Soil Health Specialist

The Soil Health Specialist is a fast-paced full-time position that will work directly with farmers and a broad set of project partners on agriculture conservation, water quality improvement, and climate-smart practices. The Specialist will engage directly with farmers to provide technical guidance for field-based practices aimed at improving the soil health of crop and pasture lands. Throughout each farm’s planning and implementation process, this position will help farmers troubleshoot common obstacles to changing in-field practices and manure management techniques. The Specialist will utilize their expertise to collaborate with the Alliance’s corporate partners by providing feedback on the development of climate-focused programming.

This position will work under the supervision of the Senior Agriculture Projects Manager to help advance the Alliance Agriculture Program’s implementation of conservation practices that promote improved soil health, water quality, and climate resilience throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The position will participate in, develop, and/or lead farmer and partner relations, internal team learning, project management, grant applications, partnership development with corporate and nonprofit partners, and programmatic and financial reporting. Substantial fieldwork is necessary, and, thus, field-savviness is integral to this position.

Specific Duties of the Position:

• Provide technical consultation for farmers within current Alliance-corporate partnership frameworks:
  • Advise farmers on land and manure management practices that impact soil health, water quality, biodiversity, and greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Tasks may include farmer outreach, conservation farm assessments, data collection, soil sample collection, mapping, surveying, hosting workshops, etc.
  • Use modeling frameworks to assess the climate impacts of projects.
  • Strengthen and guide corporate partners’ agricultural conservation strategy and the development of joint conservation incentive structures used by Alliance and partners.
  • Support a rolling portfolio of over 30 concurrently running farm projects.
  • Develop and maintain relationships with farmers, agricultural consultants, contractors, federal and state agencies, corporate partners, soil and water conservation districts, and other industry stakeholders with a specific focus on regenerative agriculture and climate-related practices.
• Support the Alliance’s overall Agriculture Program strategic efforts:
  • Pursue funding that enables the Agriculture Program to contribute to Alliance Strategic Goals. Includes leading and collaborating in multiple, varied, successful grant proposals.
  • Participate in Alliance strategic planning efforts, internal committees, and problem-solving oriented teams as assigned.
  • Support management of project tasks, contracts, budgets, workloads, and grantor reporting obligations.
  • Ensure project deliverables are successfully met.