Agronomist - Othello, Washington

McCain Foods; Othello (WA); On-site; USD 66,000 - 87,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Retirement savings benefits

Leave support (medical, family, bereav

Vacation and holidays

Volunteering time

Mental health resources

Job summary

McCain Foods is seeking a Regional Agronomist in Othello, WA to execute regional agricultural strategy and drive grower adoption of new potato varieties and regenerative practices. You will lead field initiatives, collaborate with growers and internal teams, and provide crop risk intelligence.

You will evaluate technologies like remote sensing and predictive analytics, mentor interns, and translate R&D priorities into practical field applications, ensuring yield, quality, and supply reliability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science in Plant Science, Soil Science, Agricultural Production or related field.
• Strong agronomic knowledge and crop production experience.
• Ability to build productive grower relationships and communicate across technical/business audiences.
• Ability to assess agronomic risk, interpret field data, and make practical recommendations.
• Ability to manage multi-year adoption and monitoring across a geographic region.
• Willingness to travel and obtain CMA certification within first year.

Responsibilities

• Execute regional innovation strategy to improve yield, quality, cost, sustainability, and supply outcomes.
• Lead commercialization and adoption of new potato varieties by validating field and storage performance against standards.
• Implement regenerative agriculture initiatives and conduct field trials with grower feedback.
• Pilot emerging agronomic technologies and assess cost-benefit and scalability.
• Translate R&D priorities into field/storage applications with growers and resolve adoption challenges.
• Build trusted grower relationships and serve as primary technical advisor.
• Lead crop monitoring and intelligence activities and escalate risks with data.
• Evaluate AI-enabled tools to improve monitoring and decision support.
• Develop interns and staff through coaching and feedback.
• Share regional insights and represent McCain in industry networks.

Skills

Grower relationships

Technical communication

Problem solving

Project management

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor of Science in Plant Science or related

Tools

Remote sensing

Soil monitoring

Predictive analytics

AI-enabled solutions

Job description

Position Title:

Agronomist - Othello, Washington

Position Type:

Regular - Full-Time

Requisition ID:

44816

Regional Agronomist

In every role, McCainers are ambitious, curious, and passionate about creating exceptional work experiences - together. With a customer-first mindset, we make doing business with McCain easy.

About The Role.

The Regional Agronomist executes the regional agricultural strategy developed with regional leadership and translates McCain's innovation priorities into practical, on-the-ground results. This role leads grower adoption of new potato varieties, regenerative practices, and emerging technologies while providing proactive crop risk intelligence. Working closely with growers, field teams, interns, and internal partners, the Regional Agronomist strengthens grower outcomes in yield, quality, cost, sustainability, and supply reliability.

What you'll be doing

• Execute the regional innovation strategy to improve yield, quality, cost, sustainability, and supply outcomes.
• Lead the regional commercialization and adoption of new potato varieties by validating field and storage performance against McCain standards and demonstrating economic value to growers.
• Implement regenerative agriculture initiatives with adoption-ready growers, address agronomic and economic barriers, conduct field trials, and capture grower feedback.
• Pilot emerging agronomic technologies and production practices, assess real-world viability, cost-benefit trade-offs, and scalability, and provide field-level insights to leadership.
• Translate regional R&D priorities and recommendations into field and storage applications with grower partners, identifying and resolving adoption challenges.
• Build trusted grower relationships and serve as McCain's primary technical advisor and problem-solver for assigned grower partnerships.
• Lead crop monitoring and intelligence activities, escalating emerging crop, weather, pest, disease, storage, quality, or supply risks with supporting field data.
• Evaluate digital agriculture tools such as remote sensing, soil monitoring, predictive analytics, and AI-enabled solutions to improve monitoring and decision support.
• Manage and develop assigned interns and support staff through clear expectations, on-the-job training, coaching, and feedback.
• Develop subject matter expertise, facilitate peer learning, share regional insights across the Agronomist network, and represent McCain professionally in industry organizations and grower networks.

What you'll need to be successful

• Bachelor of Science degree in Plant Science, Soil Science, Agricultural Production, or a related agricultural discipline.
• Strong agronomic knowledge, including crop production systems and potato production practices.
• Demonstrated ability to build productive relationships with growers and agricultural stakeholders and communicate across technical and business audiences.
• Sound technical judgment with the ability to assess agronomic risk, interpret field-level data, evaluate trade-offs, and make practical recommendations.
• Strong facilitation, project and activity management, stakeholder coordination, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to manage multi-year adoption and monitoring activities, track execution metrics, coordinate resources, and manage multiple priorities across a geographic region.
• Curiosity and willingness to adopt AI and digital agriculture tools to improve efficiency, data quality, monitoring, adoption tracking, and decision support.
• Valid driver's license and willingness to travel within the assigned region.
• Certified McCain Agronomist (CMA) certification within the first year of employment.
• Professional Agrologist certification required for Canada-based roles; Certified Crop Advisor (CCA) certification preferred.

About The Team.

Reporting directly to the Regional Agronomy Manager, the Regional Agronomist is part of McCain's regional Agronomy organization. The role works closely with growers, McCain Field teams, supply chain partners, R&D teams, and regional leadership. It also provides day-to-day leadership and development for assigned interns and support staff and contributes to the broader Agronomist network through peer learning and knowledge sharing.

About McCain.

Click Here to learn more about McCain and how we provide you with opportunities to make an impact that matters.

Leadership principles

At McCain, our leadership principles guide how we engage with customers, collaborate as a team, and achieve success. We focus on understanding customer needs, driving innovation, empowering people, and taking ownership to clear obstacles and deliver results.

AI & Digital Capabilities

At McCain, AI and digital capabilities are part of how we work and innovate. We value curiosity toward emerging technologies and the thoughtful, responsible use of AI-enabled tools to improve outcomes as part of our future-ready culture.

The McCain Experience

We are McCain. This statement is a testament to our collective strength and our individual value. Your contributions play a vital role in our success. Our winning culture is rooted inauthenticity and trust, empowering us to bring out the best in one another. Here, you'll find opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive. Join us and experience why we're better together.

Compensation Package

$65,500.00 - $87,400.00 * USD annually + Bonus eligibility

The above reflects the target compensation range for the position at the time of posting. Hiring compensation will be determined based on experience, skill set, education and training, and other organizational needs. This posting is for an existing vacancy.

Benefits

At McCain, we’re on a mission to create a winning culture that puts employee safety and well-being at the heart of what we do, every day. We understand and appreciate that each person’s needs are unique and ensure our benefits & well-being programs reflect that. Employees are eligible for the following benefits:

• health coverage (medical, dental, vision, prescription drug)
• retirement savings benefits
• leave support including medical, family and bereavement
• vacation and holidays
• company-supported volunteering time
• mental health resources

Coverages are aligned with applicable law and can vary by work level, location, and nature of the role. Additional benefit detail available during the application process.

Your well-being matters to us, and we’re here to provide you with the necessary resources to support you in being your best self at work — and at home.

McCain Foods is an equal opportunity employer. As a global family-owned company, we strive to be the employer of choice in the diverse communities around the world in which we live and work. We recognize that inclusion drives our creativity, resilience, and success and makes our business stronger. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.

McCain is an accessible employer. If you require an accommodation throughout the recruitment process (including alternate formats of materials or accessible meeting rooms), please let us know and we will work with you to find appropriate solutions.

Your privacy is important to us. By submitting personal data or information to us, you agree this will be handled in accordance with McCain’s Global Privacy Policy and Global Employee Privacy Policy, as applicable. McCain leverages AI in the hiring process, though all final decisions are made by humans. You can understand our approach to AI and how your personal information is being handled here.

Job Family:

Agriculture

Location(s):

US - United States of America : Washington : Othello

Company:

McCain Foods USA, Inc.