Vice President of Farm Operations
Bowery Farming
Operations
New York, NY, USA
Posted on Wednesday, July 24, 2024
At Bowery, we’re making wildly delicious food more accessible to everyone. Driven by our proprietary end-to-end technology, our farms are transforming the entire fresh food supply chain to be simpler, safer, and vastly more sustainable.
We have 5 farms in operation (including state-of-the-art R&D and innovation farms) and we’re just getting started. We’re backed by tech and agriculture industry leaders with $647M in equity and debt capital, and our products are sold in over 1,400 locations.
Working at Bowery is more than just a job. It’s a chance to make a global impact with first-of-its-kind technology and ridiculously good food. We’re always looking for passionate minds to grow (and eat) with us! Ready to make a real difference? Join us. We’d love to have you here.
P.s. Check out The Roots: Bowery Farming's People Podcast for all things Bowery culture, teams, leadership, and karaoke (yes, karaoke)
About The Role:
Bowery Farming is seeking a dynamic and experienced VP of Farm Operations who will oversee and be responsible for the complete operation of our high tech indoor vertical farms, reporting to the Chief Supply Chain Officer. You’ll join Bowery Farming at a critical point in our growth trajectory. As a member of the company’s Supply Chain & Operations leadership team, you will be responsible for the operations, including growing, harvesting and packaging of all Bowery products at our existing and future tech-enabled farms.
You will directly lead the operations team, Plant Managers, the Quality team and the Agriculture Operations (AgOPs) group. Your primary mission is to ensure we growing the highest quality produce to meet our customers demand while ensuring the safety of the employees and driving efficiencies in the operation. This position is highly cross-functional, working with leaders across a variety of disciplines, including commercial, engineering, agricultural science, technology, HR and more as you will work together to solve complex, real-world problems facing today’s food system. Your work will meaningfully impact the evolution of the indoor agriculture industry. This role is based at our headquarters in NYC and will require travel to our farms (currently located in MD and PA with many more to come.
What You'll Do:
- Responsible for complete end-to-end operations of our farms to include production, quality/food safety, fulfillment, and people safety
- Responsible for creating, leading and sustaining a world class culture that puts people, safety, and quality first
- Oversee the farm Operations teams to maximize our farm output, from seeding to shipping and everything in between, using world class manufacturing methodologies.
- You’ll manage day-to-day growing operations in Bowery’s farms leading the AgOps team analyzing inflight crop performance and together with our Agricultural Science team drive improved yield and quality.
- Manage and improve the Bowery Quality Management System (quality standards, HACCP plan, document control, etc.), seting the strategy for quality management and consumer safety matters for the Bowery Operations team
- Ensure regulatory compliance of Bowery Farm operations and maintain Bowery’s world class GFSI audit scores
- You’ll be a critical partner in transitioning new products from R&D to an operational environment.
- Identify KPIs and establish appropriate targets to drive the business forward in areas such as fulfillment, yield, quality, safety and cost
- Execute farm planning processes in partnership with cross-functional stakeholders in Supply Chain Planning and Sales to drive customer fulfillment
- Ensure employees have the right tools, knowledge, equipment and training to do their jobs effectively and safely
- Provide coaching, teaching, and mentorship to a diverse and engaged team
- Work in conjunction with the Farm Design team to recommend new monitoring and control systems that give Bowery increasing levels of control on the most important variables for plant growth.
Who You Are:
- You have seen what good looks like and are excited to be part of building it from the ground up
- You hold safety and quality as non-negotiables.
- You have experience in food manufacturing operations (process & packing), leading multi-sites that run a complex 24 / 7 operations with short cycle times
- You have knowledge of world-class operating systems
- You have experience in lean quality & continuous improvement
- You are a servant leader who is an empathetic advocate for people
- You have a high bar for both results and behaviors and are able to coach and develop others
- You are highly analytical and use both data and experience to solve problems
- You are a strong mentor & coach who looks for opportunities to grow talent from within
- You value and celebrate diversity
- You have ability to influence and engage direct and indirect reports and peers
- You are a team player and work to utilize the skills of all in the team both in Operations as well as across the business
Who We Are:
- Bowery is a place where everyone is welcome, included, and empowered to reach their full potential.
- We live our shared values every day in both big and small ways: opt in, think wildly different, break barriers together & be kind to the core
- We are a mission-driven team of unconventional thinkers, problem-solvers, optimists, and activators
- We share a passion for giving back more to the planet than we take, growing deliciously abundant food without abundant harm
- We are excited to hear from you!
Benefits as Good as our Greens
- To support you and your family, we offer health, dental, and vision insurance; mental health resources; family forming support; long-term and short-term disability insurance; FSA; HSA and commuter benefits
- Company stock options so that you can reap the benefits of every Bowery win
- 401k Program
- The more balance, the better. We offer unlimited paid vacation, paid holiday - plus 16 weeks of paid parental leave so you can focus on what matters most
- From internal mobility to a mentorship program and curated L&D initiatives, we are fully invested in your growth
Our commitment to eliminating bias and ensuring pay equity goes beyond pay transparency. Click here (https://bit.ly/3CUwuUY) to learn more about how compensation works at Bowery, how we came up with the salary on this job posting, and what we’re doing to ensure your compensation is internally and externally equitable.
The salary for this role will be $250,000. If this role is of interest to you, we encourage you to apply no matter what so we can see your profile and background. You can trust us to make a leveling assessment based on your unique skills and experience and communicate that with you.
Bowery is an equal opportunity employer - a place that celebrates unique backgrounds, qualities, and cultures that will enrich the workplace. We are attempting to redefine what a sustainable agricultural supply chain can look like. We cannot achieve this mission without a team that reflects the diversity of people who want fresh, locally grown food in regard to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, national origin, religion, family status, disability, military status, and experience. We strongly encourage people from marginalized communities to apply to join our team.