Technical Service Manager

Position Summary TARGAN is seeking a Technical Service Manager to provide poultry hatchery and animal-health expertise to customers and internal teams. This field-based role will support the adoption, implementation, optimization, and lifecycle performance of poultry technologies, with emphasis on hatchery operations, incubation, chick handling, vaccination and biological delivery, sanitation, biosecurity, animal welfare, and operational performance. The successful candidate will be a trusted technical partner to hatchery leaders, veterinarians, live-production teams, quality personnel, and commercial stakeholders. The role requires extensive commercial hatchery experience, strong animal-health judgment, confident customer communication, and effective cross-functional leadership. Key Job Responsibilities Customer Technical Service & Hatchery Support

• Serve as the primary hatchery technical-services partner for assigned customers before, during, and after product implementation.
• Build strong relationships with hatchery managers, veterinarians, poultry-health and live-production teams, quality personnel, and commercial stakeholders.
• Lead hatchery assessments covering incubation and transfer interfaces, egg and chick flow, hatch take-off, chick processing, vaccination, sanitation, biosecurity, animal welfare, staffing, equipment interfaces, and production schedules.
• Translate hatchery observations, customer needs, and biological risks into practical, evidence-based recommendations that improve operational integration, vaccination consistency, chick quality, and customer outcomes.
• Partner with Commercial teams on technical discovery, customer education, demonstrations, implementation planning, and post-implementation reviews.

Implementation, Optimization & Troubleshooting

• Support site readiness, installation, start-up, qualification, customer training, process changes, and early commercialization activities.
• Assess system performance in the context of hatchery throughput, chick presentation and handling, vaccine preparation and delivery, incubation and hatch-window effects, flock variables, site practices, and environmental conditions.
• Lead structured troubleshooting of biological, operational, equipment-interface, and application-related issues; distinguish product effects from hatchery practices, flock factors, vaccine handling, sanitation, and execution-related variability.
• Coordinate corrective actions with Customer Success, Engineering, Field Service, Bio-Process, Quality, Operations, Product, and Commercial teams; maintain clear ownership, documentation, customer communication, and follow-up verification.
• Develop and standardize hatchery assessment tools, checklists, operating guidance, training materials, and best-practice documents.

Field Trials, Training & Technical Communication

• Organize and lead customer field trials, commercial evaluations, and validation activities involving hatchery technologies, vaccines, biological delivery systems, chick handling, and poultry-health applications.
• Develop practical trial plans covering objectives, success criteria, site readiness, treatment groups, sampling and observation plans, schedules, roles, data capture, contingencies, and technical reporting.
• Deliver customer and internal training on hatchery operations, vaccination, biological-product application, sanitation, biosecurity, animal welfare, troubleshooting, and product use.
• Prepare clear visit reports, technical summaries, recommendations, presentations, SOPs, FAQs, and training materials; represent TARGAN at customer meetings and industry events.
• Capture field and voice-of-customer insights and translate them into product, process, training, and lifecycle improvements.

Education & Experience

• DVM or Ph.D. in Poultry Science, Veterinary Medicine, Animal Science, Biological Sciences, or a related discipline is preferred but not required.
• Candidates without a Ph.D. or DVM must have a bachelor's or master's degree in a relevant discipline and at least 10 years of progressive poultry-industry experience, including substantial commercial hatchery experience.
• Extensive hands-on hatchery expertise is required, including incubation, egg handling, transfer, hatch take-off, chick processing, vaccination, sanitation, biosecurity, animal welfare, production scheduling, and performance management.
• Experience organizing and leading field trials, commercial evaluations, or validation activities, including site preparation, execution, data collection, issue resolution, documentation, and communication of results.
• Prior poultry or veterinary technical-service experience, or comparable customer-facing animal-health experience, is strongly preferred.
• Experience with poultry-health products, vaccines, biological delivery systems, hatchery equipment, or related technologies is highly desirable.
• Broiler hatchery experience is strongly preferred; breeder, layer, turkey, or international poultry-production experience is beneficial.

Key Competencies & Skills

• Deep practical knowledge of hatchery workflows, incubation, chick quality, vaccination methods, vaccine handling, sanitation, biosecurity, animal welfare, and commercial poultry production.
• Ability to connect biological outcomes with equipment performance, operating practices, customer processes, and flock variables.
• Strong root-cause analysis, field observation, data interpretation, problem-solving, customer communication, and cross-functional leadership skills.
• Ability to independently manage multiple customer activities, travel schedules, documentation requirements, and follow-up actions.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Teams; experience with CRM, field-service, dashboard, or electronic data-capture systems is preferred.

What defines success in this role?

• Customers receive responsive, credible, and practical technical support that strengthens successful adoption and long-term relationships.
• Hatchery assessments, implementations, and field evaluations are operationally executable, biologically sound, well documented, and completed with clear ownership and follow-up.
• Technical issues are resolved through disciplined root-cause analysis, effective cross-functional coordination, and verification of corrective actions.
• Customer and field insights lead to meaningful product, process, training, and lifecycle improvements.

Location, Travel & Working Conditions

• The preferred location is Raleigh, North Carolina; qualified remote candidates residing elsewhere in the United States will be considered. Remote candidates must have reasonable access to a major commercial airport.
• This field-intensive position requires approximately 50–70% travel, primarily to U.S. customer hatcheries and poultry-production locations. Most trips will be less than one week and may include overnight or short-notice travel.
• Responsibilities are expected to expand to global customers and activities. International travel will be required, and some assignments may extend beyond one week.
• Work may occur outside standard business hours to align with hatchery schedules, field trials, equipment start-up, training, or issue resolution.
• Work environments may involve live poultry, biological materials, vaccines, dust, noise, wet areas, temperature variation, production equipment, and biosecurity-controlled spaces.
• Compliance with company and customer requirements for biosecurity, animal welfare, biosafety, PPE, and site access is required. A valid driver’s license and passport are required.

All the above duties and responsibilities are essential job functions for which reasonable accommodation will be made. All job requirements listed indicate the minimum level of knowledge, skills, and/or ability deemed necessary to perform the job proficiently. This job description is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of duties and responsibilities or requirements. Employees may be required to perform other job-related duties as requested by their supervisor. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an "at will" relationship.