About Square Roots
Square Roots is the technology leader in urban indoor farming. Our scalable “farmer-first” technology platform brings fresh, healthy food to urban areas year-round, while simultaneously training future generations of farmers. With production farms in Brooklyn NY, Kenosha, WI, and Grand Rapids MI (with more to come in 2022!) Square Roots has a mission to bring local, real food to people in cities across the world while empowering the next generation of leaders in urban farming.
We’re a young company (est. 2016) with the potential and ambition to change the food system in ways that are better for people and the planet as well as profits. Everyone on the Square Roots team—from farmers to software developers, from brand strategists to financial analysts—is ready to make a massive impact in urban farming and the future of the global food industry.
About the Role:
Square Roots is looking for an Associate Product Manager to be an integral member of our small, cross-functional team, operating out of the greater New York City or Chicago area. Our product team builds software to support our farming and business initiatives. You will help us develop and improve our proprietary farm management platform as well as support our scaling needs as we enter a period of fast growth. We have a wide range of technical solutions to figure out and scale – including inventory management, improving user experience, data integration to reporting dashboards, and lots of workflow automation.
These technology solutions will support business activities such as training young farmers to grow food inside shipping containers, exploring innovative ways to facilitate data collection, having cloud-connected farms, Slack farmers when they’re running low on water, and surfacing valuable insights from the data we collect. This means defining projects that involve integrating existing apps and services as well as developing new innovative solutions on the fly. Big data and machine learning are becoming more important to Square Roots, as our network of farms and farmers create millions of data points that can continuously teach us how to grow better food. We have 3 campuses (Brooklyn, NY, Grand Rapids, MI, and Kenosha, WI) and we are expanding rapidly to have a physical presence in many more cities in 2022, so our technology solutions have to scale appropriately.
You will:
Help develop the strategy and roadmap for our proprietary product, The Farmer Toolbelt, which acts as an operating system for our farms and company
Intimately understand our users’ problems and work closely with farmers, operations, sales, and engineering to create and implement solutions
Translate user needs from requests to Product Specs, through to qualified Engineering tickets. Manage all details in this process
Collaborate with the team to set development sprint priorities
Take ownership of the product and be completely accountable for what your engineering team is working on
You have experience with:
2+ years of Product Management experience, ideally in a startup environment
A fluent grasp on all the basic tools of the trade (e.g. project management tools, spec writing, wireframe creation, etc.)
A basic understanding of good UI/UX patterns that you can leverage to create elegant solutions
Breaking down complex business problems into simple solutions focused on important user needs
You are:
Passionate about real food with the desire to do something about the current industrial food system
Can quickly gain a deep technical understanding of new domains
Have excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills
Willing to get your hands dirty (often literally) and be very involved in general operational problem solving
Able to move and iterate quickly with the flexibility to switch focus between multiple projects and a willingness to contribute to tasks and activities outside of a prescribed job description (i.e. comfortable with a startup environment)
Naturally inclined to take initiative
You’ll love working at Square Roots because:
We’re here to change the food system. You’ll have the opportunity to play a significant role in our work at the intersection of technology, farming, and the global food industry – and we’re only just getting started.
Our team is driven by a shared set of values. These keep us aligned and remind us how to show up every day in the face of growth and ambiguity. Whether you’re working remotely or on the farms, collaboration, respect, optimism and humility are all embraced, and we seek to empower people at every step. Ask us about the rest!
Benefits and perks, of course. We’re all here first and foremost to play our part in the mission, but medical, dental, and vision coverage, flexible work life culture, and lots of samples of the delicious food we grow certainly do not hurt.
COVID-19 Vaccination Policy:
Effective October 18, 2021, new employees are required to be fully vaccinated prior to their start date. Fully vaccinated at this time is defined as 2 shots of MRNA vaccine + 2 weeks out, or 1 shot of J&J vaccine and 2 weeks out. As federal guidance on booster shots evolves, the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ may change. Proof of vaccination is required during the hiring process.
In accordance with EEOC guidance, if you are not vaccinated or do not intend to be due to medical reasons or deeply held religious beliefs, you may make an accommodation request and Square Roots will make a reasonable effort to accommodate you, subject to the requirements of the role you are applying for.
Failure to be fully vaccinated by start date without a documented accommodation will result in offer rescindment or termination.