Junior Farm Research & Development Specialist
Halter
Waikato, New Zealand
Posted on Wednesday, December 21, 2022
The future of food production hinges on an important question: How do we feed the world’s growing population without compromising our natural resources? Farmers feed our population and hold the keys to vital climate solutions. At Halter, we’re on a mission to enable farmers to run the most productive and sustainable farms. Farmers are using Halter to break free from the time-intensive constraints of conventional farming. They’re growing more grass, increasing milk production and improving the health and wellbeing of their cows.
We bridge deep tech into farming. Halter enables farmers to remotely shift, virtually fence and proactively monitor their cows’ health and behaviour. Can you imagine watching 500 dairy cows turn in unison and walk calmly towards the milking shed? No quad bikes, no dogs, no fences. Just a mob of cows walking at their own pace. People say it looks like magic. Our customers are revolutionizing farming with Halter. It's changing lives and transforming an industry.
People join Halter because they want to do meaningful work. By joining us you’ll be solving challenging problems within a talented team and a culture built for high performance. Our team out-think, out-work and out-care. We’re committed to delivering real change in the world - this isn’t easy, and in truth, we love that it’s hard. We’re backed to deliver on a mission that matters by Tier 1 investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, DCVC, Blackbird, Promus Ventures, Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck and Icehouse ventures.
About the role
Looking to do something that has not been done before?! Wanting to work with cutting edge technology? This role is not a traditional R&D role as we are pioneering the future of farming. This role is all about concise test plans, fieldwork and innovative thinking!
You will be a part of our multidisciplinary research & development team composed of engineers, farmers, and everything in between. Our days never look the same; we find ourselves doing anything from wearing gumboots and working with the cows to sitting in our on-farm base working on the next big endeavour. We focus on designing and developing new features that our customers will be using in the day-to-day running of their farm using Halter.
We believe that team culture is vital for our success as a team and as a company and as a result work hard to maintain a fun and casual atmosphere in which you can thrive and develop. From the first day you join, you'll be able to have a direct impact on what our product looks like and how farmers use it. Your point of view, support and input will be vital to the success of Halter. You will be heavily involved in all the tests we run; from the designing phase all the way through the testing and interpreting of data.
What your day could look like
- Designing, executing and leading research projects to enable continuous innovation and improvement of our product
- Writing concise test plans and getting out on the farm ASAP! Get your hands dirty and work with cows to understand their behaviour, its functionality and then merge this with your solid understanding of our collar to come up with completely new findings.
- Drawing data-based analysis, results, and learnings from research and experiments to provide input into the design and production of our products
- Testing new and improved product features to achieve smooth deployment at our customer farms
- Assisting in the further development in the way we train cows to understand our collar
- Working cross-functionally with teams across the company: From Engineering to provide input into new and existing product features; to Customer Success to ensure our products are meeting and exceeding our customers’ expectations
- A wide array of farm jobs. Helping with day to day farm maintenance and activities!
What we’re looking for
- Someone who has either in-depth farming experience/background, animal (esp COWS!) training or an agriculture qualification. Ideally, you’ll also be tech-savvy and you’re not afraid of learning the tech side and functionality of our product.
- A person who is comfortable with ambiguity and thrives in a fast-paced environment
- You enjoy working hard and want to be a part of a team that does the same
- A team-oriented individual, you love sharing ideas and giving and receiving feedback
- The eagerness to learn and the motivation to do things you’ve never done before
Why our team loves working at Halter
- A genuine and shared connection to our mission to make a difference in the world.
- The excitement, risk, and reward of a high-growth technology scale-up.
- The pride of joining an iconic New Zealand technology company growing successfully on the global stage.
- The opportunity to work with and grow together with an enthusiastic, and highly gifted team with diverse backgrounds.
- The opportunity to supercharge your career in a supportive and caring environment.
- Our ideas are truly valued, we are able to move fast, and our impact is real.
- Work where it all began on our test farm in Morrinsville where you’ll get to interact with our product on a daily basis. Did we mention dogs and cows?
- Delicious snacks and drinks are available for your daily flow.
- Healthy body, healthy mind. We’re partnered with Southern Cross to support your well-being.
- We offer 6 months of fully paid parental leave for primary caregivers, 4 weeks of fully paid secondary caregiver and many other parental benefits that support you and your family.
- Our personal growth is important. Halter offers an annual $1000 self-development budget to be used for anything that fuels personal growth.
- Our time to recharge is valued, we’re offered wellness leave unlimited paid annual leave.
- Importantly, we offer an inclusive and attractive remuneration package made up of salary, benefits and an employee stock ownership plan.
Halter is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace — a place where we can each be ourselves and do the best work of our lives. Research shows that while men apply to jobs when they meet an average of 60% of the requirements, women and under-represented groups of candidates tend to only apply when they meet every requirement. If you think you have what it takes but don’t necessarily tick every requirement on this job description, please still get in touch and apply to Halter. We’d love to chat to see if you’ll be an epic fit!
Our Office First Approach
We do have flexible working hours and you can work from home when you need to but we encourage our team to be in the office as much as you can.
We have an office-first approach because we would like to keep the opportunity for teams to have spontaneous interactions which in turn has allowed our team at Halter to foster strong relationships. Stronger relationships make it easier to disagree, give feedback, do meaningful work and as a result be higher performing as a team.
Join our team
If this opportunity sounds like you, please apply below by sending through your cover letter explaining why you’re excited about this role and working at Halter, along with your CV, and we’ll be in touch!
Please also feel free to check out the careers and culture page for more information on working at Halter and don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn & Instagram.
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