Description

The Controlled Environment (CE) Lead is critical to Corteva Agriscience’s mission to bring innovative seed products to our customers‘ farm operations. The Johnston Controlled Environment facility is a 180,000 square feet Research facility, used to grow, test, produce seed, and advance products in our row crop biotech, gene editing, and seed pipelines. The leader of the CE organization will have a highly strategic and visible role in the Corteva Biotech and overall R&D Organization, sitting on the Biotech Trait Discovery and Characterization Leadership Team. The Role will be responsible for leading the team and operations as well as, transforming, modernizing, and optimizing the facility to deliver business critical needs according to our 10 year forward looking Seed R&D strategy. The facility is a cornerstone to our biotech pipeline and is positioned for strategic transformation coming from a multi-year seed strategy project. This position is accountable for a key capability and facility enabling our Biotechnology and Seed pipeline product pipelines. The selected candidate will lead strategic transformative initiatives by partnering closely with cross-functional teams in Biotech and in Seed Product Development to develop and execute the controlled environment and biotechnology future pipeline vision. He or she will work closely with partners in Biotech, Breeding Technology, Information and Engineering Technology teams to enable greenhouse transformations via automation, phenotyping, optimized workflows, seed production, and experiment management, while designing and executing the CE portion of the next-generation seed strategy. The CE Lead will also collaborate with operations leaders around Corteva’s global network and engage with professional societies; and continuously evaluate relevant advancements in adjacent industries to ensure operational excellence and share best practices.

Responsibilities – What You will Do

Organizational & Operational Leadership

• Lead the CE organization (approximately 100 employees), recruit and develop talent, manage to budget.
• Lead and inspire a diverse team of scientists, researchers, and support staff to achieve breakthrough innovations in the Controlled Environment organization. Ensure and reinforce a strong safety culture.
• Identify and communicate potential problems in operations and implement mitigation plans that ensure delivery.
• Reallocate resources when needed based on product development strategy changes.
• Implement and manage change for continued organizational readiness.

Strategic Leadership

• Lead the CE transformation to align to the seed 10-year vision, including strategic redesigns, modernization, workflow, automation, and production.
• Lead and set technical strategies to achieve success, including evaluating, building business cases towards, and deploying new controlled environment technologies.
• Own the processes and improvements required to support the organization’s strategy, without bias. Challenge status quo with curiosity to gain insight, lead to future vision.
• Partner with internal stakeholders to design, align and implement our biotech pipeline optimization strategy to deliver transgenic and GE solutions to the product development pipeline in a highly efficient manner (time and cost).
• Lead strategic workstream teams to implement and execute strategic plans.
• Active engagement with customer teams to ensure delivery of required seed targets or data at the right time and quality as a key partner in our biotech delivery pipeline.

Qualifications

Requirements:

• 5-10 years of Management of large, complex production or R&D controlled environment facilities.
• M.S. or Ph.D. or equivalent experience (in relevant fields including plant-based operations, facility operations, high-throughput agricultural automation, horticulture, plant R&D, agriculture, plant physiology, trait development, engineering).
• Strong leadership, ability to lead via influence and/or people management skills. Proven ability to work well with a wide range of people.
• Demonstrated experience in managing complex operations.
• Direct and indirect managerial experience.
• Demonstrated leadership, communication, and people management skills.
• Strong expertise in plant sciences.
• Deep understanding of controlled environment technology and plant growth techniques
• Requires excellent organizational, communication skills and attention to detail.

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Benefits – How We’ll Support You:

• Numerous development opportunities offered to build your skills
• Be part of a company with a higher purpose and contribute to making the world a better place
• Health benefits for you and your family on your first day of employment
• Four weeks of paid time off and two weeks of well-being pay per year, plus paid holidays
• Excellent parental leave which includes a minimum of 16 weeks for mother and father
• Future planning with our competitive retirement savings plan and tuition reimbursement program
• Learn more about our total rewards package here – Corteva Benefits
• Check out life at Corteva! www.linkedin.com/company/corteva/life

Are you a good match? Apply today! We seek applicants from all backgrounds to ensure we get the best, most creative talent on our team.