Director Agriculture

Leads the development and execution of Nestlé USA's integrated agriculture strategy, ensuring a sustainable, resilient, and cost-effective supply of dairy while advancing regenerative agriculture, quality, and sourcing priorities.

This role is accountable for aligning agronomy, fresh dairy sourcing, and regenerative agriculture & certifications into a centralized operating model, enabling scale, consistency, and impact across fragmented activities. The Director translates global strategy into U.S. execution, strengthens supplier ecosystems, and partners cross-functionally with Procurement, ESG, and Operations to deliver business and sustainability outcomes.

- Define and execute a holistic agriculture strategy aligned to Nestlé's Agriculture Framework, ESG goals, and sourcing priorities

- Lead transformation of fragmented agronomy and sourcing activities into a centralized, high-performing model

- Translate long-term sustainability and supply strategies into actionable roadmaps with measurable outcomes

- Drive regenerative agriculture adoption and integrate it into sourcing and supplier development

- Lead supplier development to improve quality, productivity, resilience, and sustainability outcomes

- Drive carbon reduction, regenerative agriculture adoption, and responsible sourcing across value chains

- Manage agricultural risks including supply volatility, cost, regulation, and climate impacts

- Ensure secure, competitive supply of key agricultural inputs for fresh milk through effective sourcing strategies

- Partner with the Procurement function to ensure effective collaboration and comprehensive sourcing strategies for agricultural products

- Provide enterprise leadership across agronomy strategy, protocols, and capability building

- Partner Procurement, Quality, Corporate Sustainability and global agriculture teams to embed science-based practices

- Drive continuous improvement in crop performance, soil health, and productivity

- Lead team of subject matter experts across agronomy and sustainable sourcing to ensure that all business commitments are understood and met.

- Build and manage relationships with farmers, cooperatives, suppliers, NGOs, and industry bodies

- Represent Nestlé externally in agriculture, sustainability, and regulatory forums

- Partner with internal stakeholders (Procurement, ESG, R&D, Quality, Public Affairs) to align priorities

- Ensure compliance with regulatory, certification, and sustainability standards

- Manage budget, investment prioritization, and operational execution

- Bachelor's degree in Agronomy, Animal Science, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Operations, or related field

- 12+ years in agriculture, quality, sourcing, sustainability, or supply chain

- Proven leadership experience managing cross-functional and matrixed teams

- Experience in Agricultural supply chains (dairy, crops, or similar commodities)

- Strategic leadership with ability to translate vision into execution

- Deep understanding of agronomy, agricultural supply chains, and sustainability

- Ability to influence across global, matrixed organizations

- Experience in global or multi-market agricultural environments

- Exposure to carbon, Scope 3, ESG, and certification frameworks

- Experience leading transformation or organizational design initiatives

- Experience in regenerative agriculture initiatives and practices

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