Vice President of Agriculture

A leading agricultural technology company is seeking the above to be responsible for translating laboratory-developed hyperaccumulator plant technology into scalable, compliant field operations in South Africa. This role involves leading agricultural trials, developing operating models, and bridging R&D and field execution. It is hands‑on, combining strategic oversight with fieldwork in early‑stage, non‑standard systems. The ideal candidate has experience deploying biotechnology from controlled to open‑field environments, preferably within regulated or wild plant systems such as cannabis or blueberries.

• Must have an advanced degree in Agronomy, Plant Science, Agricultural Engineering, Biology, or a related field, or equivalent hands‑on operational experience
• Minimum 10 years' hands‑on experience in agricultural operations, including propagation and field trials
• Must have demonstrated experience deploying novel plant systems or biotechnology from laboratory or greenhouse environments into open‑field operations
• Proven track record managing pilot programs and transitioning agricultural systems from pilot to commercial scale
• Experience working with non‑crop, wild, or regulated plant systems, such as cannabis or similar high‑complexity crops is advantageous
• Must have prior exposure to multi‑site or multi‑country agricultural operations in variable regulatory environments
• Proven experience introducing non‑crop plant species to new geographies
• Strong command of nursery operations, field cultivation, and harvest operations under variable environmental conditions
• Working knowledge of biosafety protocols, regulatory constraints, and risk management in agricultural and biotech field settings is essential
• Excellent data literacy with the ability to use field data to drive decisions, trade‑offs, and corrective actions
• Must have a valid passport; frequent travel to the company’s operating locations in South Africa will be required
• International travel to the company’s HQ in France may be necessary

• Owning the execution of agricultural operations across nurseries and field sites, from plant propagation to harvest.
• Leading pilot and field programs with accountability for plant health, biomass yield, and metal uptake performance.
• Managing external contractors (nurseries, farmers, CROs), labour teams, and field service providers, ensuring quality control and scale‑up readiness.
• Building and managing performance tracking systems and field reporting protocols, ensuring strong nursery‑and field‑level data collection and reporting.
• Designing and overseeing propagation systems for wild and genetically enhanced plant lines.
• Optimising vegetative propagation protocols (cuttings, mother block, tissue‑culture based methods as applicable).
• Serving as the primary interface between agricultural operations, R&D teams, and downstream processing functions.
• Ensuring lab‑developed plant traits, growth protocols, and handling requirements are effectively being transferred into nursery and field operations.
• Providing structured field feedback to R&D to inform plant improvement, protocol refinement, and prioritisation.
• Aligning agricultural outputs, including biomass characteristics and harvest specifications, with downstream processing and extraction requirements.
• Supporting joint planning and decision‑making across functions to reduce lab‑to‑field and field‑to‑processing friction.
• Defining and documenting agronomic playbooks, SOPs, and operating standards required to reliably cultivate target hyperaccumulator plants at industrial scale.
• Building scalable and transferable cultivation systems across climates and countries.
• Developing and managing agricultural teams to execute standardised agricultural operations in pilot and commercial settings.
• Leading operational readiness assessments and site ramp‑up planning for new fields and countries of operation.
• Contributing to agricultural cost modelling, resource planning, and scale‑up assumptions in coordination with operations leadership.
• Developing and enforcing biosafety protocols for handling genetically enhanced hyperaccumulator plants in field environments.
• Identifying, assessing, and mitigating operational risks: biological, climatic, and regulatory.
• Leading incident response and remediation related to crop failure, contamination, or regulatory non‑compliance.
• Preparing for and supporting audits, inspections, and compliance reviews.