Orie Sofer

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT ORIE SOFER

I am an enthusiastic and committed individual, driven by the belief that we possess the capacity to address our generation’s most challenging issues, and it’s my duty to contribute to this effort. With a proactive and hands-on approach, I am a fast learner who embraces problem-solving and leadership. I value communication as the foundation for effective collaboration and when confronted with challenges, I draw upon my experience, creativity, and systematic mindset to deliver results. As an early member of Infarm, I seized many opportunities to take on challenges. Within a few months I successfully founded and led the Engineering team, ensuring efficient in-house production and delivering first-generation farms at an unprecedented pace. As the company grew, I managed and aligned teams across various functions, adapting development methods to meet evolving needs, using SCRUM, Agile for Hardware and Design for Engineering. This continuous refinement approach catered to the changing dynamics and the increasing size of the company and allowed ongoing functional improvement and cost reduction. Through supplier management strategies and established framework agreements enhancing the growth trajectory of the business, we achieved a 30% BOM cost reduction from prototype to serial production. As the Technical Lead for the Acre Farming System, I designed and executed the development processes for the company\'s next generation farming system. Leveraging in-depth ideation and problem-solving workshops, I led the teams in generating concepts that underwent rigorous validation through prototyping and deconstructed system evaluation. This iterative approach led to both functional and visually representative prototypes that were further shaped based on users and supplier feedback, resulting in the refinement of an Engineering Prototype; Acre0. This fully functional farming system, in collaboration with multiple business partners, was the foundation for serial production and dramatically enhanced the company’s fundraising for global expansion. Notably, this system was developed from an initial idea to a working prototype within a remarkable 18-months, followed by an aggressive roll out. As Crop Hardware Lab Lead, I collaborated with stakeholders, to align research goals and spearhead the development and delivery of PoC Farming Hardware. Rapid prototyping had iterations functioning within weeks, and enabled functional validation and cost-benefit analyses, empowering data-driven decision-making prior to Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and commercial roll out.