We're Hiring: Crop Production Manager
Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote)
Employment Type: Full-Time
Experience Level: Mid-Level to Senior
Work Arrangement: Fully Remote
About Us
We are a globally focused organization committed to delivering productive, sustainable, high-quality, and commercially viable crop production through effective agronomic management, operational excellence, technology, resource optimization, and responsible environmental practices.
Our teams collaborate across Agriculture, Agronomy, Farm Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, Quality, Engineering, Sustainability, Finance, and Commercial functions to optimize crop performance and support long-term agricultural growth.
The Role
We are seeking an experienced Crop Production Manager to lead crop planning, cultivation, production operations, agronomic performance, resource management, workforce coordination, quality control, and continuous improvement.
The ideal candidate will combine strong crop-production and agronomic expertise with practical operational leadership, data-driven decision-making, and the ability to manage production from planning and planting through harvesting and post-harvest handling.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop and implement crop production strategies aligned with yield, quality, sustainability, and commercial objectives.
- Manage end-to-end crop production activities across assigned farms, fields, greenhouses, or production sites.
- Develop annual and seasonal crop plans, production forecasts, planting schedules, and harvesting calendars.
- Select suitable crops and varieties based on climate, soil conditions, production requirements, market demand, and commercial objectives.
- Coordinate land preparation, planting, transplanting, cultivation, irrigation, fertilization, crop protection, harvesting, and post-harvest activities.
- Monitor crop establishment, growth, development, maturity, health, and yield potential.
- Establish agronomic standards and operating procedures for all major production activities.
- Conduct regular field inspections, crop scouting, sampling, and performance assessments.
- Monitor soil conditions, nutrient levels, moisture, weather patterns, and other environmental factors affecting production.
- Develop and manage soil-fertility and nutrient-management programs.
- Optimize fertilizer selection, application rates, timing, and methods based on crop and soil requirements.
- Develop irrigation plans and monitor water application, consumption, efficiency, and crop response.
- Identify opportunities to improve water-use efficiency and reduce unnecessary resource consumption.
- Establish integrated pest, disease, and weed-management programs.
- Monitor pest and disease risks and coordinate timely preventive and corrective actions.
- Ensure crop-protection products are selected, stored, handled, applied, and documented in accordance with applicable requirements.
- Evaluate crop losses, production risks, and performance gaps and implement appropriate corrective actions.
- Work closely with agronomists, crop specialists, laboratories, consultants, and technical service providers.
- Coordinate soil testing, plant tissue analysis, water testing, and other agronomic assessments.
- Analyze production data to identify trends affecting yield, quality, productivity, and costs.
- Develop crop-production forecasts based on field conditions, historical performance, planting plans, and market requirements.
- Monitor production progress against approved plans and investigate significant variances.
- Manage harvesting operations to achieve required timing, volume, quality, and efficiency.
- Coordinate harvesting labor, equipment, logistics, packaging, and handling requirements.
- Establish post-harvest procedures to protect crop quality and minimize losses.
- Work with Quality and Supply Chain teams to ensure harvested products meet required specifications and delivery requirements.
- Manage crop-production budgets, operating costs, agricultural inputs, labor, equipment, and other resources.
- Monitor spending against approved budgets and identify opportunities for cost optimization.
- Plan procurement requirements for seeds, seedlings, fertilizers, crop-protection products, irrigation materials, packaging, and other production inputs.
- Manage relationships with agricultural suppliers and monitor quality, availability, cost, and delivery performance.
- Maintain appropriate inventories of critical crop-production inputs.
- Lead, supervise, train, and develop farm supervisors, field teams, operators, and seasonal workers.
- Establish clear work plans, productivity targets, responsibilities, and performance expectations.
- Ensure agricultural personnel receive appropriate training in crop-production practices, equipment use, chemical safety, and operational procedures.
- Coordinate agricultural machinery, irrigation equipment, vehicles, tools, and production infrastructure.
- Work with maintenance teams to ensure critical equipment remains reliable and available during key production periods.
- Evaluate and implement appropriate precision-agriculture, automation, sensor, remote-monitoring, and digital farming technologies.
- Use production dashboards, farm-management systems, and analytical tools to support operational decisions.
- Conduct field trials involving crop varieties, cultivation methods, fertilizers, irrigation strategies, biological controls, and other agricultural innovations.
- Evaluate trial results and recommend improvements based on scientific and operational evidence.
- Ensure crop-production activities comply with applicable agricultural, environmental, food-safety, labor, and occupational-safety requirements.
- Maintain accurate records covering planting, inputs, irrigation, fertilization, crop protection, field activities, harvesting, yields, and production costs.
- Prepare farms and production operations for audits, inspections, certifications, and regulatory reviews.
- Develop contingency plans for drought, water shortages, extreme weather, pest outbreaks, crop disease, equipment failures, labor shortages, and supply disruptions.
- Lead investigations into crop failures, significant yield losses, quality issues, and operational incidents.
- Conduct root-cause analysis and implement corrective and preventive actions.
- Develop sustainable crop-production practices that support soil health, water conservation, biodiversity, and responsible input use.
- Identify opportunities to reduce waste, improve resource efficiency, and strengthen environmental performance.
- Benchmark crop-production performance against relevant industry standards and internal targets.
- Lead continuous-improvement initiatives focused on yield, quality, cost, labor productivity, resource efficiency, and production reliability.
- Prepare regular management reports covering crop performance, forecasts, yields, quality, costs, risks, and improvement priorities.
- Present production results and strategic recommendations to senior management and relevant stakeholders.
- Promote a culture of agricultural excellence, safety, accountability, sustainability, innovation, and continuous improvement.
Key Performance Indicators
- Crop yield
- Yield per hectare
- Production volume
- Crop quality
- Grade and specification compliance
- Harvest performance
- Harvest schedule adherence
- Crop loss rate
- Pest and disease incidence
- Water-use efficiency
- Fertilizer-use efficiency
- Input-use efficiency
- Labor productivity
- Production cost per unit
- Budget adherence
- Production forecast accuracy
- Post-harvest loss rate
- Product rejection rate
- Irrigation performance
- Soil health indicators
- Crop-protection compliance
- Equipment availability
- Supplier performance
- Inventory accuracy
- Safety performance
- Regulatory and certification compliance
- Sustainability performance
- Field trial success
- Continuous-improvement results
Ideal Candidate
The successful candidate should have strong experience in crop production, agronomy, farm management, horticulture, plant science, agricultural operations, or related agricultural disciplines, preferably within commercial, large-scale, or technology-enabled crop-production environments.
The candidate should demonstrate:
- Strong knowledge of crop-production planning and agronomic practices.
- Experience managing crop production from planting through harvesting and post-harvest handling.
- Strong understanding of soil management, plant nutrition, irrigation, crop protection, and plant health.
- Experience developing seasonal production plans, crop calendars, and yield forecasts.
- Strong knowledge of pest, disease, and weed-management principles.
- Experience managing agricultural teams, field supervisors, seasonal workers, and contractors.
- Strong understanding of agricultural machinery, irrigation systems, and production infrastructure.
- Experience managing agricultural inputs, suppliers, inventories, budgets, and operating costs.
- Strong analytical and data-driven decision-making capabilities.
- Experience using farm-management systems, precision agriculture, sensors, remote monitoring, or agricultural analytics is advantageous.
- Strong understanding of sustainable agriculture and responsible resource management.
- Experience conducting field trials and evaluating new crop varieties or production techniques.
- Strong problem-solving and root-cause-analysis capabilities.
- Excellent planning, organizational, leadership, and stakeholder-management skills.
- Ability to manage multiple crops, production areas, priorities, and seasonal deadlines.
- Strong understanding of agricultural safety, food safety, and regulatory requirements.
- Strong written and verbal English communication skills; additional languages are advantageous.
- A degree in Agriculture, Agronomy, Horticulture, Plant Science, Crop Science, Agricultural Engineering, or a related discipline is highly desirable.