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

 

1. 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-