About the Opportunity

The Global Director of Strawberry Breeding manages strategy, budget, staff, and all underlying breeding processes from hybridization to commercial release. Together, traditional breeding strategies as well as genomic-based breeding technologies will create a global breeding organization to continuously launch superior products that are delightful to consumers, differentiated in the marketplace, profitable for growers and resilient to climate change to drive reinvestment and growth.

 

Responsibilities

• Provide direct and functional leadership to breeding managers, breeders and staff to run efficient and effective programs while developing and strengthening talent and a knowledge base for the breeding teams. 
• Mentor and onboard new plant breeders and foster collaboration among breeding team members.
• Oversee the development, standardization and optimization of traditional and genomic-based breeding protocols 
• Regular visits to all global breeding locations and business unit production areas -- 15 – 25% of total work time for domestic and international travel
• Overall stewardship of the germplasm including inbreeding management and new trait development.
• Optimize breeding processes, exploit and strengthen our genetics resources.
• Develop a global genomics strategy in cooperation with breeding team members and the breeding technology group. 
• Develop cross trialing strategy and cooperate with business units to develop test plots in new or poorly understood production geographies to understand adaptation of Driscoll’s genetics. 
• Coordinate with nursery and clean-stock programs to ensure material is available for cross-trialing plans.
• Through coordination with business unit leaders, develop product concepts, long-range breeding vision, and short-term commercialization thresholds for the release of commercial cultivars that provide resilience to climate change, differentiation in the marketplace while delighting consumers. 
• Effective stakeholder interactions with growers, customers and owners.
• Determine when new breeding programs are required or when others have reached obsolescence and take steps to provide recommendations to leadership.
• Collaborate with plant physiology, plant pathology, entomology, post-harvest and food chemists to further the objectives of the breeding program.
• Responsible for operational and capital budgeting for all breeding programs.
• Ensure local breeding team members are well connected with local commercialization teams during the commercialization process.
• Provide progress reports through quarterly board updates and annual reports.
• Participate in the development and implementation of strategic plans.
• Develop and ensure database standardization, provide input into future database developments and innovations.
• Develop collaborative associations with scientific/academic associations where appropriate.
 

   

Candidate Profile

• Ph.D. or equivalent in Plant Breeding, or a related plant science discipline such as Horticulture, Agronomy or Plant Pathology with a focus on Plant Breeding.
• Breeding program management and operations, with at least 5 years of experience.
• Management of highly complex breeding programs at a large scale and preferably within a global operational setting.
• Genomic-based breeding methods and the effective and efficient incorporation of these methods into a complete breeding strategy.
• Broad industry knowledge including awareness and understanding of competitors, global genetic tools and cultural systems. 
• Solid understanding of grower economic drivers and farming economics. 
• Effective communication across a broad range of audiences:  consumers, customers, growers, company executives and board members. 
• Disciplined, able to lead and supervise people, to manage several projects at the same time, and have good verbal and written communication skills, and able to devise innovative breeding solutions to improve processes. 
• Expert in genomic-based breeding methods.
• Expert in analytical methods required for the application of predictive breeding methodologies.
• Spanish, French, and/or Mandarin are beneficial.
• Strong people management skills (5 years preferred).
• Able to work independently and also as part of a team and collaborate with other scientists in achieving team goals.  
• Passion, Humility and Trustworthiness are values held in high regard, guiding daily work and decisions.
• Must be a self-starter, hands-on, able to lift 50 pounds on an intermittent basis, travels to other Driscoll’s facilities, with a valid driver’s license. A valid passport and the ability to travel internationally without restrictions are also required.

Compensat