Senior Climate & Soil Health Scientist

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Washington.

📋 Description

• Assist AFT’s Climate and Soil Health Program by integrating research, science communication, partnerships, and implementation strategies.

• Oversee applied research, conduct literature and technical reviews, perform data analysis, modeling, life-cycle analysis, and develop impact-focused program design and execution.

• Offer technical direction for fundraising initiatives related to biochar and soil health.

• Gather, analyze, and disseminate project data and outcomes.

• Transform research discoveries, innovative practices by producers, and demonstration outcomes into decision-support tools, guides, factsheets, manuals, peer-reviewed publications, curricula, training materials, and educational resources.

• Enhance networks among producers, advisors, mentors, and peers by utilizing scientific insights and program evaluation findings.

• Tackle soil health adoption challenges across various agricultural systems and agroecological zones through on-farm trials, technical resources, and educational programs.

• Provide scientific leadership and expertise in soil health, biochar, livestock, grazing, and peer-learning training initiatives.

• Collaborate on impact assessment, evaluation, and learning frameworks.

• Direct scientific research on biochar, PFAS, climate resilience, soil health systems, ecosystem services, and related innovation prospects.

• Assist the National Climate and Soil Health Director and team with proposals, presentations, and funder engagement; may serve as Principal Investigator on future projects.

• Cultivate, manage, and utilize partnerships with producers, advisors, researchers, corporate stakeholders, funders, and other relevant parties.

• Jointly develop research-to-implementation agendas that address adoption obstacles and market prospects.

• Represent AFT as a thought leader in meetings, workshops, conferences, and external engagements.

• Design, refine, implement, and expand evidence-based curricula, training programs, and peer-learning pathways.

• Collaborate with Programs and Communications teams on presentations, publications, websites, blog posts, press releases, social media, and other communication efforts.

• Provide technical evaluations for relevant policy recommendations, platforms, and communications.

• Lead and manage AFT staff and partner teams on designated projects or workstreams.

• Coordinate with AFT, NRCS, ARS, ABI, federal entities, academic institutions, nonprofits, industry, corporate supply chains, and other collaborators.

• Ensure the delivery of high-quality outputs, partner coordination, and comprehensive progress and final reporting to funders.

• Foster a team culture that emphasizes shared learning, innovation, and problem-solving.

⛳️ Requirements

• Extensive scientific, technical, and applied on-farm knowledge in soil health, soil functionality, and the interactions among production systems, soils, climatic conditions, and management practices.

• Familiarity with soil systems modeling and the microbial, ecological, and various soil science processes.

• Advanced comprehension of soil health management system implementation, opportunities and challenges associated with biochar, environmental co-benefits, climate interactions, and technical obstacles to producer adoption.

• Experience in developing and utilizing models, tools, decision-support resources, and technical guidance based on research and producer insights.

• Proven track record of conducting independent research and quantitative analysis of complex agronomic or ecological datasets using R, SAS, or similar statistical programming languages.

• Expertise in literature review, synthesis of scientific information, and evaluation of emerging soil health research, technologies, and producer innovations.

• Strong written and verbal communication capabilities for inter-organizational and interdisciplinary collaboration.

• Demonstrated success in grant writing and fundraising, achieving buy-in from peers, leadership, or donors.

• Experience in forming partnerships with researchers, farmers and ranchers, advisors, nonprofits, corporations, agricultural retailers, and government agencies.

• Commitment to enhancing access to resources and support for small, limited-resource, beginning farmers, and others facing adoption challenges.

• Skilled trainer, facilitator, communicator, and public speaker.

• Capacity to create educational materials and convey complex scientific concepts to a variety of audiences.

• Ability to execute high-quality independent work under time constraints.

• Proven history of overseeing research and/or project implementation and ensuring timely and budget-compliant delivery.

• High emotional intelligence and capacity to collaborate, inspire others, and reach shared objectives in remote, team-oriented settings.

• Excellent organizational and communication skills.

• Dedication to shared learning, creativity, innovation, and problem-solving.

• Degree in agronomy, soil science, agroecology, conservation, agricultural sciences, or a related field.

• For senior level: extensive leadership experience in large-scale, multi-regional or national scientific and implementation roles, along with successful fundraising and expertise in agricultural production systems.

• For senior level: a master's degree with approximately 10 years of work experience, or a PhD with around 6 years of experience.

• Willingness to travel up to 15%, which may include Washington, D.C., regional offices, and other locations across the country.

• Occasional evening or weekend work may be necessary.

• Submission of resume, cover letter, and completed screener questions is required.

🏝️ Benefits

• Medical & Prescription Coverage

• Dental Coverage

• Vision Coverage

• Company Paid Life Insurance & Long-Term Disability (LTD)

• Voluntary Life Insurance

• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) – Healthcare & Dependent Care

• Health Savings Account (HSA)

• 401k Plan

• Sick leave: 13 days per year

• Vacation leave: 15 days during the first year, increasing by one day per year to a maximum of 20 days

• Twelve fixed holidays

• Week off between Christmas and New Year's

• Up to three floating holidays

• Remote work opportunity

• Competitive compensation & benefits

• Diverse and inclusive work environment

• Purpose-driven team and mission

• Potential for professional growth into a management role