Senior Soil Health Specialist – Team Leader (Remote)

About the role

The Senior Soil Health Specialist will provide individualized technical assistance to farmers on best management practices for adopting and scaling cover crops within their unique operation. This includes all aspects of support from helping promote and enroll farmers into the Farmers for Soil Health cost-share program (administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation), to making recommendations on cover crop species, establishment methods and termination strategies and options that together provide exceptional customer service and successful integration of cover crops within their cash crop enterprise.

This partnership-driven position is directly connected to the Farmers for Soil Health program – a collaborative effort led by the National Corn Growers Association, Pork Checkoff and Soy Checkoff – which is working to increase cover crops to 30 million acres by 2030. The Senior Specialist will work closely with the State Soybean Associations and other partners such as University Extension, non-profits, Soil Health Coalitions, state Departments of Agriculture, and CTIC members operating in these regions to maximize program awareness, referral opportunities and harnessing the value of a partnership-driven approach.

Responsibilities

• Provide ongoing agronomic and conservation technical assistance on how to successfully incorporate cover crops into a corn and soybean crop rotation with priority for on-farm consultations.
• Help participating farmers plan cover cropping systems in accordance with the relevant state NRCS standard for conservation practice code 340.
• Serve as team leader and day-to-day supervisor of 3 CTIC Soil Health Specialists.
• Provide leadership and coordination support to the nine farmer CTIC Cover Crop Coaches assisting with technical assistance.
• Increase farmer enrollment into the Farmers for Soil Health program, including Historically Underserved farmers, into the Signup Incentive Program and Transition Incentive Program.
• Become knowledgeable about program eligibility requirements and enrollment platform.
• Support farmers during the eligibility determination, enrollment, data entry, and measurement reporting, and verification tasks using the Farmers for Soil Health online platform.
• Increase program awareness through networking and partnership coordination and leading outreach efforts at farmer-facing events and workshops including public speaking.
• Provide communications and marketing recommendations to CTIC and partners for reaching new farmers and providing visibility for success stories.
• Advise farmers about Marketplace Platform to connect to buyers of commodities and opportunities for premiums and incentives.
• Become knowledgeable and provide referrals to other conservation programs and opportunities to support individual farmer-driven goals.
• Participate in cover crop training and technical assistance opportunities through the FSH lead education organizations (Soil Health Institute and University of Missouri Center for Regenerative Agriculture).
• Prepare stakeholder reports and accomplishment tracking.
• Participate and receive additional training to stay on leading-edge of cover crop strategies.

Requirements

Required Education And Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in agronomy, soil science, environmental/natural resources or other agriculture related fields.
• Minimum of five years of experience working in agronomy, soils or conservation.
• Proven experience building, supervising and leading a team.
• Proven knowledge of corn, soybean and other cropping systems and how cover crops can be successfully incorporated to complement the cash crop system.
• Past outreach and/or sales experience is beneficial.
• Knowledge of proposal and grant writing and administration is desired but not a pre-requisite.
• Established and impeccable track-record of project management, developing solid relationships and working with farmers and trusted advisors.

Preferred Credentials & Qualifications:

• Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) certification.
• Farm background.
• Use of social media for work-related objectives.

Qualifications

• Valid driver’s license and ability to use personal vehicle for travel (with mileage reimbursement).

Skills

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.
• Experience with web-based platforms and databases.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills.

Benefits

• 13 paid holidays.
• 3 weeks earned by 1 year anniversary vacation.
• Sick leave.
• Life insurance.
• Short and long-term disability.
• Health reimbursement account or medical insurance (100% for employee).
• Simple IRA (up to 3% match).
• Cell phone stipend ($60/month).
• A dynamic, team-oriented work environment.

Pay

Starting Salary: Competitive and commensurate with required experience and education.

Schedule

As a remote employee, you are responsible for setting and maintaining your schedule. Requires some overnight travel. Reimbursement at the current GSA rate for use of personal vehicle will be provided. Ability to work and travel across all 3 states is required based on workload and team capacity. Limited regional travel for training, team meetings and conferences.