🌾 We're Hiring: Agronomy Manager
📍 Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote)
🕒 Employment Type: Full-Time
💼 Experience Level: Mid-Level to Senior
🌐 Work Arrangement: Fully Remote
About Us
We are an agriculture-focused organization committed to improving crop productivity, soil health, resource efficiency, sustainability, and farm performance through science, technology, and responsible agricultural practices. Our distributed teams collaborate across Agronomy, Agriculture Operations, Irrigation, Soil Science, Plant Science, Research & Development, Sustainability, Supply Chain, Data Science, Procurement, and Executive Leadership to deliver resilient and high-performing agricultural systems.
The Role
We are seeking an experienced Agronomy Manager to lead agronomic strategy, crop production programmes, soil and nutrient management, irrigation optimization, crop health, field trials, agricultural research, technology adoption, and farm-performance improvement. The ideal candidate will combine practical agronomic expertise with data-driven decision-making to improve crop yield, quality, resource efficiency, profitability, and environmental sustainability.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop and implement agronomic strategies aligned with crop-production objectives, farm performance, sustainability targets, market requirements, and organizational priorities.
- Lead crop-production planning covering crop selection, planting schedules, cultivation practices, irrigation, fertilization, pest management, harvesting, rotation, and post-harvest requirements.
- Collaborate with Agronomists, Farm Managers, Soil Scientists, Irrigation Specialists, Plant Scientists, Agricultural Engineers, Researchers, Sustainability Teams, Supply Chain, Procurement, Data Scientists, and Executive Leadership.
- Develop crop-specific production protocols, agronomic standards, field-management plans, nutrient programmes, irrigation strategies, and crop-performance targets.
- Monitor and optimize soil health, fertility, nutrient availability, salinity, pH, organic matter, soil structure, and other key soil characteristics.
- Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) including yield per hectare, crop quality, water-use efficiency, fertilizer efficiency, input costs, crop losses, pest incidence, soil-health indicators, resource productivity, and farm profitability.
- Conduct crop scouting, field assessments, plant-health monitoring, soil assessments, pest and disease surveillance, and agronomic performance reviews.
- Develop integrated pest management (IPM) programmes using biological, cultural, mechanical, and appropriately managed chemical controls.
- Manage irrigation strategies and water-use optimization through crop water requirements, soil-moisture monitoring, irrigation scheduling, fertigation, precision irrigation, and water-efficiency initiatives.
- Develop nutrient-management programmes based on soil testing, tissue analysis, crop requirements, yield targets, nutrient budgets, and environmental considerations.
- Lead field trials, crop experiments, variety evaluations, fertilizer trials, irrigation studies, biological-input assessments, soil-health programmes, and agricultural technology pilots.
- Evaluate crop varieties, seeds, fertilizers, biostimulants, biological products, crop-protection solutions, irrigation technologies, agricultural equipment, and precision-agriculture technologies.
- Partner with Procurement and Supply Chain teams to evaluate agricultural suppliers, input quality, product performance, availability, cost, technical support, and supplier reliability.
- Develop sustainable agricultural practices covering soil conservation, water efficiency, biodiversity, integrated pest management, nutrient efficiency, carbon management, waste reduction, and responsible input use.
- Monitor weather, climate, soil, crop, and environmental data to identify production risks and optimize agronomic decisions.
- Develop contingency plans for drought, heat stress, salinity, pest outbreaks, disease pressure, extreme weather, water shortages, and other agricultural risks.
- Drive precision agriculture through artificial intelligence (AI), remote sensing, satellite imagery, drones, geographic information systems (GIS), IoT sensors, automated irrigation, predictive crop modelling, and farm-management analytics.
- Utilize farm-management platforms, ArcGIS, QGIS, Microsoft 365, Power BI, Tableau, Python, R, remote-sensing platforms, soil-monitoring systems, weather stations, irrigation-management technologies, drone platforms, and agricultural data systems.
- Ensure agronomic operations comply with applicable UAE agricultural, environmental, water-management, pesticide, food-safety, occupational health and safety, and sustainability requirements.
- Manage agronomy budgets covering seeds, fertilizers, crop-protection products, soil testing, irrigation technologies, field trials, agricultural consultants, precision-agriculture systems, equipment, and research programmes.
- Prepare agronomic reports, crop-performance dashboards, soil-health assessments, nutrient plans, irrigation analyses, trial reports, farm-performance reviews, sustainability assessments, and strategic recommendations for senior leadership.
- Provide technical guidance and training to farm teams, agronomists, field technicians, agricultural operators, suppliers, and other stakeholders.
- Lead, mentor, and develop agronomists, crop specialists, field technicians, researchers, and agricultural teams while fostering a culture of scientific rigor, operational excellence, sustainability, innovation, safety, and continuous improvement.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Agronomy, Agricultural Science, Crop Science, Soil Science, Plant Science, Horticulture, Agricultural Engineering, or a related field.
- Master's degree in Agronomy, Crop Science, Soil Science, Agricultural Science, Horticulture, Plant Science, or a related discipline is highly advantageous.
- Professional certifications or memberships in agronomy, crop science, soil science, precision agriculture, sustainable agriculture, or related fields are preferred.
- Minimum 5 years of experience in agronomy, crop production, agricultural research, farm management, soil management, horticulture, or related roles.
- At least 2 years of experience managing agronomic programmes, crop-production teams, field trials, agricultural research initiatives, or multidisciplinary farming projects preferred.
- Strong understanding of crop physiology, soil science, plant nutrition, irrigation management, integrated pest management, crop protection, agricultural sustainability, field experimentation, and farm operations.
- Experience with farm-management systems, ArcGIS, QGIS, Microsoft 365, Power BI, Tableau, Python, R, remote sensing, drone technologies, soil-monitoring systems, weather platforms, precision-agriculture tools, and irrigation-management technologies.
- Familiarity with AI-powered crop modelling, satellite imagery, drone-based crop monitoring, machine learning, predictive yield analytics, automated irrigation, precision nutrient management, and digital agriculture is highly advantageous.
- Strong scientific, analytical, leadership, communication, project management, stakeholder management, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
- Ability to translate agronomic research, field observations, environmental data, and crop-performance information into practical recommendations and measurable improvements.
- Strong understanding of sustainable agriculture, water conservation, soil-health management, climate resilience, agricultural inputs, and responsible crop-production practices.
- Ability to manage multiple agronomic programmes while balancing crop yield, quality, resource availability, water consumption, input costs, environmental impact, farm operations, safety, and commercial objectives.
- Ability to work effectively in a remote environment with distributed agronomy, agriculture, research, irrigation, sustainability, procurement, supply-chain, data, and executive teams, with occasional travel for farm visits, field trials, supplier assessments, agricultural conferences, site evaluations, and operational reviews as required.
What We Offer
- Fully remote work arrangement with flexible collaboration across global agronomy, agriculture operations, research, irrigation, sustainability, supply chain, procurement, data, and executive teams.
- Competitive compensation package with performance-based incentives.
- Comprehensive health and wellness benefits.
- Professional development and agronomy leadership growth opportunities.
- Exposure to AI-powered precision agriculture, predictive crop analytics, remote sensing, smart irrigation, digital farming, automated crop monitoring, and advanced agricultural technologies.
- Collaborative culture focused on agricultural innovation, scientific excellence, sustainability, resource efficiency, food production, and continuous improvement.
- Opportunity to improve crop productivity and resilience through advanced agronomic science, sustainable farming practices, precision agriculture, and data-driven agricultural management.