Research Associate, Indoor Operations

About Benson Hill
Benson Hill empowers innovators to develop more healthy, tasty and sustainable food by unlocking the natural genetic diversity of plants. Benson Hill’s CropOS™ platform combines machine learning and big data with breeding techniques and plant biology to drastically accelerate and simplify the product development process. This platform allows for cost-effective and more efficient ways for companies to analyze and make improvements in plant genetics. Benson Hill brings a unique and holistic approach to our product and platform development, as we span a broader workflow involving trait and seed development, genome editing, and breeding all the way to creating better ingredients and varieties that tap a strong consumer demand for more flavorful and nutritious fruits and vegetables. More information can be found online at www.bensonhill.com. Follow us on Twitter at @BensonHillInc.

Our Purpose and Core Values

Our Core Values are a set of common principles we share that are fundamental to our company’s identity.

• Be Bold!  We redefine boundaries by providing new solutions to difficult problems. Together we are driven to transform the future and will not allow the fear of failure to prevent us from innovating. We voice our opinions, embrace change, and challenge each other to think creatively.
• Be Inspired! We redefine boundaries by providing new solutions to difficult problems. Together we are driven to transform the future and will not allow the fear of failure to prevent us from innovating. We voice our opinions, embrace change, and challenge each other to think creatively.
• Be Real! We understand who we are, what we want to achieve, and what it takes to get there. We hold each other accountable through timely, candid, and well-intentioned feedback. Together we engage in honest communication and healthy debate that leads to success through true alignment.

Department Overview

Benson Hill recently opened a new 47,000 square-foot facility that features dynamically adaptive Conviron® growth houses and chambers. These state-of-the-art environmentally controlled grow rooms are equipped with multi-channel LEDs, additive CO2, temperature, humidity and lighting controls providing a >2 fold increase in crop cycles annually compared to traditional cropping methods.  The Crop Accelerator department is responsible for all of Benson Hill’s indoor growing facilities and enables the rapid prototyping of healthier, more sustainable, and better tasting foods through unconventional growing methods. 

Position Summary

We are actively seeking a Research Associate (RA) to join our Crop Accelerator Team. The RA will be responsible for providing support to the Indoor Operations and Controlled environment through coordination and execution of production nursery grow-outs and additional research projects while exercising independent judgment and ensuring clear communication with team members. The RA will analyze and record data and communicate research progress with internal stakeholders. The RA will identify inefficiencies in the current workflows/process and make suggestions for improvement while also offering guidance to more entry-level members of the team.

You Will:

(Essential Duties and Responsibilities)

• Organize, coordinate, collect, and analyze data on indoor breeding plantings, sampling, pollinations, and harvests.
• Perform pollinations.
• Maintain, organize, and summarize results of experiments, detailing issues, while problem-solving.
• Supervise/Coordinate tasks that require the assistance of technicians and seasonal workers on our operations team who perform planting, tissue sampling, transplanting, tying, and harvesting ensuring the data is collected properly and promptly.
• Input data into the corporate database and collect experimental notes. Ensure data integrity and transparency for plant and seed records within the Crop Accelerator breeding workflows.
• Ensure high-quality plant care within a controlled environment setting, including daily monitoring of watering and fertigation, monitoring of environmental sensors and controls, and troubleshooting any plant health issues.
• Scout for plant disease symptoms, insect pressure, and other IPM considerations and communicate issues to appropriate support staff.
• Partner with CEA team within the Crop Accelerator to align best practices in plant care.
• Participate in weekend r