General Manager

About Square Roots

Square Roots is the technology leader in indoor farming. We create meaningful jobs in modern farming, empowering a new generation of leaders in agriculture. With production farms in Brooklyn, NY, Kenosha, WI, Springfield, OH and Grand Rapids, MI (with more to come in 2022!). Square Roots is on a mission to responsibly bring our locally grown food to people in cities around the world, all year round.

The way we operate our business and operate our farms is better for local communities. Everyone on the Square Roots team—from farmers to engineers, commercial experts to operations specialists—is supported, connected, and empowered to do their best work to help Square Roots achieve its goals as a company. 

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced General Manager to be one of the first hires on our new Shepherdsville Campus Operations team. This role reports in to our Director of Campus Operations, but will interact with many other departments on a daily basis (Sales, Farming, Logistics, to name a few). The General Manager will also interact and work with the Central Farm Operations team heavily. The General Manager will oversee the roughly 20 member campus comprised of the Farm Management Team, which includes the Farm Manager and Facilities Manager. Assistant Farm Managers report into the Farm Manager. You will be the local point of contact and accountability for your campus, both internally to other Square Roots employees as well as to external vendors, customers, investors, etc. You will be the Campus liaison for our Central team and need to toggle back and forth between big-picture goals and day-to-day firefighting.

This role is critical in supporting the efforts of our Sales and Farm Ops teams. Sales works with customers and Farm Ops grows the food, but the Campus Ops team, led by the General Manager, is accountable for ensuring that the food makes it into customers' hands. You will be accountable for ensuring that supply on a given harvest day meets customer demand, and for collaborating with our Logistics team to get product onto store shelves. On a day-to-day basis, you will supervise the tactical coordination of Logistics, Farm Ops, and Campus Ops teams to make sure that various moving pieces are harmonized. 

You will: 

• Be accountable for guiding Square Roots produce from our Shepherdsville farm to regional store shelves by coordinating with our Farm Ops, Sales, and Logistics teams as well as external partners.
• Manage the day-to-day operations and tactical coordination of distribution and logistics out of our Kenosha facility, ensuring successful execution of our local go-to-market strategy.
• Act as the primary point of contact and accountability for Springfield campus operations.
• Manage the Springfield Farm Management Team as well as the campus Customer Operations Associate.
• Identify risks and opportunities that would impact campus KPIs and proactively resolve potential roadblocks.
• Establish and implement SOPs for new workflows related to campus operations.
• Act as campus-level liaison with our local GFS points of contact.
• Be accountable for ensuring proactive and timely renewal of any local operating permits or licenses, leveraging support from Business Operations and Compliance.
• Support the COO in data and metric analysis related to the Springfield campus, and bring these findings to Square Roots leadership and the broader company.
• Be the company expert on the Kenosha facility, and leverage this expertise to support campus and company goals.
• Build relationships with local community organizations to ensure that Square Roots is representing itself appropriately in the local community, for example, ensuring we are hiring local for farm team openings, donating excess produce to local institutions, creating opportunities for volunteer work, and amplifying the work of community organizations operating in the space.
• Manage organizational design and staffing infrastructure to ensure growth and delivery on location
• Keep ROI top of mind. Constantly seek opportunities to improve cost efficiency, procurement methods, and maintain a P/L statement.

You have experience with:

• You are familiar with the operational complexities of a food production or foodservice business
• Experience with fresh produce is a plus
• Interfacing with a wide variety of stakeholders across industries and responsibilities, from packaging vendors to investors to produce buyers
• Familiarity with spreadsheets (Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel)
• Comfortable being the sole point of responsibility for a farm operation
• Working as part of a distributed organization
• Experience operationalizing a facility in a startup environment a plus

You are:

• Able to balance the urgencies of day-to-day food production operations with longer term strategic goals
• A thoughtful, empathetic and experienced people manager
• You have strong communication skills - up, down, and across the organization
• An experienced manager of people, including other leaders with their own reports
• Able to translate and clearly communicate long-term, strategic company goals into short-term, tactical objectives and workflows
• Financially literate, metrics-driven, and prepared to evaluate KPIs and report on them to the wider business
• Passionate about real, local food and aligned with Square Roots’ values
• A problem solver and a self-starter
• You have a demonstrated interest in the food and/or agricultural industries
• You have a "no job too small" attitude
• Polished and professional
• Connected to local community organizations

You'll love working at Square Roots because: 

• We're here to change the food system. You'll have the opportunity to play a significant role in our work at the intersection of technology, farming, and the global food industry - and we're only just getting started. 
• Our team is driven by a shared set of values. These keep us aligned and remind us how to show up every day in the face of growth and ambiguity. Whether you’re working remotely or on the farms,  collaboration, respect, optimism and humility are all embraced, and we seek to empower people at every step. Ask us about the rest!
• Benefits and perks, of course. We're all here first and foremost to play our part in the mission, but medical, dental, and vision coverage, flexible work life culture, and lots of samples of the delicious food we grow certainly do not hurt. 

COVID-19 Vaccine Policy:

New employees are required to be fully vaccinated prior to their start date. The definition of fully vaccinated includes a booster for those that are eligible.

You are considered fully vaccinated if: 

• You have received a full series of the vaccine recently (meaning 2 doses within 5 months for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, or 1 dose within 2 months for Johnson and Johnson). 
• You received your full series over 5 months ago for Pfizer and Moderna or over 2 months ago for Johnson and Johnson, and have also received a booster shot. 

Proof of vaccination is required during the hiring process, and employees will be required to get booster shots as they become eligible to maintain their fully-vaccinated status.  

As federal guidance on booster shots evolves, the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ may change.  

In accordance with EEOC guidance, if you are not vaccinated or do not intend to be due to medical reasons or deeply held religious beliefs, you may make an accommodation request and Square Roots will make a reasonable effort to accommodate you, subject to the requirements of the role you are applying for. 

Failure to be fully vaccinated by start date without a documented accommodation will result in offer rescindment or termination.