New Job Opening: Manager, Climate-Smart Ag Interactive Programming - Farm Journal's Trust In Food

I'm sharing the following opening in case anyone in the Extension community might have recommendations for a great  person to fit the needs of this role -- recognizing you all work with so many fantastic collaborators across the U.S. Please feel free to email any questions or recommendations to me at NBirt@FarmJournal.com. Thank you! -Nate Birt, Vice President, Trust In Food, a Farm Journal initiative

Trust In Food, a fast-growth startup division of 145-year-old Farm Journal, seeks a creative, digitally-oriented to lead creation of Climate-Smart Ag Interactive Programming – a key new cornerstone of the rapidly expanding America’s Conservation Ag Movement (ACAM) public-private partnership.

This is a senior project management and content-creation role with heavy emphasis on client-facing discovery, ideation, storytelling, iterating/revising, publishing and monitoring of key performance metrics to engage a broad audience of farmers and ranchers in climate-smart ag resources for maximum social impact.

Must-have characteristics of this role include:

• a deep knowledge of both production agriculture and conservation agriculture/sustainability/regenerative ag, across all segments of the industry. A working knowledge of issues including climate change and carbon/ecosystem services markets is a major plus.
• outstanding interviewing, researching, writing, editing, design and interactive digital storytelling skills – a Swiss Army knife of creative talent with an eye for compelling content with clear benefits to the audience, crisp calls to action and leading audiences down a path and helping them solve problems. Background in data-driven journalism, digital UX or related fields is a major plus.
• superior leadership and project management skills to strategically evaluate complex, parallel workstreams to develop actionable workplans, secure buy-in from stakeholders, create compelling programming and resources, and deliver outstanding final products on time and on budget.
• a passion for working directly with decision-makers to develop programming in an iterative way amid very tight deadlines, often involving multiple levels of revision and feedback.
• a proven track record of creating innovative, helpful and highly engaging resources and programming for targeted, industry-specific business audiences.

Now entering its third year, ACAM brings farmers, ranchers and the regenerative agriculture community together around the future of farming, by bringing profitable, planet-friendly farming practices into the mainstream. The program connects the dots, giving farmers a platform to share their journey, meet other farmers on the same path, and access the resources they need to undertake change. The Movement is organized by Trust In Food, a Farm Journal initiative, in partnership with the Farm Journal Foundation. Financial and technical support is provided by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and a growing collaboration of leading agribusinesses, food companies and nonprofit organizations including American Farmland Trust, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, Certis Biologicals, Corteva, Ducks Unlimited, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, National Association of Conservation Districts, National Corn Growers Association, National Pork Board, Nutrien and Nutrien Ag Solutions, Sanderson Farms, SIMPAS, The Nature Conservancy, United Sorghum Checkoff Program and Valent USA.

The Manager, Climate-Smart Ag Interactive Programming, will report to the Vice President, Trust In Food, with a dotted line to Director, ACAM, and Vice President, Editorial, Farm Journal Inc., and will have responsibility for managing all aspects of the Climate-Smart Ag Interactive Programming to be created for use by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in the five states where the program operates regionally. The manager will participate in regular internal and client-facing meetings to plan, ideate and create two Climate-Smart Ag Interactive Programming resources for each of the five states, for a total of 10 deliverables, each designed to meet the hyperlocal needs of producers in state/region.

The successful candidate will work across the Farm Journal organization and with its collaborators at the Farm Journal Foundation, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and coalition of ACAM partner organizations in the private sector to ideate, build and deliver successful Climate-Smart Ag Interactive Programming that helps farmers and ranchers understand, value and feel capable of taking action on climate-smart ag issues and other aligned topics.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Conceptualize, research, write, edit, design, publish and measure much or all Climate-Smart Ag Interactive Programming developed through the program
• Manage a cross-functional team of professional creatives and external clients to successfully deliver the programming
• Assess data and analytics about campaign performance and identify/execute strategies to improve farmer and rancher engagement with the programming
• Report out to clients on learnings/opportunities/successes with the programming

SKILLS NEEDED

• Deep experience with data-driven, digital storytelling including but not limited to online video, infographics, whitepapers, virtual/live/hybrid events, and other tactics designed to help audiences take measurable positive next steps/actions.
• Excellent project management, including creation of agendas and distributing beforehand, identifying action steps in the meeting and holding colleagues accountable for delivering on expectations on short-turn, fast-paced deadlines with positivity and a good sense of humor
• Creative and entrepreneurial talent with a strong sense of judgment and proficiency to develop, see and execute on strategic priorities and KPIs, with attention to achieving client-driven performance metrics
• Superior problem-solving skills

ATTRIBUTES NEEDED

• Creative…unending curiosity…a change-agent
• Innovative. Not afraid to re-imagine processes or products—or create new ones—that serve audience and meet business goals.
• Resilient. High comfort level working through ambiguity and uncertainty to create structured processes and pathways to successful final deliverables.
• Team Player. Belief that communication, collaboration and accountability are keys to be a great teammate.
• Business Focused. A leader who is driven to delight our audience and our partners while achieving business goals and elevating ACAM, its partners and Trust In Food.