Your Employer
Our client is a nationally regarded producer of premium vegetable seedlings and greenlife products, with state-of-the-art, automated, facilities in Victoria and Queensland. The organisation has earned its reputation through decades of investment in innovation, automation, and consistent delivery for customers across Australia's horticulture sector.
Now entering a new phase of growth, the business is evolving into a commercially enabled, tech-driven enterprise — sharpening its customer proposition, expanding product capability, and scaling operations to meet increasing market demand. With continued capital investment and a strong market position, this is a rare executive opportunity to help shape the next chapter of a highly respected Australian horticultural business.
The Role
As Chief Operating Officer, you will lead the business's full operational footprint including Nursery Operations, Finance, Sales & Marketing, IT, and People & Culture — with a clear mandate to drive commercial performance, scalability, and customer outcomes.
Reporting to the CEO, you will play a pivotal role in translating strategy into execution, ensuring the organisation is operationally and commercially positioned to support sustainable growth. This includes optimising the current offering, enabling product and service diversification, strengthening systems, and aligning operational capability with customer demand.
Key Responsibilities
* Drive operational efficiency, margin improvement, and profitability across the business
* Enable scalable growth through improved systems and commercial discipline
* Lead enterprise-wide transformation initiatives including ERP, automation, and reporting
* Strengthen financial governance, forecasting, and performance frameworks
* Lead Sales & Marketing to support customer growth, service delivery, and value creation
* Collaborate closely with the CEO and Board on strategic execution and growth initiatives
* Build leadership capability, and build a high-performance culture
* Champion safety, accountability, and values-driven leadership across all sites
About You
You are a commercially minded horticultural operations leader who understands that strong customer outcomes and sustainable growth are built on disciplined execution, data, and engaged teams. You bring a balance of strategic thinking and hands-on leadership, with the ability to align operational capability to market opportunity.
You will also bring:
* Minimum 5 years' experience in executive operations or general management roles
* Demonstrated success managing P&L and supporting business growth in complex environments
* Strong commercial, financial, and analytical capability
* Experience leading transformation, systems uplift, and process optimisation
* Background in horticulture, agriculture, food, or production-based industries preferred
* Degree in Agriculture, Business or similar (MBA highly regarded)
The Benefits
This is a high-impact leadership role at C-Suite level, with genuine influence over the commercial and operational direction of the business. You will thrive reporting to a highly experienced CEO and You'll enjoy:
* A visible, hands-on leadership role within a collaborative executive team
* The opportunity to shape the organisation for long-term growth
* Direct involvement in customer value creation and product innovation
* Circa $250,000 package including vehicle + super
* Rural, Surf Coast Lifestyle
* Relocation support
Choose Agri Talent
Agri Talent provides executive search services exclusively for Australian agribusiness. For more information, please contact Bruce Highfield, on