Lead Specialist - Integrated Pest Management & Horticultural Practices

United Beet Seeds BV; Tienen; Remote; EUR 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

United Beet Seeds BV is seeking a Lead Specialist for Integrated Pest Management and horticultural practices. You will safeguard and improve plant health, crop cultivation systems and seed quality across indoor seed production sites, combining technical depth with cross-site collaboration to translate innovations into practical improvements.

The role focuses on IPM strategy, cultivation protocols, and greenhouse systems, requiring travel to production sites and fluency in English, with Dutch or

Qualifications

• Strong technical expertise in horticulture or controlled-environment crop production, with IPM and greenhouse experience.
• Solid understanding of plant physiology and phytopathology.
• Ability to influence across functions without direct authority and collaborate with site teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and continuous improvement of cultivation protocols for indoor seed production across sites.
• Develop and maintain integrated pest and disease management strategies in line with regulations and sustainability.
• Ensure stable, optimized crop growing conditions and advise on greenhouse climate, irrigation, fertigation, and related systems.
• Coordinate with site coordinators and production teams to ensure knowledge sharing and protocol deployment across locations.

Skills

Horticulture/IPM

Controlled-environment

Plant physiology

Cross-functional influence

Analytical mindset

Protocol development

Communication skills

Documentation skills

Travel 10-15%

English fluent

Job description

Lead Specialist - Integrated Pest Management & Horticultural Practices

As Lead Specialist within our Product Innovation & Breeding Operations 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!

Your key responsibilities

Cultivation protocols

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

Integrated pest and disease management

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

Crop growing systems

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

Your profile

• You have strong technical expertise in horticulture or controlled-environment crop production, with proven experience in plant health, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and greenhouse cultivation systems.
• You have a solid understanding of plant physiology and phytopathology. Knowledge of greenhouse climate control, irrigation/fertigation and hygiene or phytosanitary constraints is an asset.
• You’re able to work cross-functionally and influence without direct authority, collaborating effectively with operational teams, site coordinators and managers.
• You have a structured, analytical and solution-oriented mindset, with the ability to translate biological observations and technical data into clear, practical recommendations.
• You have experience developing and improving technical protocols or standards while managing local constraints and variability.
• You have strong interpersonal, communication and documentation skills, particularly in multicultural production environments.
• You’re willing to travel regularly to production sites, approximately 10-15%.
• You’re fluent in English; French or Dutch is an additional asset.

You have a passion for plant breeding, R&D and agricultural innovation.