SeedSpider

Growing world-leading agritech from Palmerston North to the paddocks of the world.

SeedSpider has spent more than 30 years working alongside growers to solve some of commercial farming’s hardest problems.

From its Palmerston North base, the company designs and manufactures advanced field robotics used across more than 20 countries. Its technology helps growers respond to labour shortages, rising input costs and the need to produce food more sustainably—without sacrificing commercial reality.

When Wayne Oxenham took over as CEO, SeedSpider was preparing to turn decades of innovation into its next phase of international growth.

THE CHALLENGE

The first priority was finding Wayne’s right hand: a commercially sharp CFO/COO capable of helping a highly inventive Kiwi business scale.

This wasn’t a conventional finance appointment.

SeedSpider needed someone who could move comfortably between cash-flow modelling, international finance, capital raising, operations, production, procurement, people and commercial decision-making.

They also needed to thrive inside an open, practical and fast-moving business where the machinery is real, the customers are growers and no two days are likely to look the same.

Palmerston North was the ideal location—but the relevant talent market was always going to be small. The search also needed to remain discreet while the leadership transition took shape.

THE APPROACH

Kooked Goose mapped the market across Manawatū and wider New Zealand, combining targeted research with trusted referrals and carefully tailored conversations.

Rather than searching for a perfect job title, the work focused on the underlying mix SeedSpider actually required:

• Chartered accounting and commercial finance

• Operational breadth

• International experience

• Capital-raising capability

• Practical leadership

• Comfort operating through ambiguity

• Genuine alignment with Wayne, the team and SeedSpider’s ambitions

The search created useful reference points as well as candidates. Each conversation helped test the scope, location, remuneration and appeal of the opportunity before SeedSpider committed to a decision.

THE OUTCOME

The work supported the appointment of Christiaan van Rensburg as SeedSpider’s Chief Financial and Operations Officer.

The appointment gave Wayne additional financial and operational horsepower at a pivotal stage—while retaining the collaborative, sleeves-rolled-up character that makes SeedSpider tick.

But that wasn’t the end of the fieldwork.

THE NEXT FRONTIER

As SeedSpider prepared to establish a stronger presence in the United Kingdom, another unusual talent question emerged:

Who could become its first person on the ground in the UK?

The role sat at a difficult intersection. SeedSpider didn’t simply need a robotics engineer. It needed someone who could understand mechatronics, work practically in the field, build trust with growers, support customers and feed real-world learning back into product development.

In other words: part engineer, part problem-solver and part customer partner—with enough appetite to help build something from the ground up.

Kooked Goose broke the market into distinct talent pools spanning agritech robotics, field applications engineering, agricultural machinery, mechatronics and high-potential early-career engineers.

The discovery work surfaced 20 deliberately targeted profiles, including eight strong prospects for SeedSpider to consider and invite into its UK field-day activity.

The result was more than a list of names. SeedSpider gained a clearer picture of where the relevant UK talent sat, which backgrounds translated best and how to position a role that didn’t fit neatly inside a conventional job title.

WHAT THE FIELDWORK SHOWED

SeedSpider didn’t need recruitment volume.

It needed clarity around two very different, business-critical talent decisions: one at the heart of the company’s leadership team and another supporting expansion into a new international market.

That’s where Kooked Goose works best—getting beneath the title, understanding what the business is genuinely trying to achieve and making a difficult talent market easier to navigate.