Lithos is looking for a highly motivated and multi-faceted candidate for the Program Manager, Midwest Farm Deployments role. The Program Manager will supervise every aspect of the deployment of basalt to individual farmer’s fields to include initial outreach, deployment planning, transportation, agricultural operations such as rock spreading, soil testing and spatial mapping, and more. The ideal candidate will have relevant work experience in industrial operations, transport logistics, or supply-chain management. We value diverse backgrounds and are open to different types of applicable experience.
Program Manager, Midwest Farm Deployments will also work on initiatives to develop new procedures and strategies that increase operational efficiency, enable efficient scale, and reduce the logistics costs of capturing carbon so that society can scale to meaningful levels of carbon removal.
While a scientific or agricultural background is not required, we are looking for a candidate with the intellectual horsepower and drive to learn about these topics. This is a cross-functional role and we value a demonstrated eagerness to dive deeply into new topics.
This Program Manager, Midwest Farm Deployments role is a hybrid role at Lithos. Employees will be expected to work from the office 3 days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) and from home 2 days a week (Monday and Friday). This role will require an average of 5-7 travel days a month.
Requirements
- Farmer Relationships: Build and maintain high-trust relationships with our partnered farmers who spread our emissions-capturing, nutrient-rich volcanic rockdust on their farmland. Develop prescriptive logistics plans for deploying material to farms of diverse sizes, farmer backgrounds, and agronomic practices. Own multi-year, multi-deployment cycle relationships, from inception, as each farmers primary contact and problem-solving partner. Put long-term relationships at the heart of our business operations.
- On-time yet Flexible Day to Day Operations: Run the often-chaotic day-to-day planning and execution of transportation and spreading of material from industrial sites to farmland. Ensure a timely and accurate deployment of basalt to new and existing sites by working closely with Lithos operations and growth teams and external partners. Build and maintain strong relationships with logistics partners and vendors to expand and enhance our capacity to deploy cost-effectively, and efficiently, at ever-increasing scale. Apply a flexible and creative can-do attitude in the midst of changing field and weather conditions.
- Data Pipeline: Collaborate with farmers, external partners, academics, and the Science & Engineering team to collect high-resolution data from deployments in a timely manner. Ensure the accuracy and integrity of information and the chain of custody across operational data, financial invoices, and lab results.
- Strategic Business Acceleration Opportunities: Collaborate with our teams leader on projects and initiatives that will lower our overall costs of high-quality permanent carbon removal, while increasing operational efficiencies and enabling an ambitious but responsible path for scaling our technologys impact in the community.
Benefits
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience in logistics, industrial operations, supply chain management, business administration, or related field
- 3-7 years of experience in logistics, industrial operations, or supply chain management or relevant work experience in another field
- Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills
- Strong Excel/Google Sheets skills
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, rapidly-changing startup environment
- Strong technical acumen with the ability to pick up new tools and applications quickly such as GIS mapping software, SQL, R, etc.
- Comfortable working in environments where creativity and flexibility are necessary to overcome obstacles.
- Experience working with commercial farmers (or personal experiences on family farms/with agtech) a plus!