Seed Field Supervisor

State of Washington • Multiple Locations Statewide, WA

9d • Remote

About The Position

The Washington State Department of Agriculture's Commodity Inspection Division provides unbiased third-party inspections for a wide variety of Washington State agricultural products and assists agricultural companies in the movement and exporting of their products. The division is made up of roughly 365 FTEs through four statewide programs: Fruit and Vegetable inspection, Grain inspection, Grain Warehouse Audit, and Seed inspection and Certification. The WSDA Seed Program provides accurate, timely and high-quality seed analysis and certification services while continually striving for improvements in methods and technologies to assure success for the program and its seed industry stakeholders. The WSDA Seed Program is a unit within the Commodity Inspection Division that conducts pre-harvest seed field inspections and laboratory seed testing of agricultural, vegetable, native plants, rangeland grasses and flower seeds grown under the certification and phytosanitary programs. The program is responsible for seed certification, seed testing, phytosanitary visual seed inspection, seed inspection and official seed sampling as well as the program is the state seed regulatory agent. Additionally, the program monitors two seed quarantines to assist producers to replicate disease and pest free commodities. This position directly supports the mission of the program by overseeing quality phytosanitary and certification field inspections, drawing official samples while enforcing federal and state regulations and maintaining positive relations with stakeholders. The Seed Field Supervisor is a specialist who supervises the field component of the program. The incumbent directs the inspection activity and assists operations by supervising inspection staff. This position administers, oversees, and directs field activities and advises public entities and program administrative staff on the program field inspection components. As Seed Field Supervisor, this position is responsible for ensuring all employees under their supervision comply with the FSA seed regulatory chapters, AOSCA certification standards, OECD certification standards, ISTA sampling methods, USDASAC sampling methods and inspection procedures for all seed commodities within the program scope of inspection. This position is required to be in the field at least 50% of the time.

Requirements

• One (1) year of experience leading or supervising within an agricultural environment.
• Five (5) years of experience in seed industry production, processing, marketing and testing or within an agricultural environment where the candidate interprets and applies state and federal regulations.
• Must maintain specific licensure, such as International Seed Testing Association sampling certification, USDA authorized Sampling and USDA Authorized Certification Officer credentials.
• Must acquire and maintain all specialized licenses and certifications required by the United States Department of Agriculture for all commodities of the area to which assigned prior to appointment.

Nice To Haves

• Experience applying state and federal seed certification regulations, seed law enforcement standards and identifying diseases and weeds found in crops and/or in seed industry production, processing, marketing, and testing.

Responsibilities

• Determine priorities, set objectives, coordinates field activities and supervises the daily activities of full time and seasonal field inspectors
• Create a healthy and safe work environment that fosters empowered team members to exceed customer and team expectation within budget.
• Maintain a neutral supervisory relationship with staff.
• Read, interpret, comprehend and follow inspections and methodology in policies, procedures, directives, notices, rules and regulations relating to the position and the industry.
• Exercise full technical and administrative supervision over all field inspection staff; plan, assign, and review the work of up to 5 permanent and approximately 14 seasonal field inspectors, adjust assignments and schedules to maintain adequate cost-effective staffing levels and respond to fluctuating workloads for the entire state of Washington.
• Track the progress of field inspections to be aware of each inspector's progress of assigned work.
• Assess workload and adjust assignments to meet industry needs.
• Performs certification and phytosanitary field inspections and provides staff training.
• Officially samples seed lots at warehouse as requested.
• Monitoring maintenances and repairs of state issued vehicles and equipment.
• Ensure vehicles and other necessary equipment are maintained according to schedules in working order and available for seasonal and full-time inspectors.
• Issue a phytosanitary certificate as a licensed USDA ACO according to current rules and regulations.
• Supervise the work of other field staff and identify gaps in training or performance.
• Communicates effectively with growers and seed companies and responds to questions regarding certification from the general public.
• Responsible for regulatory assignments by checking the licensing labeling and shipping for truth in seed labeling requirements and responding to complaints.
• Obtain and maintain licenses with USDA as an authorized official sampler and ACO accreditation.
• Develop appropriate training resources for professional development and skill building for permanent and seasonal field staff.
• Supervision and training of permanent and seasonal inspectors in these activities.

Benefits

• flexible work schedules
• teleworking
• Dependent Care Assistance
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness
• Tuition Waiver
• Deferred Compensation
• Employee Recognition Leave
• 12 paid Holidays
• Vacation and Leave Accruals
• All Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) required will be provided by the agency.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed