Director of Breeding

Fall Creek®; Oregon; Remote; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Fall Creek seeks a Director of Breeding to shape and lead our global blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry breeding strategy. You will build innovative genetics pipelines and partner across the organization to bring differentiated varieties from breeding through commercial release.

The role requires leading cross-functional teams, managing budgets and partnerships, and traveling about 25% to align with customers and breeding priorities.

Qualifications

• Graduate degree in plant breeding, genetics, horticulture, agronomy, biology, or related field
• PhD preferred
• 10+ years of progressive experience in plant breeding
• 5+ years direct leadership responsibility
• Deep experience with perennial crop breeding; berry crop experience preferred
• Proven track record of moving genetics from concept through commercial release
• Strong knowledge of genomics, phenomics, data management systems and statistical analysis
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence stakeholders

Responsibilities

• Lead Fall Creek's global breeding strategy across blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry programs
• Develop a multi-year global breeding roadmap aligned with business goals
• Build and advance genetics pipelines from breeding through commercial release
• Improve breeding processes, selection accuracy, efficiency, and genetic gain
• Advance genomics, phenomics, data science, and statistics within breeding
• Partner with Applied Research, Commercial, Production, and other teams
• Mentor breeding team members and manage budgets and partnerships
• Communicate progress and risks to leadership
• Foster collaborative and results-driven breeding culture
• Travel domestically and internationally ~25%

Skills

Plant breeding experience

Leadership experience

Genomics/Phenomics

Data analysis

Education

Graduate degree in plant breeding/genetics/horticulture/agronomy/biology

PhD preferred

Tools

Breeding data management systems

Statistical analysis tools

Job description

Fall Creek is creating a world with better blueberries through its friendly,collaborative team spread across the globe. To help us accomplish this, we are seeking a qualified Director of Breeding This position will be located as a remote position.

The Fall Creek Director of Breeding will shape and lead our global blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry breeding strategy, building innovative genetics pipelines and partnering across the organization to bring differentiated varieties from breeding through commercial release.

What you'll do at Fall Creek:

As the Director of Breeding, you will lead Fall Creek's global breeding strategy and provide leadership across our blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry breeding programs. You will set the long-term direction for our breeding pipeline while ensuring our programs continue to improve genetic gain, selection accuracy, efficiency, and commercial impact.

• Develop and lead a multi-year global breeding roadmap aligned with Fall Creek's business and product strategies.
• Build and advance strong genetics pipelines from breeding through commercial release.
• Improve breeding processes, selection accuracy, efficiency, and genetic gain.
• Advance the use of genomics, phenomics, data science, statistical analysis, and other tools within the breeding program.
• Partner closely with Applied Research, Commercial, Production, and other teams to ensure breeding priorities align with customer and business needs.
• Lead, develop, and mentor breeding team members while building strong technical and organizational capabilities.
• Manage breeding resources, budgets, external partnerships, and priorities.
• Communicate breeding progress, opportunities, risks, and recommendations to key stakeholders and leadership.
• Support a collaborative, innovative, and results-focused breeding culture across Fall Creek's global organization.
• Travel domestically and internationally as needed, approximately 25%.

What you bring to Fall Creek:

• Graduate degree in plant breeding, genetics, horticulture, agronomy, biology, or related field; PhD preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in plant breeding, with 5+ years direct leadership responsibility.
• Deep experience with perennial crop breeding; Berry crop experience preferred.
• Proven track record of moving genetics from concept through commercial release.
• Strong working knowledge and in-field deployment experience in phenomics, genomics, and breeding data management systems and statistical analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Experience managing field programs, budgets, and external research partnerships.
• Strong communication, organizational, and decision-making skills.

Who is Fall Creek?

We’re a US-based company with a keen focus on blueberry genetics, plants, and grower support delivered to the world’s premier blueberry growers. From our humble beginnings in Lowell, Oregon more than 40 years ago, we now also have wholly-owned nurseries in Mexico, Peru, Spain, South Africa, Netherlands, China, and Chile. Additionally, we have built a global team of the finest breeders, researchers, propagators and nursery professionals, grower support technicians, sales and customer service experts and more. We’re a deeply-planted link in a global chain, ready to serve our customers and our industry throughout North, Central, and South America, Greater Europe, Asia, and Africa. Our mission is to serve the growers and to support the blueberry industry, helping to ensure growers maximize success through our delivery of the best genetics and plants, technical know-how and global market intelligence. To fulfill our mission, we focus on cultivating exceptional plants, building strong relationships and providing responsive customer service. This is all part of how we’re helping to build A World with Better Blueberries.