Director, Agriculture - Seed in London

Position Title: Director, Agriculture - Seed

Position Type:

Regular - Full-Time

Requisition ID:

44872

Director, Agriculture - Seed

Montrose

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.

This is a rare opportunity to lead McCain Potatoes' GB seed potato business from our Montrose Pugeston site in Scotland. Reporting to the VP of Agriculture, you'll run a unique, vertically integrated in-house seed operation and be McCain's visible champion to industry, regulators and customers. You'll own the end-to-end seed supply chain, from seven-year supply planning and production through to seed operations, storage, grading and commercial delivery. Plus, responsibility for the seed budget, capital programme and site health & safety.

You will inspire, lead and develop the seed management team, drive performance and succession, and build a high-performing, commercially focused culture. Lead and develop the seed management team, while contributing to the overall GB agriculture leadership team and strategy development. A focus will be defining and embedding regenerative agriculture within our seed supply: working with growers and GB Agriculture to create a sustainable, future-fit seed programme that secures supply, boosts resilience and leaves a lasting positive legacy for McCain.

What you'll be doing.

Own the Safety of Everyone on Site

This role carries overarching accountability for the health and safety of every McCain Potatoes employee, visitor, contractor and associated venture at Montrose. You'll set the tone from the top, building a culture where safety isn't just a priority, it's a non-negotiable way of working every single day.

Set the Strategic Direction for Seed

You'll be the author of McCain's Seven-Year Plan for Seed, the roadmap that ensures our supply chain is always ahead of demand. From factory requirements and processing needs through to customer commitments, you'll make sure the right seed is in the right place, at the right time, every time.

Lead a Team That Takes Pride in What They Grow

You'll lead, develop and inspire the McCain Potatoes seed team, managing performance, running meaningful 1:1s, building development plans for salaried staff, and putting genuine succession thinking in place. You'll lead in full alignment with McCain's Leadership Principles, creating a team that holds itself accountable and takes genuine pride in delivery.

Build and Protect Our Grower Relationships

Growers are at the heart of this operation, and you'll own those relationships completely. Working around the grower partnership charter, you'll define contract content and structure, shape the cost of production indexation model, and ensure that every grower feels like a genuine partner in what we're building together.

Be the Voice of Seed at the Leadership Table

You'll represent the seed business within the GB Agriculture Leadership Team, bringing the seed perspective into strategic conversations and helping shape the direction of the overall agriculture function. Your insight and challenge will matter.

Own the Numbers - All of Them

Full financial accountability comes with this role. You'll set, control and monitor the seed sales budget, office overheads and own-grading budgets, and you'll be the driving force behind capital programme delivery, including CapEx requests, SCA and RCO delivery. You'll build the business cases, make the recommendations, and own the outcomes.

Be the Commercial Authority on Seed

You'll act as the consulted authority across the retained seed plan, seed sales plan, stock reconciliation, grower contract payments and operating system development. You'll set seed selling prices alongside the Agriculture Leadership Team, manage royalty licences for controlled varieties, and negotiate third-party traded seed purchases and sales, bringing commercial sharpness to every decision.

Keep the Business Informed and Connected

Every month, you'll deliver a seed business report to the VP of Agriculture, and beyond that, you'll represent McCain Potatoes externally and internally, ensuring the seed operation is visible, valued and well understood across the business and the wider industry.

What you'll need to be successful.

This is a senior specialist role in McCain for a confident, commercially minded leader who thrives with autonomy, makes decisive choices, and cares about agriculture and people.

Proven Senior Leader in Agriculture

- Significant senior leadership experience in agriculture, seed potatoes or fresh produce supply chains, with deep sector understanding.

Financially Sharp and Commercially Driven

- Experience owning a P&L, managing budgets and CapEx, and making commercially sound decisions.

Strategic Thinker

- Skilled in long-range supply and demand planning and translating strategy into operational delivery.

Industry Knowledge

- Strong knowledge of the GB potato industry (and ideally wider Europe), its players, commercial dynamics and regulatory requirements.

Health & Safety Champion

- Familiar with health and safety management systems (eg ISO 45001/50001) and committed to building a strong safety culture.

Influencer and Relationship Builder

- Able to build trust with growers, regulators and stakeholders, negotiate confidently and influence at senior levels.

People Developer

- Proven at building high-performing teams, coaching talent, and holding others accountable with care.

Benefits.

Although we do encourage you to taste the goods, you'll be pleased to know we don't pay you in chips. Alongside your salary, you'll enjoy a range of benefits including:

Private healthcare (family cover) Annual bonus scheme based on both company and individual performance with the ability to salary sacrifice into your pension Annual car allowance An excellent salary sacrifice pension scheme where we'll contribute double what you do, up to a maximum of 12% of your salary 25 days' annual leave from day one plus