Vice President, Agriculture Operations - TalentWell : Job Details

You're a highly skilled, experienced food production operations leader who is:

• Compelled to use all your expertise and leadership skills to optimize processes, innovate products, and collaborate to bring great ideas to fruition
• Excited about the opportunity to lead and develop a dynamic team to achieve even higher performance in an established, successful organization that's still evolving and pioneering new products and food solutions for consumers
• Eager to join a storied and flourishing year-round growing, harvesting, and packaging organization to refine and enhance post-harvest operations to maximize efficiency and sustainability for long-term success

Welcome to the team!

The Vice President, Agriculture Operations is a results-driven leader with deep post-harvest logistics and production expertise who is motivated to drive product innovation. In this role, you'll work cross-functionally with sales, marketing, supply chain, and compliance teams to align post-harvest operations with our strategic objectives.

This is a high impact role in our fastest growing segment where you will be refining and optimizing critical post-harvest operations in an established and evolving organization. Join a team with respect for the land, the people who work it, and the diverse crew moving product from field to store to consumer table.

About the Role

The Vice President, Agriculture Operations leads all post-harvest processing and operations ensuring and optimizing for efficiency, quality, safety, and profitability across cooling, processing and value-added operations. This role drives innovation, operational excellence, and strategic growth for cooling, processing, and value-added product initiatives.

Reporting to the COO, the Vice President, Operations will ensure consistency, lead team development and workforce planning, and ensure institutional knowledge capture and transfer. Collaborating with the sales, marketing, supply chain, and compliance teams, the VP will align post-harvest operations with broader strategic objectives as a produce solutions provider.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Develop and execute a comprehensive strategy aligned with business goals.
• Identify optimizations and opportunities to improve processes, cost efficiencies, and drive innovation across cooling, processing, and value-added operations.
• Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, and R&D to enhance and innovate products.

Operational Management

• Oversee cooling and processing operations across multiple facilities ensuring efficient post-harvest handling, product integrity, quality, and energy efficiency.
• Standardize processes and drive continuous improvement.
• Optimize value-added production processes including resource allocation, inventory control, and cost management.
• Work with supply chain teams on product availability for value-added processing.

Development of Value-Added Products

• Lead cross-functional development for new value-added product lines including collaborating to evaluate consumer demand for fresh-cut innovations.
• Work with suppliers and process engineers on automation to improve production.
• Ensure cost-effective, high-quality product sourcing and formulation.

Compliance & Safety

• Ensure all operations adhere to local, state, and federal food safety regulations (e.g., HACCP, SQF) and sustainability initiatives.
• Implement and enforce safety protocols to maintain a safe working environment.
• Conduct regular compliance audits, inspections, and risk assessments.

Financial Oversight

• Manage annual post-harvest operations budgets aligned with company goals.
• Analyze financials, KPIs, and metrics to inform data-driven decision-making.
• Identify and mitigate financial risks while optimizing resource allocation across cooling, processing, and value-added divisions.

Team Leadership & Development

• Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing post-harvest operations team while fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Create and deploy training to develop team capabilities and leadership potential.
• Mentor potential leaders and facilitate institutional knowledge transfer and retention.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Follow industry trends and technologies to enhance post-harvest efficiency.
• Implement sustainable solutions to improve processing, cooling, and value-added operations, as well as initiatives to reduce waste and improve yield.

Experience & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Operations Management, Food Science, Agriculture, or a related field with an MBA preferred.
• Minimum 15 years' progressively responsible experience in post-harvest operations, value added processing, cooling, and/or food production with at least 10 years in leadership roles, and a demonstrated record of building high-performance teams and delivering strategic results
• Proven track record managing multiple facilities and large teams in a high-volume agricultural or food industry operation
• Expertise managing operational efficiency, production, and post-harvest logistics
• Knowledge of and expertise in food safety and regulatory requirements such as HACCP, SQF, FDA, and USDA
• Financial acumen including budget management and performance analysis.
• Proficiency with ERP systems and relevant software such as Famous.
• Bilingual English/Spanish preferred
• Able to travel between processing locations in California

Attributes for Success

• Strategic approach and tactical proficiency for optimizing operations aligned with company policies, regulatory requirements, and future objectives
• Strong leadership, team management, and development skills including the ability to coach and inspire excellence
• Capable of proactively identifying and implementing proven solutions and best practices
• Strong initiative with good judgement, discretion, and decision making, along with the ability to identify root causes and resolve complex problems
• Able to communicate clearly and concisely across multiple organizational levels
• Dedicated to relationship building and effective cross-functional collaboration

About the Company

Our client is a well-established agricultural organization with deep roots in California's farming community. Combining decades of expertise with a forward-looking approach to sustainability and innovation, they are a trusted supplier of fresh vegetables to major grocery chains and foodservice customers.