Plant Manager

Fifth Season is creating a new category of fresh foods. Our cutting-edge indoor farms deliver a whole new experience of freshness and quality made possible by robotics and AI. We grow exclusively in local communities because we’re on a mission to create a new season where people are reconnected to their food and those who grew it.

Fifth Season is seeking an experienced, self-motivated Plant Manager to define and lead the end-to-end operation of our largest, high-tech vertical farm. In this role, you will be responsible for leading all aspects of daily farm operations, including but not limited to facility management, team development, crop health and output, food safety and regulatory compliance, and the facility’s P&L. You will also come with relevant experience running a large, complex operation in combination with analytical skills and an ability to deliver consistent business results. The ability to work cross-functionally with engineering, plant science, supply chain, business development, and sales will also be critical to success in this role.

You have an undergraduate degree, and potentially a graduate degree, with 7 years of relevant experience in management at manufacturing operations, indoor ag settings, and/or food manufacturing facilities with proven leadership in a highly autonomous environment. You are excited about the opportunity to be a core leader of our flagship product where the processes and learnings from your facility will be applied to all future farm operations worldwide.

Responsibilities – You are ready to change the world in this role by:

• Creating scalable processes that can be applied to future farms
• Managing the Grow, Food Safety/Sanitation, Facility Maintenance, QA, and Production teams and ensuring each team is appropriately staffed to support the demands of the facility and the overall business
• Overseeing employee hiring and on-boarding processes at the farm
• Performing on-going training and performance evaluations to improve operations
• Maintaining a safe working environment by ensuring safety practices are followed, equipment is maintained, and employees have the right tools and training to do their jobs
• Championing and maintaining a culture that is aligned with our core values, making employees excited to come to work every day
• Managing supplier relationships and interfacing with the supply chain team
• Making recommendations and/or decisions based on business priorities and the understanding of financial and/or operational impacts
• Ensuring KPIs are met across facility operations, safety, quality, schedule, cost, and profit
• Develop operations plan and budget, including production line operating assumptions, overtime, labor requirements, minimum run quantities, yield, productivity, throughput assumptions, etc.

Qualifications – You know you can change the world in this role because you have:

• BA/BS or Master’s in business management, operations, supply chain or engineering
• Minimum of 7 years of experience in a leadership role with demonstrated ability to run a complex, 24/7 food manufacturing operation
• Ability to heavily interface with engineering R&D and process improvement teams to help drive facility and operational improvements (with a continuous improvement mindset)
• Strong leadership skills and experience with coaching a diverse team
• Outstanding communication skills (oral, written, executive)
• Multitasker and critical thinker with strong analytical skills
• Ability to quickly adapt and lead the team to drive improvements 
• Self-directed and able to work in a dynamic and evolving environment
• Experience with new facility / location startup; startup experience a plus
• Desire to grow as the organization scales and new facilities are built
• Knowledge of and experience with Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma principles
• Farming, produce operations, food safety, and food manufacturing experience
• Familiarity with eCommerce or direct-to-consumer operations is a plus

Characteristics – You can be described as someone that:

• Has a strong desire to build and launch a lasting product that benefits the world
• Is proud of your organizational and prioritization skills
• Seeks creative and better-than-current solutions
• Has a passion for the pace and development opportunities at a high-growth company
• Enjoys the application of technology in both personal and work life
• Has a continuous desire to objectively answer the question “why”

Fifth Season’s Mission – Your impact in this role:

Fifth Season is revitalizing people, communities, and the world by bringing healthier, higher quality, hyper local food to market – truly ushering in a new era of fresh foods. Our unique, patented technology platform is fully autonomous and allows us to produce much more efficiently, all while using 95% less water, avoiding top-soil degradation, and never causing runoff pollution. Our chemical-free produce is sold to supermarkets, regional distributors, and select restaurants under the brand name Fifth Season.

Our founding team has significant experience spanning the areas of software, robotics, and business. You will work directly alongside us and the rest of the Fifth Season team to help achieve our mission.

This is an opportunity for you to have substantive impact on our mission to make the world a better place than we found it. This full-time position includes competitive pay, valuable stock options, and benefits.

Salary : $125,000 - $150,000