Manager Retail Operations Salinas, CA

Overview

Investing in You, join a 100-year-old, family-owned leader in Ag - and grow with us!

Wilbur-Ellis invests heavily in our employees by offering skill development and training, competitive compensation and benefits, and a tradition of promoting from within for a broad range of career opportunities. And we foster a supportive, people-first work environment.

"We know the confidence gap can get in the way of meeting spectacular candidates, so please don't hesitate to apply - we'd love to hear from you."

The Manager Retail Operations - Application leads the safe, timely, and efficient application of fertilizers and crop protection products across agricultural field operations. This role is accountable for building and sustaining a culture of safety, operational discipline, and continuous improvement while ensuring customer commitments are met in a highly regulated, peak-season environment. The Manager sets the tone for how work gets done safely, efficiently, and with accountability every day and every season.

• Lead day and night field application operations in a 24/7, on-call environment.
• Foster a safety-first culture, ensuring compliance with all regulatory and company standards for agricultural chemical application.
• Manage and develop 4-6 direct reports, overseeing a total team of approximately 70 employees.
• Act as a player-coach, providing hands-on leadership during peak season, incidents, and operational disruptions.
• Ensure effective use of systems that support field execution, including scheduling and dispatch, spray controller software, fleet/GPS tracking, mobile field tools, and ERP systems.
• Partner cross-functionally with Sales, Safety, Compliance, Finance, Retail Store Managers, and external vendors.
• Lead incident response, investigations, and continuous improvement efforts to reduce accidents, errors, and inefficiencies.
• Align operational capacity with customer timing, seasonal demand, and environmental conditions.
• Manage the operational P&L, expenses, capital expenditures, budget, and gain approval for any large purchases needed for operations.

• Extensive experience in agricultural chemical application operations.
• Deep understanding of safety, risk, and regulatory requirements related to fertilizer and pesticide application.
• Proven experience managing people leaders and overseeing large, distributed teams.
• Working knowledge of spray controller systems, dispatch and scheduling tools, fleet tracking, mobile field applications, and ERP systems.
• Ability to serve as a strategic, forward-thinking leader who proactively champions employee wellbeing and crop safety standards.
• Ability to lead calmly and decisively in high-risk, time-sensitive environments.

• You demonstrate strong written and verbal communication skills.
• You maintain a high level of accuracy and attention to detail.
• You have strong interpersonal and teambuilding skills with a positive, collaborative attitude.
• You build and sustain productive relationships with branch personnel, peers, and customers.
• You understand and consistently uphold confidentiality standards.

• In compliance with all states and cities requiring transparency of pay, the base compensation for this position ranges from $104,900 - $146,920. Note that salary may vary based on location, skills, and experience.
• This position is eligible for an annual discretionary bonus and vacation, holidays, health, dental, vision, mental health, and retirement plan participation, including an employer contribution of up to 7% into your 401(k).
• Follow this link for more information regarding Wilbur-Ellis employee benefits:

Please note that salary ranges provided for this role on external job boards are salary estimates made by outside parties and may not be accurate.

Diversity of people, cultures, opinions, and ideas makes us all stronger. From leadership commitment to employee buy-in, we know that creating an inclusive environment and providing opportunities for all employees to reach their full potential is a shared responsibility.

Wilbur-Ellis…