Agronomy Operations Manager

India Country Organisation | Full-Time, Permanent | Field-Based, Andhra Pradesh / Telangana

Why This Is a Challenging Job

FinAgra's India portfolio runs across Ananthapur (banana), Guntur (red chilli), and Jagtiyal (turmeric), with ginger and pulses in development. Every crop has a different calendar, a different biosecurity risk profile, a different mechanisation requirement, and a different quality specification at offtake. The Operations Manager does not run one of these clusters — they run all of them simultaneously, while managing the REP relationships, the input supply chain, the mechanisation scheduling, and the financial discipline that keeps the programme solvent. This role demands someone who has done this before, at scale, and has the judgment that comes from having got it wrong once and knowing exactly what that cost.

Core Responsibilities

End-to-end seasonal execution. Own delivery of the seasonal operating plan across all India clusters from land preparation through harvest and offtake handover. Every major operation — land prep, planting, crop protection, harvest, post-harvest — planned, resourced, executed, and documented against specification.

1. Mechanisation and input coordination. Plan tractor and implement deployment across clusters. No operation waits for equipment. Implement calibration standards enforced before any field operation begins. Input supply confirmed and quality-checked before planting windows open. Vendor performance managed against delivery commitments.

2. REP network management. Hold the REP network to plan. Build the working relationships that sustain compliance over multiple seasons. Distinguish between a REP who needs coaching and one who needs to be replaced — and act on that distinction quickly.

3. Irrigation and fertigation oversight. Drip system integrity verified at season start. Fertigation schedules aligned with agronomic plans. EC and pH monitored and within specification throughout. Pressure testing and clog prevention managed as routine — not as emergencies.

4. Agronomic gate discipline. Nothing advances without agronomic clearance from the agronomy team. Land not ready for planting does not get planted. Crop protection deviating from SOP gets stopped. You are the operations authority; the agronomists are the technical authority. Both gates must be cleared.

5. Financial discipline. Track cost per hectare against budget by cluster and crop. Understand which operations are generating cost overruns and why. Sign off on mechanisation and contractor invoices only after verified work completion. Report plan-versus-actual on cost and yield weekly — not monthly.

6. Digital and data discipline. Accurate, real-time operational data in FinAgra's farm management system. Plot-level records. Photo evidence. The data you produce becomes the management information the business makes decisions from — it must be correct.

7. Team leadership. Build and develop the on-ground operations team. Clear performance standards. Coaching that improves capability. Honest assessment when a person is not meeting the standard. You are responsible for the team's output, not just your own.
   

What We Are Looking For

Essential Requirements

• BSc in Agronomy, Agriculture, or a directly related field. MSc preferred.

• Minimum 12 years of progressively senior agricultural operations experience — at least 5 of those at multi-cluster or multi-crop programme level. Contract farming, out-grower schemes, or large cooperative management all count if the P&L accountability was real.

• Hands-on technical knowledge across FinAgra's India portfolio: banana (TC establishment, ratoon management, TR4 biosecurity), red chilli (nursery through drip-fertigation through dried-pod quality), turmeric (rhizome handling through curing and AGMARK grading), and commercial pulses. Ginger knowledge is a significant advantage.

• Mechanisation authority: you can specify the bed-forming geometry for turmeric or chilli, set drip tape spacing and flow rate for banana, verify boom sprayer calibration output, assess whether a rhizome harvesting line is set correctly. Mechanisation is a core competency, not a supplier's problem.

• Irrigation and fertigation: drip design parameters, lateral management, EC/pH control, fertigation compatibility and sequence. You troubleshoot a system in the field, not over the phone to a supplier.

• Financial literacy: farm-level P&L, input cost modelling, mechanisation cost-per-hectare, offtake value chain. Comfortable building and owning a cluster-level budget.

• Digital tools: ERP or farm management software as an operator, Excel to model-level, AI tools for reporting and decision support. Notion and Slack as communication infrastructure.

• Telugu and/or Kannada as a working language is strongly preferred. English required for all reporting and senior communication.

• Three verifiable professional references — minimum one from a direct superior in a multi-site agricultural operations role, and one from a peer or direct report who can speak to operational discipline and leadership under pressure. References are contacted before offers are made.