Lead Cultivation Associate

Title: Lead Cultivation Associate
Pay Range: $21.25 - $24.00
Location: Litchfield, IL
Job Type: Full Time | Non-Exempt
Shift: Tuesday - Saturday, 7:00 AM - 3:30 PM

Who You Are:
You’re a hands-on leader who knows how to balance plant health, team productivity, and compliance in a fast-paced cultivation environment. You lead by example on the floor, support and guide Cultivation Associates through daily priorities, and take pride in running an organized, efficient, and compliant vegetative garden. You’re detail-driven, calm under pressure, and comfortable holding yourself and others accountable to quality, safety, and performance standards.

What You’ll Do:

As a Lead Cultivation Associate at Curaleaf, you’ll oversee day-to-day vegetative cultivation operations while supporting your team across the full plant life cycle. You’ll partner closely with Cultivation leadership to execute the grow plan, maintain plant integrity, and keep the garden running smoothly. Your responsibilities will include:

• Lead and pace Cultivation Associates through daily tasks including watering, feeding, transplanting, pruning, defoliation, cleaning, and basic equipment maintenance

• Support cloning, sanitation, room prep, and flower room operations while maintaining plant health across growth stages

• Monitor grow rooms daily, auditing environmental and irrigation systems and escalating issues outside of tolerance

• Perform pest inspections and mitigation while safely applying sanitizers, foliar treatments, and preventative sprays in line with SOPs

• Maintain plant structure and canopy health to support airflow and light penetration, and assist with harvest and post-harvest activities

• Measure, label, track, and dispose of plant material and waste in compliance with regulations while using trackers and metrics to monitor planned vs. actual output

• Training, coaching, and guiding team members on SOPs, safety practices, and cultivation standards

• Support continuous improvement, sanitation, biosecurity, and safety initiatives while communicating priorities and updates to keep the team aligned

What You’ll Bring:

• At least 1 year of hands-on experience in a commercial cannabis, agricultural, or landscaping setting

• You’re confident managing daily priorities, pacing work, and keeping teams on schedule while communicating clearly under pressure

• You have strong attention to detail and a consistent approach to quality, documentation, and compliance

• You’re comfortable with production trackers, inventory systems, and basic computer tools, and confident with measurements and scales

• You’re reliable, accountable, and take ownership of your work and your team’s performance

• You have a high school diploma, GED, or equivalent

Even Better If:

• You have at least 1 year of experience leading or guiding a team in a commercial cannabis, agricultural, or landscaping environment

• You bring previous knowledge of growing technologies including lighting, irrigation, nutrients, HVAC, or CO₂ systems

• You’ve supported sanitation programs, bio-security protocols, or 5S initiatives

• You understand different cannabis strains and their unique vegetative growth needs

Physical Requirements & Work Environment:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

• This position has allergen warnings, potential exposure to dust, pollen, and plant pathogens, and requires daily use of provided PPE, such as masks, hair nets, beard covers, respirators, boot covers, scrubs, non-slip shoes, and Tyvek suits as necessary, has exposure to loud noises, including but not limited to air compressors, packaging equipment, and alarms, has exposure to CO2 manufacturing procedures at OSHA approved CO2 levels, requires high-stress tolerance, adaptability, and flexibility, as well as the ability to work in an ever-changing environment.  

• While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is regularly required to stand, walk, sit, talk, use hands to finger or feel, reach with hands and arms. The employee is occasionally required to climb and balance, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl, and lift up to 50 lbs.

• This position requires close vision, distance vision, color vision, distance vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.    

Curaleaf is an Equal Opportunity Employer