Lead Specialist - Integrated Pest Management & Horticultural Practices

United Beet Seeds BV; Tienen; On-site; EUR 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

United Beet Seeds BV is seeking a Lead Specialist for our Breeding Operations & Product Innovation team in Belgium. You will safeguard and improve plant health, crop cultivation systems and seed quality across indoor seed production sites, applying IPM and horticultural expertise.

You will lead protocol development, collaborate across locations, and translate findings into practical improvements while ensuring regulatory and biosafety requirements are met. Some travel to sites is expected.

Qualifications

• Strong technical expertise in horticulture or controlled-environment crop production.
• Experience in plant health, IPM and greenhouse systems.
• Knowledge of greenhouse climate control, irrigation, fertigation and hygiene constraints is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and improvement of crop cultivation protocols for indoor seed production.
• Develop and maintain integrated pest and disease management strategies.
• Provide technical expertise on greenhouse climate, irrigation and fertigation systems.
• Coordinate with site coordinators and teams to ensure protocol alignment and knowledge sharing.
• Evaluate new tools and practices for deployment in production environments.

Skills

Cross-functional collaboration

Analytical mindset

Documentation skills

Strong communication

Travel willingness

Fluent in English

Job description

As Lead Specialist within our Breeding Operations & Product Innovation department, you will safeguard and continuously improve plant health, crop cultivation systems and seed quality across our indoor seed production sites. You will combine deep technical expertise with strong cross-site collaboration to shape robust protocols, advance integrated pest management and horticultural practices, and turn innovation into practical improvements. If you are passionate about plant breeding, controlled-environment crop production and agricultural innovation, we would love to hear from you!

Responsibilities

Cultivation protocols

• Lead the development and continuous improvement of crop cultivation protocols for indoor seed production activities across relevant sites.
• Ensure protocols are scientifically robust, documented, accessible and aligned with seed quality, genetic integrity, regulatory, safety and biosafety requirements.
• Support consistent application of standardized practices while respecting local constraints, and translate incidents, trials and team feedback into improvements.

Integrated pest and disease management

• Act as the technical reference for plant health across facilities with indoor seed production or phytopathology activities.
• Lead the development and maintenance of integrated pest and disease management strategies in line with regulatory and sustainability requirements.
• Strengthen early detection, diagnosis and mitigation of plant health risks, using harmonized approaches with appropriate site-specific adaptations.

Crop growing systems

• Ensure stable and optimized crop growing conditions across indoor facilities.
• Provide technical expertise on greenhouse climate, irrigation and fertigation systems, and define crop-driven principles for cultivation settings.
• Support operational teams in understanding and adjusting systems according to crop needs.
• Align with site coordinators, production team leaders, phytopathology and other technical or support functions across locations.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and technical alignment without owning day-to-day planning, execution or people management.
• Evaluate and help deploy new tools, technologies and practices in active production environments, transferring validated protocols to Operations for implementation.
• Build consistency across sites with different technologies, constraints, cultivation histories and levels of technical maturity.
• Influence operational decisions through technical credibility and collaboration, while balancing standardization with local adaptation.

Qualifications

• Strong technical expertise in horticulture or controlled-environment crop production, with proven experience in plant health, IPM and greenhouse cultivation systems.
• Solid understanding of plant physiology and phytopathology. Knowledge of greenhouse climate control, irrigation/fertigation and hygiene or phytosanitary constraints is an asset.

Required Skills

• Ability to work cross-functionally and influence without direct authority, collaborating effectively with operational teams, site coordinators and managers.
• A structured, analytical and solution-oriented mindset, with the ability to translate biological observations and technical data into clear, practical recommendations.
• Experience developing and improving technical protocols or standards while managing local constraints and variability.
• Strong interpersonal, communication and documentation skills, particularly in multicultural production environments.
• Willingness to travel regularly to production sites, approximately 10-15%.
• Fluent in English; French or Dutch is an additional asset.
• Passion for plant breeding, R&D and agricultural innovation.