Agricultural Field Engineering Technician

Position: Field Engineering Technician- 2025 season

Contract role, 100% travel

Location: Open. Ideally located in mid-west, or major cropping region of the country

We’re Blue River, a team of innovators driven to create intelligent machinery that solves monumental problems for our customers. We empower our customers – farmers, construction crews, foresters, and other “outdoor” professionals - to implement safer and more sustainable solutions, driving increased profitability with less reliance on scarce labor. We believe that focusing on the small stuff – pixel-by-pixel and task-by-task - leads to big gains. With our partners at John Deere, we have the ability to bring innovative computer vision, machine learning, robotics, and product management solutions to scale production, maximizing their potential impact.

Our people are at the heart of what we do. Through cross-discipline collaboration, this mission-driven and daring team is eager to define the new frontier of mobile robotics. We are always asking hard questions, rapidly iterating, and getting our boots in the field and on-site to figure it out. We won’t give up until we’ve made a tangible and positive impact on the planet.

Summary

Field Engineer Technicians help develop, support, and maintain our next generation of “smart” machines and play a key role in enabling further product development. The primary role of this position is varied and could include any or all of the following: capturing field data, carry out in-field product feature testing, troubleshoot problems in the field, and provide support and communication that lead to short-term and long-term fixes to the equipment. Tasks include conducting test plans, collecting data, tracking issues and progress in fixing them, and communicating with customers, product managers, agronomists, and engineers on a regular basis. This position requires extensive travel, often away from home for weeks at a time. The role can be seasonal (3-6 month duration) or longer term (6-12 months), depending on employee availability, project scope and workload, with the possibility of extending or returning the next season.

Responsibilities

• Assist with field data collection activities for projects when and where needed
• Provide in-field engineering support, including data collection, field testing, troubleshooting, diagnosing, resolving, and documenting all aspects of the products
• Provide an interface for product development teams including Product Management, Agronomy and Engineering to understand the evolving needs of customers
• Perform hands-on set-up, maintenance, testing and customization in the field per engineering test requirements
• Track and manage recurring issues, from problem identification to resolution
• Transport and operate field equipment as needed
  
  
  

Requirements

• Agricultural or related background and knowledge
• Excellent verbal and written English communication skills
• Project professionalism and represent the company well through courteous communications with customers, dealers, coworkers, everyone else that we come into contact with as a consequence of our work
• Willingness to travel extensively and work outdoors, with the vast majority of working time spent either “on the road” or providing hands-on support in the field
• Safe driving record and ability to operate company vehicles
  
  
  

Preferred Experience

• Experience with outdoor equipment (i.e. agricultural or construction) and working with large machinery in the field
• 2+ years in supporting, maintaining or operating modern outdoor equipment and precision equipment operating systems
• Associates or Bachelor's degree or relevant work experience in Agriculture, Engineering, Construction, Computer Science, or related technical area
• Experience troubleshooting and working with complex systems involving software, electronics and mechanical systems
  
  
  

Tools, equipment, and vehicles are provided by the employer, and the employer reimburses for all travel-related expenses. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to communicate verbally, including listening and speaking. This position is very active and requires standing, walking, bending, kneeling, stooping, crouching, crawling, and climbing (often in and out of machinery many times a day), often outdoors in cold and hot ambient weather conditions. The employee must frequently lift and/or move items over 40 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move items over 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

This position is a full time temporary, hourly non-exempt role and is not eligible for any company-related benefits, for sponsorship or third party employment. The pay range for the position varies depending on experience and relevant background, ranging from $25-40 per hour.

We are committed to building a diverse team and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds.