking on uneven, soft, muddy, dusty, or cultivated ground
• Exposure to sun, heat, cold, wind, dust, rain, agricultural chemicals, insects, and changing weather
• Work near tractors, irrigation equipment, trucks, harvest equipment, and other moving machinery
• Regular driving between fields and operating locations
• Periodic early-morning, evening, weekend, and extended-hour work during planting, crop emergencies, and harvest
• Ability to bend, crouch, kneel, reach, and conduct field inspections
• Ability to collect and transport soil, plant, and tuber samples
• Ability to occasionally lift or move approximately 4050 pounds
• Consistent use of required personal protective equipment
• Ability to travel approximately 25%75% of the time, depending on the season

Required Education and Experience

• Bachelors degree in Agronomy, Crop Science, Plant Science, Soil Science, Agricultural Science, or a closely related field; an equivalent combination of substantial potato-farming education and experience may be considered
• At least three years of progressively responsible experience in commercial potato production
• Demonstrated experience supporting potato crops across different fields, farms, or growing conditions
• Practical knowledge of potato fertility, irrigation, soil management, crop protection, pest and disease management, and harvest readiness
• Experience interpreting soil, petiole, tissue, moisture, crop-development, and yield information
• Experience with precision agriculture, GIS, remote sensing, irrigation monitoring, or other modern agronomic tools.
• Experience developing agronomic plans and communicating recommendations to operational teams
• Demonstrated ability to maintain accurate crop records and produce clear written reports
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Outlook, Word, and other modern workplace technologies
• Ability to learn farm-management, collaboration, data-visualization, and supply-chain systems
• Valid drivers license and ability to meet company driving requirements
• Ability and willingness to travel consistently between Arizona and California

Preferred Qualifications

• Five + years of commercial potato-production experience
• Experience supporting potato production across multiple geographic locations
• Deep familiarity with Western U.S. growing conditions
• Experience with fresh-market, specialty, seed, or processing potatoes
• Certified Crop Adviser, Certified Professional Agronomist, or similar professional credential
• Experience with precision agriculture, GIS, irrigation-monitoring systems, weather data, remote sensing, or farm-management software
• Experience developing and managing crop-input budgets
• Experience working with third-party growers or agricultural customers
• Experience training farm leaders, supervisors, scouts, or equipment operators
• Bilingual English and Spanish communication skills