At Syngenta, our goal is to build the most collaborative and trustworthy team in agriculture, providing top-quality seeds and innovative crop protection solutions that improve farmers' success. To support this mission, Syngenta's Seeds Research Traits Team is seeking a TE Regulated Operations Lead in Salinas, PR. This role will be accountable for leading the Trait Evaluation (TE) operations in Puerto Rico and for the end-to-end delivery of all Traits R&D year-round activities across the region, encompassing both shade house and field operations.
The TE Regulated Operations Lead core responsibilities include directing full-cycle shade house operations, overseeing year-round field activities, and partnering closely with the site team to plan and execute regulated field nurseries for corn and soybean throughout the rest of the year. This role will manage a team of 3-4 personnel to execute all TE-owned activities in the continuous nursery program. The position ensures high-quality trait evaluation data generation, on-time delivery of quality and quantity of regulated seeds, and seamless integration between TE-specific and site-wide activities to support biotech traits pipeline.
Accountabilities:
Regulated Field and Shade House Operations:
- Plan, coordinate and execute all end-to-end activities from planting to harvest for regulated corn and soybean nurseries in PR.
- Secure the delivery of quality and quantity of regulated seeds required for both corn and soybean trials.
- Manage shade house site and relationship with grower/collaborator.
- Plan, coordinate, and execute all end-to-end shade house activities from pot preparation, sowing, and transplanting through irrigation/fertigation, weed removal, and plant maintenance.
- Manage pollination and controlled crossing operations, ensuring accurate sample collection, data recording, and traceability throughout the process.
- Oversee harvest operations including drying, shelling, and preparing material for shipment while maintaining high standards of plant health, data integrity, and operational safety.
- Identify and report pest and disease issues; coordinate with the PR Agronomy team for IPM support (e.g., bag injections).
Seamless Coordination Between TE and PR Site Teams:
- Own and execute all activities transitioning from PR site to TE responsibility, including packet management, planting operations, field staking, early data collection, and data entry into SPIRIT/SSP systems.
- Lead pollination workflows from pre-pollination data collection through pollination execution, post-pollination observations, and sample processing (banding, lyophilization, discard/confirm).
- Manage harvest through post-harvest operations including drying, shelling, and shipment preparation, ensuring smooth handoffs with PR site team on shared activities such as allocation/mapping, lab shipments, and final shipping.
- Submit TE demand and activity requests to the PR site through the established feasibility assessment and prioritization process, ensuring timely communication to enable site planning for shared activities (planting, sampling, harvesting/threshing).
Operational Planning and Continuous Improvement:
- Develop seasonal and weekly operational plans for TE activities.
- Monitor KPIs, identify bottlenecks, and implement process improvements.
- Optimize resource allocation, labor scheduling, and equipment utilization.
- Contribute to budget planning and cost control for TE operations.
Data Quality & Compliance:
- Work with Trait QM team to implement highest standards of QM for regulated activities.
- Ensure accurate and timely data collection and entry into relevant systems (SPIRIT, SSP, TOPS).
- Maintain data integrity and traceability throughout all TE activities.
- Collaborate with stewardship compliance to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements for trait evaluation nurseries and material handling.
- Serve as the primary point of contact for stewardship compliance matters, partnering with the Stewardship and Regulatory teams to proactively identify, escalate, and resolve compliance risks.
- Own devitalization activities and all regulated compliance data management in RegOne or in partnership with the Regulatory team.
- Manage sample tracking, labeling, and chain of custody.
Leadership and Team Management:
- Supervise and develop a team of 3-4 TE staff to deliver operational goals.
- Assign tasks, monitor progress, and ensure quality and safety compliance.
- Build technical skills and operational capability within the team.
- Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and HSE compliance.
- Ensure the team participates in all required HSE training and site-led safety updates.
- Provide regular and timely updates to key stakeholders to ensure high quality data and delivery of the required quality and quantity of regulated seed.
- Log all recordable incidents to the Traits R&D organization.
- Manage and communicate effectively with key stakeholders, establishing a regular cadence for updates, alignment, and issue resolution.