Pluton Biosciences is seeking a Director of Agronomy & Product Development to guide the advancement of pipeline candidates toward successful commercialization by providing strategic and operational leadership for greenhouse and field testing.
Requirements
- 7+ years leading statistically rigorous greenhouse and field programs in fertilizers, biologicals (ideally live microbial products for agricultural use), or crop protection.
- Demonstrated expertise in experimental design and multi-location analysis.
- Proven capability with plot-scale operations and execution under variable conditions.
- Experience with microbial inoculants/biostimulants, nitrogen use efficiency trials, fertigation systems, and soil health metrics (e.g., mineralization rates, tissue/soil N, POM/MAOM).
- Familiarity with formulation effects on field performance of live microbial products.
- Knowledge of relevant agronomic practices to ensure product fit within current crop systems.
- Ability to lift 50 lb and operate/oversee small-plot equipment.
Responsibilities
- Define the end-to-end testing strategy from growth-chamber and greenhouse through multi-location field programs aligned to product milestones, regulatory needs, and commercial objectives.
- Translate target product profiles into hypothesis-driven, statistically powered protocols covering crop response, placement, timing, persistence, and compatibility.
- Establish and maintain SOPs for greenhouse/growth chamber/field protocols (design, media, crop/plant, environment, phenotyping, sampling, storage/archiving, QA/QC).
- Run and/or supervise greenhouse, growth chamber, and field studies to quantify product impacts on plant and soil health.
- Lead field operations: site selection, plot layouts, equipment readiness, agronomic practices, and application methods across diverse soils and management systems.
- In partnership with Computational Biology team, own data integrity and metadata standards, ensure scientific rigor and statistical validity across experimental designs and analyses; analyze multi-location datasets, interpret large, complex datasets and deliver timely, decision-grade reports and strategic insights to internal stakeholders.
- Partner with Microbiology Discovery, Cultivation, and Formulation teams to link lab variables to field performance and accelerate iteration cycles.
Other
- M.S. or Ph.D. in Agronomy, Soil Science, Plant Physiology, or related field.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to defend methods and conclusions for executive and external audiences.
- Commercial experience with direct grower interaction, knowledge of benefits and limitations of various plant nutrition practices, including microbial products.
- Network of CROs and cooperators in row-crop and specialty-crop geographies.
- Some travel, mostly during field trial season.
