Soils Program Manager

University of Wisconsin Madison • Madison, WI

48d • $80,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Soils Program Manager is an exciting, new position meant to provide leadership and programming related to soil and nutrient management to Wisconsin's agriculture industry within Extension's Crops and Soils Program. The Soils Program Manager will work with Extension faculty and staff and the state's agricultural producers to understand the soil and nutrient management related challenges on Wisconsin farms in order to create connections, identify needs, and develop and maintain robust, high-quality outreach education programs. The Soils Program Manager will provide leadership to a team of colleagues engaged in soils and nutrient management programming as well as conduct programming themselves on related issues. The Soils Program Manager will: Provide leadership for nutrient and soil management related programmatic efforts, maintain strategic direction, build partnerships, and seek a diverse funding portfolio to support the work. Facilitate the development of a program scope of work with faculty and staff affiliated with program. Mentor, support and supervise educators and outreach specialists in the Agriculture Institute that are engaged in programming related to nutrient and soil management. Collaborate with Extension colleagues, industry, and other stakeholders to identify needs and develop and maintain robust, high-quality outreach education programs that provide solutions to nutrient and soil management issues facing agricultural producers in Wisconsin. Develop and maintain expertise related to nutrient and soil management. Build trust-based relationships with stakeholders. Evaluate and communicate the impact of the work of the program. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience with leading educational programming, mentoring, and facilitating a diversity of individuals in an academic setting. Statewide Location Division of Extension headquarters are located within Madison, WI but the position location is flexible and will be determined based on programmatic needs, successful candidate's preferences, and availability of suitable space. Partial Remote This position may require some work to be performed in-person, onsite, at a designated campus work location. Some work may be performed remotely, at an offsite, non-campus work location. Remote work requires an approved remote work agreement (RWA). A RWA requires successful candidates to possess their own high-speed internet and phone to perform the work on a university provided computer. Per University policy, transportation between home and assigned work location is not payable/reimbursable and will be at the expense of the employee. This position has the possibility of working up to 2 days remote per Extension's Remote Work Policy.

Requirements

• 5 or more years of relevant experience
• Experience managing budgets
• Demonstrated skills in interpreting, utilizing, and applying evidence-based information and research findings
• Demonstrated ability to communicate scientific materials in written and verbal forms for a variety of lay and other audiences
• Demonstrated educational program development skills including planning and implementing programs, evaluation, and communicating program impact and value to stakeholders
• Experience with mentoring and/or supervising
• Knowledge and skills to effectively interact with people from different cultural backgrounds including those associated with race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, socioeconomic status, gender, disability, sexual orientation and other aspects of human diversity
• Masters required in a field of study related to this position's focus.

Nice To Haves

• Two years of supervisory experience
• Established track-record of building partnerships with diverse agricultural groups
• Experience in group facilitation to support needs identification, decision making and stakeholder engagement with complex issues
• Demonstrated educational program development skills which include planning and implementing programs; evaluating learning experiences; and communicating program impact and value, in both written and verbal formats, for a variety of lay and other audiences as well as stakeholders.
• Successful experience obtaining funding through grants, contracts, gifts, and/or revenue generation
• Demonstrated experience with soil and nutrient management
• PhD preferred in a field of study related to this position's focus.

Responsibilities

• Researches, develops, and facilitates outreach program content and materials
• Determines outreach program needs and the personnel resource allocation plan
• Develops and implements operating policies and procedures to promote the outreach program in alignment with the strategic plan
• Identifies, promotes, and maintains external partnerships to support the outreach program
• Reviews recommendations for and provides input on the design and development of new outreach programs or services
• Delivers outreach program content and materials to community members
• Develops and evaluates curriculum and programs and provides recommendations for improvement
• Supervises the implementation of outreach-program-focused strategic planning initiatives and objectives
• May exercise supervisory authority, including hiring, transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining, and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 FTE or equivalent employees
• Monitors the unit or program budget and approves program expenditures

Benefits

• This position offers a comprehensive benefits package, including generous paid time off, competitively priced health/dental/vision/life insurance, tax-advantaged savings accounts, and participation in the nationally recognized Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension fund.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Industry: Educational Services
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees