Farm Operation Manager

Seeking candidates for a full-time, experienced and energetic Farm Operation Manager (FOM) at our San Marcos, CA farm to help manage day-to-day production schedules in order to meet/exceed our sales projections. The FOM will work with our sales team and farm crew to critically maintain and optimize plant and soil health. You will manage all aspects of crop production in addition to pre and post harvest quality control. The role of the FOM is to grow the highest quality & unique to market crops along with a culture of continuous improvement.

Approximate average weekly hours: 45-55 hours

Annual Salary: $90,000-$125,000 based on initial qualification, experience, and training period. Benefits: Paid Vacation + Sick Days, Health Insurance, Commission/Bonus, Free Michelin-Star Produce!

WHO WE ARE

OUR ROOTS
Established in 2005, Girl & Dug Farm started in an 8-acre cucumber farm after founders Brian and Agnes Choi were lovingly pushed out of their prior flower business by their children who wanted them to enjoy retirement. Curious and hungry for strange produce, Brian and Agnes' son Aaron succeeded them in 2009 and began curating unique varieties of veggies for some of the most influential restaurants, one Chef at a time. And so became "Girl & Dug Farm," a nod to his daughters and their lovable overweight beagle Dug, and the singular mission to make game-changing ingredients easily accessible and approachable for every kitchen.

Today, we serve our unique offerings to chefs nationwide including the top Michelin-starred restaurants in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York as well as growing markets like Texas, New England, Miami and beyond. Our legacy Korean produce business continues to serve nearly all Korean retail markets in the US through retail partners and distributors.

BRANCHING OUT INTO THE FUTURE
Food feeds our bodies but we rarely consider how it nourishes our mind and soul. Food brings people together. People together create conversation. Conversation among people kindles the understanding of others' culture, and thereby the world, a bit better. This is the intersection of farming and art, where we magnify food's unique superpower to make us whole--body, mind, and soul.

We promote food diversity, practice responsible farming techniques, and cultivate lasting partnerships with the world’s best Chefs because who transform one-of-a-kind raw ingredients into eye opening flavors are all inseparable threads of weaving the future of food and farming.
 
CULTIVATING CULTURE FOR GROWTH
We believe products are only as good as the company behind them, and companies are only as good as the employees that comprise them. We believe that culture is the sum of every member’s actions that align with the words prescribing them. We don’t always get everything right so we focus on learning how to make things right. Healthy relationships are the key to community and to that end, everything we do as a company places reasonable priority on building, maintaining, and nurturing relationships, be it internally among fellow workers or externally with our customers.

ABOUT THE ROLE

GENERAL DAY-TO-DAY FARM OPERATION
Personnel management and helping run basic production such as:

• Enforce and maintain teams’ daily hour-log in order to track work completed and individual + team performance. You will prioritize the highest-leverage action items which are reviewed during management team meetings.
• Prioritize sowing, crop bed maintenance, weeding, transplanting as well as trellising and pruning.
• Maintain optimal growing conditions by managing fertilization, environmental controls along with monitoring plant & soil health.
• Help track plant succession, location of crops, production schedule/map and rotation cycles.
• Build and maintain logs of seeds required per rotation, seed procurement, seed-production yield across rotation/season to aid in forecasting.
• Identify and solve production-related bottlenecks such as reallocating resources, maintaining equipment/tools/methods, and improving infrastructure.
• Maintain a rigorous IPM schedule with checklists and continuous improvement protocols. You will work with our IPM team to scout pest & disease pressure while applying both preventative and prescriptive applications.
• Assist R&D projects: in addition to monitoring plant health/progress as above you will assist in growing experimental crops. These responsibilities include plant breeding, selection work and manipulation of environmental factors along with techniques to improve taste, nutrition, and other desirable traits.

PRODUCTION, IRRIGATION, FERTIGATION
Irrigation, with fertigation & chemigation are key aspects to production and requires you to go focus on the following:

• Build soil fertility by adding appropriate amendments and biological inputs along with remediating adverse conditions for optimal crop production.
• Employ appropriate crop rotations with cover cropping and interplanting of insectary and beneficial buffer strips.
• Maintain precise moisture level for each crop’s particular needs, know about and manage environmental conditions, root health, water quality/testing.
• Adjust irrigation, feeding and crop protectants according to all fluctuations regarding weather & seasons.
• Ensure all irrigation equipment is properly functioning, bring to attention any problems and/or solutions to improve the system for water handling, injecting and delivering our precious water.
• Continuously monitor and adjust all aspects of deploying fertilizers & chemicals into the irrigation system following each crop’s programs, schedules and cycles.

HARVEST, YIELD TRACKING
Track the performance of both individuals and applied farming methods and report them to the management team:

• Provide weekly forecasts of product availability to the sales team. This includes updates to weekly
• year-round crops as well as ETAs of seasonal crops’ coming availability.
• Record and track daily yields by section of each crop so that we can build on our planting data.

** We can provide necessary training on various equipment, materials, vendors, crops, products, etc. and will help you become familiar with the product information since much of it is unique to our company. Your job is primarily about organizing, maintaining, and building off of that information.

SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 5+ years of farm experience, preferably irrigation/production responsibilities and though not required, any experience in greenhouse farming
• Technical proficiency in specific crop nutrient requirements including both mineral and organic inputs
• Advanced knowledge and application of Integrated Pest Management
• Managing teams/groups of people with emphasis on team building, accountability and roles. Delegation and follow-up skills are essential.
• Basic computer skills, proficiency in Microsoft Office esp. Excel and Word; Google Docs and Sheets.
• Precise, intuitive (for others to follow) organizational skills
• Minimum of basic conversational Spanish highly preferred/recommended
• Reliable transportation to the farm is required -- we are not conveniently located for public transportation.

NOTABLE QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s Degree in Science with preference in Horticultural Production or closely related studies
• Takes initiative by proactively identifying and bringing to attention all potential problems along with recommendations and remedies for solutions
• Creative, resourceful problem-solving team-builder
• Follows through on a task from start to finish with little supervision
• Willingness to learn and listen, be flexible, quick to adapt to changing circumstances
• Detail-oriented, observative
• Not afraid to disagree but works well with others

HELPFUL FYI’S FOR THE CANDIDATE

Our farming is best described as a hybrid approach: most of our crops are grown under greenhouses, some of which are grown hydroponically and some of which are grown in the ground. Some crops grow under shade structures to maximize airflow. Less than 10% of the ~50 acres of farmed areas are outdoor crop-beds.

This is a fast-paced job that requires tracking over a hundred different plants’ daily production/progress and simultaneously helping track and report re: R&D items. You may be expected to help build a team of sub-managers and field workers that best accomplishes daily and big-picture tasks while making sure that the grounds & equipment are maintained, clean, and organized.

Structure, systems, and SOPs are still being developed, so those who seek an already-established, siloed environment need not apply. We are looking for someone who will grow in the position and with the company!

Please submit a cover letter, resume and any other applicable material you feel appropriate. Thank you for your interest.