Master Grower Job Description Templates for Cultivation Teams
Master grower job description templates for cannabis and nursery operations: 6 role variants with pay benchmarks, overtime rules, and licensing. Free DOCX.
Master Grower Job Description Templates for Cultivation Operations
6 free templates for licensed cannabis, nursery, and controlled environment growers: master grower, head grower, assistant grower, cultivation technician, post-harvest lead, and IPM lead. Download as DOCX.
Most master grower job descriptions are a list of plant care verbs. Monitor, water, feed, train, scout, harvest. Not one of them tells a candidate what the person is actually accountable for, which at this level is a number: grams per square foot, cycles per room per year, shrink against plan, or units shipped on the promised date.
That vagueness costs more here than in almost any other hire. A grower runs a cycle that lasts a quarter of the year, and a bad one is not a bad month, it is a bad quarter with nothing to sell at the end of it. The posting is the first place you can be specific, and it is free.
The employer side of this market is smaller than the job boards suggest. The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service counted 23,060 horticulture operations selling $18.3 billion in floriculture, nursery, and specialty crops in its 2024 Census of Horticultural Specialties, with labor accounting for 36 percent of total industry expenses. Add licensed cannabis cultivators and the typical employer is an owner-operator with a dozen staff and no HR function at all.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for exactly that reader. The six below cover a cannabis master grower, a nursery head grower, an assistant grower, a cultivation technician, a post-harvest lead, and an IPM lead, each with the classification and licensing notes the generic versions leave out.
TL;DR
A master grower job description has to state a facility spec, production targets, and headcount, or it is a hobby listing. Classification is the trap: federal law exempts agricultural work from overtime, California, Washington, and New York no longer do, and post-harvest processing often falls outside agriculture entirely. Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
What a Master Grower Actually Runs
A master grower owns the cultivation plan and the results it produces, not a set of daily tasks. The distinguishing line against an assistant grower is authorship: one writes the schedule, the feeding program, and the pest thresholds, the other executes them and reports what happened.
That scope shifts with the operation. In a licensed cannabis facility the role carries compliance weight that has nothing to do with plants, from tagging to waste events to inventory reconciliation. In a nursery it carries commercial weight instead, because the grower is judged on whether the product finishes on the date sales promised it.
Licensed cannabis cultivation
Compliance is half the job
The grower carries yield and quality, but also plant tags, waste records, track and trace reconciliation, and inspection readiness. Staff need a state agent badge before the first shift, and the federal wage rules are the least settled part of the picture.
Commercial nursery or covered production
Ship dates run the schedule
Here the grower plans backward from availability dates and is judged on shrink and on-time finish. Pesticide licensing and the federal worker protection rules dominate compliance instead of badging.
Indoor farm or controlled environment produce
Engineering meets agronomy
Vertical and hydroponic produce operations want a grower who reads a controller and a spreadsheet as fluently as a leaf. Food safety rules enter the posting that a plant operation never sees.
Broadacre field agriculture
A different title entirely
Row crop and orchard operations hire farm managers and agronomists, not master growers. If that is you, the templates below will read as the wrong shape, and the wage benchmarks will point somewhere else.
Write the Spec Before You Write the Duties
An experienced grower screens your posting in about ten seconds, and they screen on facts, not adjectives. Square footage of canopy or bench. Number of rooms or zones. Cycles or turns per year. Substrate and irrigation system by name. Environmental control platform. Crop or variety categories. Headcount reporting to the role. Put those seven items in the first third of the posting and the wrong candidates will stop reading, which is the entire point.
What Belongs in the Posting
A grower job description does four jobs at once: it proves the operation is real, it filters people who have never run at your scale, it protects you on classification and licensing, and it closes the candidate. Most postings only attempt the first. Here is the full inventory.
The numbers that make it a real job
Canopy or bench square footage
Rooms, zones, or acres under the role
Cycles or turns per year
Yield, shrink, and quality targets
Headcount reporting to this person
The specifics that filter applicants
Substrate and irrigation system by name
Environmental control platform in use
Crop or strain categories grown
Pesticide applicator license expectation
Track and trace or ERP system used
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification stated on the posting
Badging and background check notice
Minimum age where handlers are involved
Essential physical functions written plainly
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that close the hire
Base pay or a good-faith range
Bonus tied to a number the grower controls
Who they report to and who reports to them
Capital plans: new rooms, new equipment
A named person and a real timeline
The most common omission is the target. Candidates who have produced real numbers want to know what number they are being measured against, and candidates who have never produced one tend to avoid postings that ask. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure, and the rest of the hiring templates library covers the roles around this one.
6 Master Grower Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: operation overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a classification and compliance note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you need to change.
Download All 6 Master Grower Job Description Templates
Master grower, head grower, assistant grower, cultivation technician, post-harvest lead, and IPM lead. All in one download.
Master Grower, Cannabis
Owns yield and the license
The full facility role, with production targets, track and trace duties, badging, and a classification note written for a state-licensed operation.
Head Grower, Nursery
Ship dates and shrink
For covered production and nursery stock: schedule built backward from availability, fertility and plant growth regulators, and applicator licensing.
Assistant Grower / Grow Lead
Runs the floor
The second in command and the promotion path into the top job, written hourly and non-exempt by default with the reason stated.
Cultivation Technician
The volume hire
The entry-level plant care role you will hire most often, with a written growth path and pay steps built into the posting.
Post-Harvest Lead
Dry, cure, trim, reconcile
For everything between the cut and the package, including the piece rate rules and the warning that this work may sit outside the agricultural exemption.
IPM Lead
Protects crop and license
For operations big enough to give pest and disease pressure a dedicated owner, with applicator licensing and worker protection duties spelled out.
The full facility role, with a production target block you fill in before posting, track and trace duties, badging requirements, and a classification note written for a state-licensed operation.
in [City, State] with [number] square feet of flowering canopy across [number]
rooms, running [number] harvest cycles per year. We are hiring a Master Grower to
own the entire cultivation program from mother stock through harvest handoff.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Master Grower is accountable for yield, quality, and cost per unit across the
whole facility. This role sets the cultivation plan, runs the crop schedule,
directs the cultivation team, holds the environmental and feeding standards, and
keeps every plant accounted for in the state track and trace system.
PRODUCTION TARGETS (state these; do not leave them blank)
•Yield target: ________ grams per square foot per cycle
•Cycle target: ________ harvests per room per year
•Quality target: ________ percent of harvest meeting [top tier] grade
•Failure ceiling: no more than ________ percent loss to pests, mold, or disease
•Cost target: $________ cost per [gram / pound] produced
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own the cultivation plan: strain selection, propagation, veg and flower
schedules, and room turn timing across [number] rooms
•Set and maintain environmental targets (temperature, humidity, VPD, CO2, light
intensity and spectrum, airflow) and act on deviations
•Design and adjust the feeding program: substrate, irrigation strategy, nutrient
recipe, EC and pH targets, and runoff monitoring
•Run integrated pest management: scouting schedule, thresholds, approved product
list, application records, and sanitation protocol
•Direct, schedule, and train the cultivation team; set daily task lists and
verify work was done to standard
•Maintain mother stock, cloning, and genetic records; run selection trials
•Keep the facility inventory reconciled in [state track and trace system] and
ensure every plant tag, waste event, and transfer is recorded accurately
•Own written SOPs for every recurring task and retrain staff when they change
•Prepare the facility for state inspection at any time without notice
•Report weekly on crop stage, projected harvest weight, and variance to plan
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years running commercial cultivation at [square footage] scale or
larger, with verifiable yield and quality outcomes
•Demonstrated command of [substrate type] and [irrigation system] at scale
•Working knowledge of integrated pest management and state-approved pesticide
lists for cannabis in [State]
•[State pesticide applicator license required / preferred / not required]
•Must be at least 21 and able to obtain a [State] cannabis [agent badge /
employee registration card] before the first shift
•Must clear the criminal background check required for badging in [State]
•Comfortable with spreadsheets, environmental controllers, and track and trace
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Degree in horticulture, plant science, agronomy, or a related field
•Experience bringing a new room or a new facility online
•Experience passing a state inspection or a third-party audit
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE (read before posting)
Classify this role deliberately. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employees
employed in agriculture are exempt from overtime, and agriculture is defined by
the activity rather than by the crop. Federal law still leaves cannabis in an
untested position, and several states have removed or narrowed their own
agricultural overtime exemption, so the federal answer is often not the answer
that governs you. Many employers classify a master grower under the executive
exemption instead, which requires a salary of at least $684 per week, management
as the primary duty, direction of two or more full-time employees, and real
authority over hiring. Confirm badging, background check, and pesticide licensing
requirements with your state cannabis regulator and state agriculture department
before posting. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [bonus structure], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and the yield and
quality numbers you produced at your last facility.
Template 2: Head Grower, Commercial Nursery or Covered Production
For nursery stock, bedding plants, and food crops grown under protection: a schedule built backward from ship dates, fertility and plant growth regulator duties, and applicator licensing stated plainly.
Head Grower, Commercial Nursery or Glasshouse Job Description
HEAD GROWER JOB DESCRIPTION (COMMERCIAL NURSERY / GLASSHOUSE)
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Owner / Production Manager]
Direct reports: [number] growers and production staff
Employment type: Full-time, year-round
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
The second in command and the promotion path into the top job. Written hourly and non-exempt by default, with the reason stated so the title does not do the classification work.
Assistant Grower / Grow Lead Job Description
ASSISTANT GROWER / GROW LEAD JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Master Grower / Head Grower]
Direct reports: [number] cultivation technicians on shift
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Non-exempt (hourly, overtime-eligible) unless an exemption clearly
applies (see note)
Compensation: $_ per hour
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] is hiring an Assistant Grower to run the day on the floor while
the [Master Grower / Head Grower] runs the plan. This is the promotion path into
the top cultivation job and the person who covers it when the grower is out.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Assistant Grower executes the cultivation plan room by room, leads the
technicians on shift, records what actually happened, and escalates anything the
plan did not anticipate.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Execute daily crop tasks to the written SOP: irrigation, feeding, defoliation,
training, transplanting, and room turns
•Lead the technicians on shift: assign tasks, check work, and keep pace
•Take and log daily readings (environment, EC, pH, runoff) and flag drift
•Scout every room on the posted schedule and record pest and disease pressure
•Mix nutrient solutions to recipe and verify before dosing
•Keep the state track and trace record current for plant movements and waste
•Run sanitation between cycles to the written standard
•Cover the [Master Grower / Head Grower] role during absences
•Train new technicians on tasks and safety
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in commercial cultivation, including [specific system]
•Able to follow a written SOP exactly and say so when something goes wrong
•[State agent badge / registration card] obtainable before the first shift
•Must clear the background check required for our site
•Able to lift ________ pounds, work on ladders or lifts, and stand for a shift
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Write this role as hourly and non-exempt unless you have a specific reason not
to. A lead who spends most of the day doing crop work rather than managing does
not meet the executive exemption, whatever the title says. If the federal
agricultural overtime exemption applies to your operation, check your state rule
before relying on it, because several states no longer follow the federal
approach. Track hours for everyone in this role and pay overtime where it is
owed. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [shift differential], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 4: Cultivation Technician
The entry-level plant care role you will hire most often, with a written growth path and pay steps in the posting itself. For the shipping and inventory side of the same building, the warehouse associate templates are the closer fit.
FLSA status: Non-exempt (hourly, overtime-eligible where your state requires it)
Compensation: $_ per hour
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] is hiring Cultivation Technicians for our [indoor / covered]
production site in [City, State]. This is hands-on plant work on a set schedule,
and it is the entry point into a cultivation career with a real path to Assistant
Grower.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Cultivation Technician carries out daily plant care tasks to the written
standard, keeps the work areas clean, and records what was done.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Water, feed, transplant, prune, train, and space plants to the daily task list
•Take clones and maintain propagation areas
•Clean and sanitize rooms, tools, containers, and floors between tasks
•Record completed tasks and plant counts in [system]
•Report pests, disease, and equipment problems the moment you see them
•Move plants and materials safely, including on carts and lifts
•Follow all safety, sanitation, and site access rules
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[No prior experience required / ___ months of plant or production work]
•Reliable attendance for a [shift pattern] schedule
•[State agent badge / registration card] obtainable before the first shift
where required for our site
•Must clear the background check required for our site
•Able to lift ________ pounds, stand for a full shift, and work in [heat,
humidity, and artificial light]
GROWTH PATH (write this in; it is why people apply)
Technician to Senior Technician at [milestone], Senior Technician to Assistant
Grower at [milestone]. Pay steps: $______, $______, $______.
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
This is an hourly, non-exempt role. Federal law exempts agricultural employees
from overtime, but minimum wage still applies unless the small employer test is
met, and California, Washington, and New York now require overtime for
agricultural workers under their own schedules. Post-harvest processing performed
at a separate licensed facility, or on another operation's crop, is generally not
agriculture and carries no exemption. Track every hour worked. Anyone who handles
pesticides or enters a treated area must be trained and equipped under the EPA
Agricultural Worker Protection Standard, and handlers must be at least 18. This
is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [shift pattern], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume or call _____.
Template 5: Post-Harvest Lead (Dry, Cure, and Trim)
For everything between the cut and the finished package, including piece rate rules and the warning that this work may sit outside the agricultural exemption entirely.
Post-Harvest Lead (Dry, Cure, and Trim) Job Description
POST-HARVEST LEAD JOB DESCRIPTION (DRY, CURE, AND TRIM)
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Master Grower / Production Manager]
Direct reports: [number] post-harvest technicians and seasonal trimmers
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Non-exempt unless the executive exemption is genuinely met (see note)
Compensation: $_ per hour or $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] harvests [number] rooms per [month] and needs one person
accountable for everything that happens between the cut and the finished
package. Quality is won or lost here, and so is a large share of the labor cost.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Post-Harvest Lead runs harvest scheduling, drying and curing environments,
trimming throughput and quality, weighing and reconciliation, and the handoff to
[packaging / manufacturing / distribution].
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Schedule harvest days with the grower and staff them correctly
•Set and hold dry room targets (temperature, humidity, airflow, duration) and
document them for every lot
•Manage cure to the written standard and record moisture checks
•Run the trim operation: throughput targets, quality standard, and rework rules
•Weigh, label, and reconcile every lot in [state track and trace system]
•Manage waste events and record them exactly as the state requires
•Enforce sanitation, glove and hairnet policy, and contamination controls
•Train seasonal trimmers and check output against the quality standard
•Report yield, moisture loss, and grade mix by lot
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in post-harvest, packaging, or food production
•Precision with scales, labels, and reconciliation; a paper trail habit
•[State agent badge / registration card] obtainable before the first shift
•Must clear the background check required for our site
•Able to lift ________ pounds and work in a cool, controlled room
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE (this is the one people get wrong)
Do not assume the agricultural overtime exemption reaches post-harvest work.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, practices performed by a farmer or on a farm
as an incident to that farming can qualify as agriculture, but processing another
operation's crop, or processing at a separate facility, generally does not.
Trimming, drying, and packaging staff are frequently found to be non-exempt.
Piece rates for trimming are legal in most places but must still produce at least
the applicable minimum wage for every hour worked, and overtime where owed must
be calculated on the regular rate the piece rate produces. Seasonal trimmers are
employees, not independent contractors, when you set the schedule, the location,
the method, and the standard. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per [hour / year], [piece rate detail], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 6: Integrated Pest Management Lead
For operations large enough to give pest and disease pressure a dedicated owner, with applicator licensing and worker protection duties spelled out. Outdoor sites with mature trees on the property should pair it with the arborist templates.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Lead Job Description
INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT (IPM) LEAD JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Master Grower / Head Grower]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per year or $_ per hour
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] runs [square footage] of production in [City, State] and has
decided that pest and disease pressure deserves a dedicated owner rather than a
task on someone else's list. This role protects the crop and the license at the
same time.
POSITION SUMMARY
The IPM Lead builds and runs the scouting program, sets action thresholds,
selects and applies approved treatments, keeps every application record, and
holds the sanitation and biosecurity standard for the site.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Scout every production area on a fixed schedule and log findings by zone
•Set written action thresholds and trigger the response when they are crossed
•Maintain the approved product list for [State] and verify every product is
legal for our crop and site before use
•Plan rotations by mode of action to avoid resistance
•Run biological control releases and monitor establishment
•Mix and apply treatments within label requirements, with correct PPE
•Keep application records, restricted entry intervals, and posting current
•Own sanitation and biosecurity: footbaths, clothing rules, visitor policy,
incoming plant quarantine
•Train all staff on pesticide safety and entry restrictions each year
•Report pressure trends and losses to the grower weekly
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in IPM, plant health, or crop protection
•Ability to identify common [crop] pests and pathogens by sight and by damage
•Rigorous record keeping; applications are a legal document, not a note
•Must clear the background check and badging required for our site
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Pesticide compliance is where a small operation is most exposed. The EPA
Agricultural Worker Protection Standard covers agricultural establishments,
including nurseries and covered production, that use pesticides on agricultural
plants. It requires annual pesticide safety training for workers and handlers, a
minimum age of 18 for handlers and early-entry workers, decontamination supplies,
application exclusion zones, and record retention. State pesticide law sits on
top of that, and for cannabis specifically most products carry no federal crop
label, so states publish their own allowed lists. Confirm both before writing the
posting, and state the license requirement plainly so applicants self-select. This
is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per [year / hour], [license reimbursement], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and your applicator
license number and categories.
Overtime and the Agricultural Exemption
Employees employed in agriculture are exempt from federal overtime under section 13(b)(12) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and agriculture is defined by the activity rather than by the crop. Cultivation work generally sits inside that definition. Whether you can safely rely on it is a different question.
Two things complicate it. Cannabis remains federally unsettled, and the Department of Labor has issued no cannabis-specific guidance on whether the exemption reaches a licensed grow, so relying on it is a legal judgment rather than a settled rule. And state law has moved. The federal Wage and Hour Division guidance on agricultural employers also sets a separate small employer test: an employer who did not use more than 500 man-days of agricultural labor in any calendar quarter of the previous year is exempt from both minimum wage and overtime for the current year, where a man-day is any day an employee performs at least one hour of agricultural work. Five hundred man-days works out to roughly seven full-time people across a thirteen-week quarter, so most operations with a real cultivation team are already past it.
Agriculture is defined by the activity, not the crop
The Fair Labor Standards Act defines agriculture in section 3(f) as farming in all its branches, including cultivation of the soil, horticulture, and the raising of agricultural or horticultural commodities. Section 13(b)(12) then gives a complete overtime exemption to employees employed in agriculture. Nothing in that definition turns on which plant you grow, which is the argument cannabis operators rely on. The complication is that federal law still treats cannabis differently from other crops, the Department of Labor has issued no cannabis-specific guidance on the point, and the question has not been settled the way it has for tomatoes. Do not build a payroll on that exemption without counsel who will put the opinion in writing. This is general information, not legal advice.
State overtime law has moved away from the federal rule
Three of the biggest cultivation states no longer follow the federal agricultural exemption. California completed its phase-in on January 1, 2025, when employers with 25 or fewer employees joined the standard of overtime after 8 hours in a day and 40 in a week, per the California Department of Industrial Relations. Washington moved agricultural employees to a straight 40-hour overtime week on January 1, 2024, per the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. New York stepped its threshold down to 52 hours a week on January 1, 2026, and it continues falling by four hours every other year until it reaches 40 in 2032, per the New York State Department of Labor. If you operate in any of those states, the federal exemption is not your answer.
Badging and background checks come before the first shift
Every state with a licensed cannabis market requires people working inside a licensed facility to hold a state-issued agent badge or employee registration card, granted only after a criminal history check, with a minimum age of 21 in most programs and disqualifying offenses that vary widely by state. The badge is a condition of being in the building, not a formality you complete during the first pay period. Build it into the hiring sequence: state the requirement in the posting, start the application at offer, and set the start date after the card is expected to arrive. Keep a copy on file with its expiration date, because badges renew. Confirm the current rules with your state cannabis regulator before you post. This is general information, not legal advice.
Pesticide rules follow the grower personally
The EPA Agricultural Worker Protection Standard covers agricultural establishments, including nurseries and covered production, that use pesticides on agricultural plants. It requires annual pesticide safety training for workers and handlers, a minimum age of 18 for handlers and early-entry workers, decontamination supplies, application exclusion zones, and retention of application and training records. State pesticide law adds commercial applicator licensing by category, and for cannabis specifically most products carry no federal crop label, so states publish their own allowed lists. A master grower who applies or directs applications is personally exposed here, which is exactly why the license expectation belongs in the posting rather than in a conversation after the offer.
Role
Usual classification
What decides it
Master grower
Exempt in most operations
Executive exemption at $684 per week with two or more full-time reports, or the agricultural exemption where your state still allows it
Head grower, nursery
Exempt in most operations
Same test; nursery work is squarely agriculture federally, but state overtime law may still apply
Assistant grower / lead
Non-exempt by default
Primary duty is crop work, not management, so the executive exemption usually fails
Cultivation technician
Non-exempt
Plant care under direction; minimum wage always applies unless the 500 man-day test is met
Post-harvest lead
Non-exempt unless management is the primary duty
Processing at a separate facility, or on another operation's crop, is generally not agriculture
Trimmers, seasonal
Non-exempt employees, not contractors
You set schedule, location, method, and standard; piece rates must still clear minimum wage per hour worked
IPM lead
Depends on primary duty
Applying and scouting is crop work; designing and directing a site-wide program can support an exemption
If you are unsure which side a role falls on, our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through the tests, and the general overtime rules cover what is owed once a role lands on the non-exempt side. Schools of thought differ on growers; the safest posture for a small operation is to classify on duties and keep hours records for everyone until you have written advice saying you do not need to.
Badges, Background Checks, and Applicator Licenses
Two licensing questions decide whether a candidate can legally do the job on day one: the state cannabis agent badge, where you hold a cultivation license, and the pesticide applicator license, wherever treatments are applied. Both belong in the posting rather than in a conversation after the offer.
Badging is the harder sequencing problem. Every state with a licensed market requires an agent badge or employee registration card before a person works inside a licensed facility, issued only after a criminal history check, with a minimum age of 21 in most programs. Processing times, disqualifying offenses, and renewal cycles vary by state, so the badge application should start at offer, not at start date.
Requirement
How to handle it in the posting
State agent badge or card
State it as a condition of employment and say clearance must be complete before the first shift
Minimum age
21 for licensed cannabis facilities in most states; 18 for pesticide handlers and early-entry workers under the federal standard
Criminal background check
Name it, and check your state and local rules on when in the process you may ask
Pesticide applicator license
Mark required, preferred, or obtainable within a set number of days, with category if you know it
Pesticide safety training
Annual for workers and handlers under the federal worker protection standard; state you provide it
Physical requirements
Lifting, ladders and lifts, heat, humidity, and long periods standing, written as essential functions
Track and trace competence
Name the state system so candidates who have used it can say so
Pesticide obligations are the ones a small operation underestimates. The EPA Agricultural Worker Protection Standard covers agricultural establishments that use pesticides on agricultural plants, including nurseries and covered production, and requires annual safety training for workers and handlers, a minimum age of 18 for handlers, decontamination supplies, application exclusion zones, and retention of records. For cannabis specifically, most products carry no federal crop label, so states publish their own allowed lists and the grower is the person expected to know them.
Clearance Comes Before the First Shift, Not During the First Week
The expensive mistake is letting someone start while a badge or a background check is pending because a room is coming down and you need hands. State cannabis regulators treat an unbadged person inside a licensed facility as a licensee violation, not an employee mistake, and the consequence lands on your license rather than on the individual. Build the clearance timeline backward from the start date and hold it. Our guides to running a background check and to state background check laws cover the notice requirements that apply before you order one.
What to Pay a Master Grower
There is no Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation called master grower, so no official national median exists for the title. Benchmark against the nearest classifications instead, and expect a single-site master grower to land between the farm supervisor band and the agricultural manager band.
Nearest BLS Classifications, National Medians
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), the median annual wage was $89,900 for Farmers, Ranchers, and Other Agricultural Managers, $78,850 for Soil and Plant Scientists, $59,320 for First-Line Supervisors of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers, and $35,660 for crop and nursery farmworkers and laborers, occupation code 45-2092 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates). No OEWS occupation carries the master grower title.
Nearest classification
10th percentile
Median
75th percentile
Fit to the grower role
Farmers, Ranchers, and Other Agricultural Managers
$54,320
$89,900
$118,860
Closest match for a master grower with full facility ownership and a team
First-Line Supervisors of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers
$38,990
$59,320
$75,290
Closest match for an assistant grower or a grow lead running a shift
Soil and Plant Scientists
$48,680
$78,850
$103,740
Reference point for a science-heavy grower or an in-house agronomist
First-Line Supervisors of Landscaping and Groundskeeping
$40,560
$58,430
$72,590
Reference point for outdoor and grounds-side supervision
Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop and Nursery
$32,900
$35,660
$38,840
Floor reference for cultivation technicians and seasonal crew
Two adjustments matter. Cannabis cultivation generally pays above the agricultural medians for the same span of control, because the compliance burden and the value of the crop both sit higher. And the 90th percentile for agricultural managers reaches $160,020 a year, which is where multi-site and multi-state operators live, so a single-site employer benchmarking to that number is pricing against a different job. Publish a good-faith range where pay transparency laws apply, and put the bonus on a number the grower personally controls.
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Screen on produced numbers, at a stated scale, on a named system. Enthusiasm for the plant is universal among applicants and predicts nothing; a grower who can tell you their yield, their grade mix, and their loss rate at a facility you can call has already separated themselves from most of the field.
1
Ask for the three numbers
Yield per square foot or per plant, quality grade mix, and loss rate, at what square footage, over how many cycles. Vague answers here are the answer.
2
Match the system, not the résumé
A grower who has only run rockwool with fertigation on a controller is not automatically transferable to living soil in fabric pots. Ask which systems they personally ran and which they only observed.
3
Walk through a failure
Ask about a crop they lost or nearly lost, what caused it, when they caught it, and what changed in the SOP afterward. Growers who have never had a failure have not run enough cycles.
4
Test the compliance muscle
Ask how they handled a track and trace discrepancy, a failed test, or a state inspection. In a licensed operation this is half the job and most candidates have never been asked about it.
5
Check references who saw the rooms
The useful reference is the owner, the general manager, or the compliance lead who walked the facility, not a recruiter and not a peer at another company.
6
Move inside a week
Experienced growers are usually in two or three processes at once. A small operation cannot outbid a multi-state operator, but it can decide faster than one.
For the roles that support the grower, the screening bar is different: reliability, attention to a written standard, and willingness to say when something went wrong. Those are trainable-adjacent traits, and the hiring volume is high enough that a written growth path in the posting does more recruiting work than any perk.
Hiring Cultivation Staff Without an HR Department
Cultivation hiring fails in three predictable places: the posting describes a facility rather than a job, the timeline loses to better-funded operators, and the compliance paperwork lands in a single week around a room build-out. Each one has a fix.
The owner is the HR department, and the grower is the most consequential hire on the payroll
At a single-site cultivation operation the person writing the job description is the owner or the general manager, usually between a compliance call and a broken chiller. There is no HR office to hand it to, so the posting either gets written properly or it gets copied from another company's listing that describes a facility three times the size. The mismatch is expensive here in a way it is not for a retail hire: one bad grower can lose a full cycle, and a cycle is a quarter of the year. The fix is a fixed structure you reuse, where the only parts you rewrite each time are the facility spec, the targets, and the systems you run.
You are competing for growers against operators with bigger facilities and deeper pockets
Experienced growers with verifiable numbers are scarce, and the multi-state operators will outbid you on base pay. Compete on the things a small operation actually has: real authority over the cultivation plan instead of a corporate SOP handed down, a bonus tied to a number the grower personally controls, input on capital purchases, and a decision timeline measured in days rather than five rounds of interviews. Say all of that in the posting rather than saving it for the second conversation. Then move fast, because the strongest candidates are usually talking to two or three operators at once and speed is one of the few advantages a small employer can spend freely.
Licensing paperwork and onboarding paperwork land in the same week
Cultivation hiring clusters around a room build-out or a harvest ramp, so five people start together and each one needs the same stack: signed offer, badge application and copy, background check clearance, applicator license copy where it applies, pesticide safety training record, SOP acknowledgments, safety orientation, handbook sign-off, and emergency contacts. Every one of those has an expiration date or an inspection consequence. FirstHR was built for that burst. The AI onboarding wizard runs the identical sequence for every new hire, built-in e-signature handles the handbook and SOP acknowledgments, document management stores badges, licenses, and certificates against each employee profile with renewal dates attached, and training modules deliver safety and pesticide orientation before anyone enters a room. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider.
Once the offer is signed, the work shifts to a repeatable onboarding checklist that starts before the first room entry. In a licensed facility the sequence is not optional: badge, background clearance, applicator license copy where it applies, pesticide safety training, SOP acknowledgments, and safety orientation all have to be complete and on file, and every one of them expires.
Key Takeaways
A master grower job description without canopy square footage, cycle count, yield and quality targets, systems by name, and headcount is a hobby listing, and experienced growers screen it out in seconds.
The federal agricultural overtime exemption is defined by the activity rather than the crop, but cannabis sits in an untested federal position and the Department of Labor has issued no cannabis-specific guidance on it.
California moved all agricultural employers to an 8-hour day and 40-hour week standard on January 1, 2025, Washington moved to a 40-hour week on January 1, 2024, and New York dropped to 52 hours on January 1, 2026, falling to 40 by 2032.
Post-harvest work is the classification trap: processing at a separate facility or on another operation's crop is generally not agriculture, and piece rates must still clear minimum wage for every hour worked.
There is no BLS occupation titled master grower; the nearest medians (OEWS, May 2025) are $89,900 for agricultural managers, $78,850 for soil and plant scientists, and $59,320 for first-line farm supervisors.
State the agent badge, background check, minimum age, and pesticide applicator license in the posting, and complete clearance before the first shift rather than during the first pay period.
Cultivation hiring comes with a document trail that expires: agent badges, applicator licenses, pesticide safety training records, and SOP acknowledgments. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence for every new hire, with e-signature for handbooks and acknowledgments, document storage against each employee profile, and renewal dates tracked so nothing lapses quietly. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a master grower do?
A master grower owns the entire cultivation program at a production facility and is accountable for a number, not a task list. That means the crop schedule, strain or variety selection, propagation, environmental targets, the feeding and irrigation program, integrated pest management, sanitation, and the direction of the cultivation team. In a licensed cannabis operation the role also carries compliance weight: plant tagging, waste events, inventory reconciliation in the state track and trace system, and readiness for an inspection with no notice. The distinguishing feature against an assistant grower or a technician is ownership of the plan and the results rather than execution of someone else’s plan. A job description that lists only plant care verbs and leaves out canopy size, cycle count, yield target, and headcount has not described the job at all.
What should a master grower job description include?
Include the facility spec, the production targets, the systems, the team, the compliance requirements, the classification, and the pay. The facility spec means canopy or bench square footage, number of rooms or zones, and whether the operation is indoor, mixed-light, or covered production. Targets mean yield per square foot, cycles per year, quality grade mix, and an acceptable loss ceiling. Systems means substrate, irrigation, and environmental control by name, because an experienced grower screens on those in ten seconds. Team means how many people report to this role. Compliance means the badging or registration requirement, the background check, and any pesticide applicator license. Then state the FLSA classification and a real pay range. The six templates on this page follow that structure so the only parts you rewrite each hiring cycle are the facility specifics.
How much does a master grower make?
There is no Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation called master grower, so no official national median exists for the title itself. The nearest classifications from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025) are Farmers, Ranchers, and Other Agricultural Managers at a median of $89,900 a year, with the 25th percentile at $66,300 and the 75th at $118,860, and First-Line Supervisors of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers at a median of $59,320, with a 75th percentile of $75,290. Soil and Plant Scientists sit at a median of $78,850. In practice, a master grower at a single-site operation tends to land between the supervisor and manager bands, with the top end reserved for people who can show verifiable yield and quality numbers at comparable scale. Benchmark against operations of your size, not against multi-state operators, and publish a good-faith range where pay transparency rules apply.
Is a master grower exempt from overtime?
Often, but the reason matters more than the answer. The Fair Labor Standards Act exempts employees employed in agriculture from overtime under section 13(b)(12), and agriculture is defined by the activity rather than by the crop, so cultivation work generally falls inside it. Two things complicate that for cultivation employers. First, cannabis sits in an untested federal position and the Department of Labor has published no cannabis-specific guidance on the exemption, so relying on it is a legal judgment call rather than a settled rule. Second, state law increasingly overrides the federal exemption: California moved all agricultural employers to an 8-hour day and 40-hour week standard on January 1, 2025, Washington moved to a 40-hour week on January 1, 2024, and New York dropped to 52 hours a week on January 1, 2026, falling to 40 by 2032. Many employers rely on the executive exemption instead, which requires a salary of at least $684 a week, management as the primary duty, direction of two or more full-time employees, and genuine authority over hiring. This is general information, not legal advice.
Do cultivation employees need a state badge before they start work?
Yes, in every state that licenses cannabis cultivation. Working inside a licensed facility requires a state-issued agent badge or employee registration card, issued only after a criminal history check, with a minimum age of 21 in most programs. Disqualifying offenses, processing times, and renewal cycles vary widely by state, so check with your state cannabis regulator rather than assuming a neighboring state’s rules apply. The practical consequence for hiring is sequencing: state the requirement in the job posting so candidates self-select, start the badge application at the offer stage rather than on the start date, and set the first day after the card is expected to arrive. Keep a copy on file with the expiration date tracked, because a lapsed badge means a person who cannot legally be in the building. Nursery and covered production sites without a cannabis license do not carry this requirement, though they still carry pesticide licensing and worker protection obligations.
Should trimmers and post-harvest staff be classified the same way as growers?
No, and this is the most common classification mistake in cultivation. The agricultural overtime exemption covers farming activities, and while practices performed by a farmer or on a farm as an incident to that farming can qualify as secondary agriculture, processing another operation’s crop or processing at a separate licensed facility generally does not. Trimming, drying, packaging, and manufacturing staff are frequently non-exempt and owed overtime past forty hours in a week wherever the exemption does not reach. Piece rates for trimming are legal in most jurisdictions but must still yield at least the applicable minimum wage for every hour worked, and any overtime owed is calculated on the regular rate the piece rate produces, not on the piece rate itself. Seasonal trimmers are employees rather than independent contractors when you set the schedule, the location, the method, and the quality standard. Track hours for everyone in post-harvest.
How do I hire a grower for a small operation with no HR department?
Run a fixed sequence and screen on numbers rather than enthusiasm. Post a job description that states canopy size, cycle count, yield and quality targets, systems by name, and headcount, because those five facts do more filtering than any screening question. Ask every candidate for the yield, quality grade mix, and loss rate they personally produced, at what scale, and on what system, then ask them to walk through a crop failure they caused and what changed afterward. Check references with someone who saw their rooms, not with a recruiter. Make the offer quickly, since experienced growers are usually in two or three processes at once. Then run onboarding as a checklist rather than a pile: signed offer, badge application, background clearance, applicator license copy, pesticide safety training, SOP acknowledgments, and safety orientation before the first room entry. FirstHR handles that sequence with e-signature, document storage, and renewal tracking. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
