Field Strategy and Operations Lead

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.

Position Summary

The Field Operations Manager will be working closely with Breeding’s field and seed operations in both Yellow Pea and Soybean. These teams are responsible for delivering seed and data on time and in full to multiple functions across Benson Hill. The Field Operations Manager will be responsible for working closely with the Operations Director to help establish long-term objectives of field trial testing and seed delivery. The Field Operations Manager will be responsible for establishing a Quality Management system and set a safety-first culture across teams. The candidate will work closely with management in developing long-term operations strategies that help meet the company objectives. This job will require the ability to influence and drive strategic initiatives across multiple functions for the company meet our business deliverables.

You Will:

• Establish and monitoring key performance indicators within the operations teams.
• Establish key operational metrics that will allow us to forecast work demand resourcing needs.
• Provide strategic support and guidance including preparation of materials for internal and external meetings.
• Work with field teams to establish standard operating procedures and work with staff across multiple initiatives to establish consistency.
• Interest in understanding impact investing to ensure alignment between organizational strategic planning teams.
• Partner with Field and Seed operations management teams to drive operational excellence, creating systems and processes, drive efficiencies and build transparency into daily operations.
• Manage planning process including goal setting, talent development and monthly strategic meetings.
• Set agenda and facilitate quarterly strategic team meetings.
• Set agenda and facilitate weekly All Team stand up meetings and weekly check-ins as a mechanism to report.
• Drive initiatives in the management team that contribute to long-term operational excellence.
• Establish and adhere to project timelines, outline resources required for successful implementation of initiatives and monitor results to ensure goals are met.
• Serve as primary liaison to seed Stewardship teams by developing standard practices.
• Play a key role in analyzing employee engagement scores, working closely with management to continuously work to improve engagement.
• Work closely with third party research companies to establish long-term relationships that help us drive field testing across key growing regions and crops.
• Conduct new hire introductions and basic policy and skills training.