Career Opportunities at Southern States
| Human Resources |
Southern States Cooperative, Inc. has a team of Recruiters whose primary focus is to seek skillful, motivated individuals to become members of the Southern States family. If you are looking for an environment that is challenging, and where your efforts are rewarded, be sure to browse our Employment Opportunities site for positions you have an interest in pursuing.
At Southern States, we understand that everyone's time is valuable. With that in mind, our team of Recruiters generally conduct telephone screenings to gather information from applicants that are under consideration for a position.
| Corporate / Facility Management Openings | Retail Management Openings | Wholesale Careers |
Corporate / Facility Management Openings
Qualifications: Experience in retail and a working knowledge in the areas of Environmental and HAZ-MAT. PC skills required to handle all aspects of the position. Education: College Degree preferred. Responsibilities: Insure that all pesticides and chemicals in Southern States' inventory are properly identified and prepared in accordance with compliance requirements of DOT's, Hazardous Materials Shipping requirements, EPA's Community Right-To-Know requirements, EPA's Federal & State registration requirements, and OSHA's Employee Right-To-Know requirements. Exercise final approval for entries made into the electronic inventory storage and retrieval systems. Insure that state sales restrictions are in place. Review and update information in all databases for complete, current and accurate entries for all products in Southern States' merchandise inventory. Issue "PAN" orders (Product Alert Notification) for any item found to be out of compliance with the requirements. Be proficient in DOT hazardous materials shipping requirements. Participate in tasks involving implementation of the HAZOX System. Provide continuous training. Work closely with Safety & Environmental, Business Practices, and the Transportation Department to keep abreast of ongoing issues. |
||||
Qualifications: Retail and/or related experience beneficial. Must have excellent communication skills and extensive knowledge of Animal Health and Farm Supply items, and programs. Knowledge of retail system helpful. Education: College education preferred. Responsibilities: Manage all customer (dealer and field) service needs regarding product information, pricing and direct order placement for animal health and farm and home products. Place outbound sales calls to promote new products, specials and clearance items and procure animal health product orders. Field calls from dealers regarding orders in process. Investigate and resolve issues related to shipping and pricing errors. Serve as liaison between Universal Animal Health and Southern States Dealers. Work with appropriate contacts to ensure correct pricing is provided to dealers and billing personnel, and direct orders are placed accurately and promptly. Communicate necessary farm supply commodity information to field. Reconcile purchase order error reports daily. Attend product shows and conferences. |
||||
Qualifications: 2 years previous buying experience with similar retail product lines. Experience with inventory and supply chain management. Demonstrated vendor relationship and category management skills. Excellent negotiation and communication skills. Must be willing to travel. Education: College degree. Responsibilities: Selection, sales and margins (wholesale and retail) of selected farm supply products and categories. Provide product purchasing and selling strategies (including price points) to retail locations. Development and implementation of merchandising programs. Category line reviews to insure the best product assortment, and terms and conditions of sales are maintained. Establishing and maintaining supplier relationships. |
||||
Qualifications: Minimum 3 years experience in the field of merchandising, retail sales, and/or marketing, experience with retail and/or wholesale systems beneficial, strong analytical and presentation skills, proficient with Microsoft Word, Access, and Excel, knowledge of AutoCad and Spaceman Professional software (or similar programs) helpful, extended periods of travel and work outside the office may be required, lifting up to 50 lbs. may be required, may come in contact with hazardous chemicals and dust. Education: Bachelor's Degree. Responsibilities: Use sales and margin analysis to review products and develop modulars utilizing Spaceman space management software, manage data input into Spaceman software to develop modulars, coordinate updating of product assortments and modulars, coordinate flow of sample products into and out of modular display room, identify and implement any software enhancements, responsible for maintaining corporate interior signing package, developing and maintaining floor plans and exterior product layouts and placing fixture orders for retail locations, assist in evaluation and development of new merchandising equipment, techniques, and presentations, supervise proper merchandising of products and set up of fixtures for new and existing retail facilities. |
||||
Qualifications: At least three years experience in specific content development and page design for the internet. Should also be familiar with HTML code and industry standard authorizing tools. Education: Bachelor's degree or equivalent in commercial design. Responsibilities: Collaborate with web team to design and develop content and graphical elements for intranet and extranet web sites. Coding within company web systems. (Fatwire, Teamsite). Work with integration of web technology. Create graphics and visual content for hosting on web site pages, using current technology deployed in industry. Develop content, page layout and design for web pages using interactive and/or dynamic techniques wherever possible. Develop internet pages using either direct HTML code, or implementation of content authoring tools standard to the industry. Create page content to ensure a positive quality end-user experience on our web sites. Integrate new applications for video and audio on web site, and provide technical assistance to clients in development of technology. Creates graphic design using the following: Flash, SQL, HTML, Java and web portals development on sites and database management skills for web. |
||||
Qualifications: A reasonable level of legal training or practical experience handling mediated and litigated claims. At a minimum, must be a CPCU and AIC, have supervisory experience, and have at least ten years of large commercial insurance company multi-line claims handling experience.and a reasonable level of legal training or practical experience handling mediated and litigated claims. At a minimum, must be a CPCU and AIC, have supervisory experience, and have at least ten years of large commercial insurance company multi-line claims handling experience. Education: College degree. Responsibilities: Manage Claims Department of Southern States Insurance Exchange (SSIE). Supervise and appraise staff of 2-3, oversight of all SSIE claims processing including maintenance of complete and accurate claims data in the database, review and analysis of claims activity, and timely and accurate reporting. Adjust property and casualty claims. Ensure that claims personnel comply with all statutory, regulatory and industry claim requirements. Perform and document the results of file reviews to police compliance. Report any incidence of noncompliance to management. Maintain all examiners' claims adjuster licenses. Interacts with subscribers, legal counsel, corporate and third-party service providers, third-party claimants and attorneys, reinsurers, and other stakeholders. Train claims staff. Establish, implement and monitor work flow processes for the claims department. Advise and cooperate with reinsurers. Coordinate reports with the insurance controller to ensure consistent reporting. Control loss adjustment expenses. Review the assignment of claims to contractors, independent adjusters, counsel, investigators and others. Represent SSIE at user group meetings to explain and garner support from other users regarding improvements in the claims management system. |
||||
Qualifications: Development experience in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSP, Java, PERL, XML, SQL Strong analysis, design, coding and implementation experience with Internet technologies. Experience with internet communications standards and specifications Familiar with industry standard web authoring tools. Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with expertise in setting and managing customer expectations. Education: Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Internet development with 3 to 5 years professional experience preferred. Responsibilities: Write, test, and debug web pages or programs for company's web-site and back-office ecommerce applications Analyze, design, code, and implement internet/intranet technologies. Gather user requirements and develop solutions to meet the user's needs Administer website content management system and provide operational support for the system May be responsible for managing sub-projects and participating on teams in large implementation projects Coordination of user and technical requirements to meet development needs through communication of business and technical items |
Retail Management Openings
Qualifications: CDL is highly desired. A minimum of 5-7 years experience on the farm sales, or store management experience, required. Minimum of 6 years experience in agriculture sales, or store management. Strong background related to best farming practices and crop production. Must be knowledgeable regarding agriculture products, services and local community. PC skills are a must. Education: High School Diploma or GED. Responsibilities: The crop location generates $3.5 million in annual sales. It is located 30 miles from Tifton, Georgia. The business is made up of feed, farm supplies, crop protectants, and fertilizer. We also offer customer application services. Supervise hourly employees to support sales and service needs of customers. Maintain highest level of customer service. Administer all personnel programs. Plan, coordinate and direct receiving and delivery of inventory. Monitor inventory levels daily, and supervise monthly physical inventories. Control expenses, handle local invoices and process accounts payable. Establish and direct equipment maintenance program. Direct and promote safety on a daily basis. Hold safety training meetings and monthly safety meetings. Dispatch custom application operations as directed. |
||||
Qualifications: Experience in Agronomy or a related agricultural field. Must have at least three years of sales experience. We are looking for someone who is highly motivated with strong communication skills, flexible, team player, and willing to aggressively drive sales to the next level. Education: Minimum High School Diploma -- preferably B.S. Degree in Ag related field. Responsibilities: Service the retail location of Winchester, Virginia. Support retail location in the sale of products to customers in the assigned territory which includes the counties of Frederick, Clarke, Loudon and Shenandoah. Sales Representative for selling products and services to Farmers during farm visits. Heavy emphasis on Row Crops, Hay and Pasture. Sales are mainly outside sales, however, will be required to work inside when needed. |
||||
Qualifications: Must be detail oriented, dependable, highly motivated, a good communicator, team player, and an overall leader. Some supervisory experience in retail operations or completion of a Management Development Program. Knowledge of feed, crops, farm supplies, petroleum and merchandising programs is a must. In addition, must have strong customer service skills, merchandising skills, and merchandising programs. Education: College education in agriculture helpful. Responsibilities: The coop is located in Lebanon, VA, about 35 miles North of Bristol, VA. The store generates $5 million annually. The business is made up of 28% Feed, 13 % Crops, 10 % Farm Supplies and the remainder of the business is in petroleum. Manage the showroom, manage showroom personnel, provide customer service, help build a team environment and drive sales. |
||||
Qualifications: Minimum of 4 years supervisory experience in retail operations or completion of a Management Development Program. Must possess knowledge of Crops, Equine and Retail Merchandising programs. Education: College education in Agriculture a plus. Responsibilities: Oversee the day-to-day operations of the location and involvement with all areas of the business. Manage the staff of employees and drive sales. Handle customer service issues. Located 20 miles from Lexington, the store has an 8,000 square foot showroom, and generates $3 million annually, in sales volume. 50% of the business is in farm supplies, and the remainder of the business is in crops with a good amount of horse feed business. Location has an experienced and committed group of employees. |
||||
Qualifications: This position requires a minimum of 2 years supervisory experience in retail operations or completion of a Management Development Program and proficiency in the use of a Retail Support System. In addition to agriculture knowledge, must have strong customer service skills, merchandising skills, knowledge of nursery, equine, pet supplies and merchandising programs. Education: College education helpful. Responsibilities: We are looking for someone detail oriented, dependable, highly motivated, good communication skills, team player, and an overall leader who will manage the showroom personnel. Location generates $8.5 million in total annual sales volume. 63% is made up of the crops commodities, 10% in feed and the remainder in farm supplies. |
Wholesale Careers
Qualifications: Valdosta Feed MIll, a commercial HACCP certified feed facility (bulk, bag and extrusion) located in Valdosta, GA has an immediate opening for a full time Mill Superintendent. Minimum of three years experience in a supervisory capacity - prefereably in a feed mill environment. Education: B.S. Degree in Engineering or Agriculture or combination of experience and education. Responsibilities: Managing the daily operations including production, personnel, shipping & receiving, bulk trucking, regulatory compliance and customer service. |