Native Plant Nursery Supervisor and Team Lead

Position Summary:

Lead and coach production and shipping teams to meet quality, safety, and productivity standards in a native plant nursery environment. You will supervise daily transplanting and set down operations, coordinate shipping and deliveries, uphold strict quality control on finished flats, and keep clear communication with leadership. Bilingual English and Spanish skills are required to train, direct, and support crews effectively.

Key Responsibilities:

Safety and Readiness

• Model and enforce safety procedures at all times. All equipment, tools, and supplies are company provided. 

Production Operations

• Oversee flat filling including pushing trays on the conveyor, labeling trays, and assisting with hopper filling. 
• Coordinate set downs and moves between plant houses. Duties include repetitive bending to lift flats, pushing carts, and sweeping or cleaning hoop houses when empty. 
• Supervise transplanting according to work orders, support basic plant care, and drive the team to meet production goals.
• Manage flat washing using brushes to clean cells, safe handling of cleaning detergents and disinfectants, sorting plastic, and counting cleaned flats.

Shipping and Logistics

• Lead small parcel shipping. Tasks include hand loading flats onto carts, pushing carts to the shipping building, preparing packages, pushing flats down the netting chute onto a cardboard insert, cutting netting with company scissors, placing inserts with flats into boxes, applying shipping labels, taping packages using the tape machine or handheld tape gun, loading finished boxes onto pallets, carts, or crates, using a pallet jack, shrinking pallets, loading onto pickup vans or trucks, assembling supplies, folding cardboard inserts, placing netting on chutes, reloading tape machines, and cleaning the shipping building and greenhouse including sweeping floors, taking trash to dumpsters, and erasing writing on flags with alcohol. 
• Coordinate freight preparation by hand loading flats onto shipping racks, using a stepstool when needed, wrapping racks with netting, and sweeping ground cloth after loading.
• Support delivery staging by loading delivery racks, moving carts on liftgates into trucks, and sweeping ground cloth after loading. 

Greenhouse and Site Maintenance

• Coordinate covering hoop houses by pulling plastic over frames, installing or uninstalling wiggle wire, holding down plastic until secured, and trimming excess plastic with a blade.
• Maintain ground cloth by replacing worn sections, pulling up tattered cloth, driving anchor pins with a mallet or hammer, and sealing overlapping edges.
• Oversee watering of newly sown transplants, carts, kits, and other assigned items.
• Direct weeding by identifying weeds among crops, hand weeding throughout the nursery, and working outdoors in variable weather with reasonable breaks for OSHA compliance. 

Order Fulfillment

• Lead order pulls in all weather. Tasks include inspecting every flat, replacing empty or damaged plugs, cutting roots with a soil knife, weeding flats, setting flats in designated areas, and operating a wheelbarrow. 

General Operations

• Assign and assist with cleaning tools, sweeping floors, organizing pallets, assembling racks and carts, building and stacking boxes, removing snow, applying salt, and drying water-soaked floors. 

Supervisory and Team Leadership

• Supervise transplant crews to ensure correct methods and pace. Monitor work and correct as needed.
• Perform quality control on finished flats and correct issues before set downs.
• Communicate issues promptly to the manager and remain in clear communication with the production lead about daily schedules. 
• Coordinate with the set down crew to keep transplanting continuous during set downs. 
• Train new transplant crew members on species specific transplanting. 
• Facilitate language translation between the manager and crew. 
• Track and report daily flat counts and keep employees focused to maintain a quick work pace. Monitor behavior and escalate issues to the manager when needed. 

Required Qualifications

• Professional proficiency in English and Spanish.
• Proven experience leading crews in a nursery or greenhouse environment, ideally with native plants.
• Demonstrated quality control, shipping, and production coordination experience.
• Ability to use standard nursery tools and to train others in safe and efficient methods.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to lift thirty pounds consistently and up to fifty pounds when needed. Periods of kneeling and outdoor work in heat, rain, and humidity are required. Reasonable breaks are provided to remain OSHA compliant.

Schedule

• Variable start and end times within seven in the morning to five in the afternoon. Weekend work may be required based on operational needs. Typical schedule is Monday thru Friday 7am to 3:30pm.