Position Title: Commercial Potato Breeder
Location: Watsonville, CA with 25-50% travel
Type: Full-time
Opportunity:
Ohalo is seeking a Commercial Potato Breeder to lead the advancement of potato varieties from late-stage development through commercial readiness. This role sits at the intersection of breeding, agronomy, and commercial execution, ensuring new varieties perform consistently across environments and meet the needs of growers, processors, and partners. This person works closely to align our product direction and production efforts with the needs and successful results of our growers.
The ideal candidate combines strong technical expertise in potato variety development with a practical, field-oriented mindset and the ability to collaborate closely with internal R&D teams and external stakeholders.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead late-stage variety development activities for potato programs, including multi-location field trials and pre-commercial evaluations that align with the Ohalo commercial go-to-market strategy.
- Design, execute, and analyze regional and on-farm trials to validate performance, stability, and agronomic fit.
- Serve as the technical bridge between R&D, product, and commercial teams, translating data into clear deliverables.
- Own the product registration & UPOV process in a global landscape.
- Partner with growers, processors, and other external collaborators to support trial execution and feedback to support and drive commercial sales and vision.
- Collect, synthesize, and communicate trial results to internal stakeholders in a clear, actionable way.
- Evaluate varieties against commercial benchmarks (yield, quality, disease resistance, storage, processing traits, etc.).
- Provide technical input into variety positioning, launch planning, and market segmentation as it aligns with our commercial organization.
- Support continuous improvement of Ohalo’s variety development and evaluation processes.
Qualifications
- Master’s degree or higher in Agronomy, Plant Science, Horticulture, Crop Science, or a related field.
- 5+ years of direct experience in potato variety development, agronomy, or commercial seed systems.
- Hands-on experience designing and managing field trials across multiple environments.
- Familiarity with production-scale constraints and process control (sampling plans, SOP validation, QC thresholds).
- Strong understanding of potato production systems, grower needs, and commercial success factors.
- Excellent communication skills. Ability to interpret agronomic and performance data and translate it into commercial insights.
- Comfortable working in a fast-moving, fluid, collaborative, and innovative environment.
- Willingness to travel as needed to trial sites and partner locations. Travel amount will vary depending on activities for the timing of the year i.e. planting, harvesting, etc. (10%-50%).
- Highly motivated with a strong drive to meet company objectives.
- Comfortable utilizing technological advancements, including AI and similar methodologies, to drive continuous improvement in alignment with company strategy.
- Innovative, proactive, and strategic thinker with a confident and humble approach to collaboration and problem-solving.
Preferred Experience
- Direct experience supporting commercial launches of new potato varieties.
- Familiarity with seed multiplication systems and grower adoption dynamics, in particular relating to the potato industry.
- Experience working with processors &/or fresh market channels.
- Exposure to advanced breeding technologies or biotech-enabled crop development.
About Ohalo:
Ohalo™ aims to accelerate evolution to unlock nature's potential. Founded in 2019, Ohalo develops novel breeding systems and improved plant varieties that help farmers grow more food with fewer natural resources, increasing the yield, resiliency, and genetic diversity of crops to sustainably feed our population. Ohalo's breakthrough technology, Boosted Breeding™, will usher in a new era of improved productivity to radically transform global agriculture. For more information, visit www.ohalo.com.
Notes: If you previously applied for a job at Ohalo Genetics, we encourage you to restate your interest in the position by submitting your application.
Ohalo is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other factor protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. Ohalo is also committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. Please let your recruiter know if you need an accommodation at any point during the interview process.
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