Hybrid Farms for a New Generation Director

at American Farmland Trust

• Job title: Farms for a New Generation Director
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Lead
• Salary: $120,000 - $130,000 per year
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Washington, DC, United States

About the role

• Farms for a New Generation Director providing strategic leadership for national initiative at AFT. Empowering land access for new farmers and ensuring dignified exits for retiring producers.

Responsibilities

• The Farms for a New Generation (FNG) Director provides strategic leadership for AFT’s FNG national initiative to aid in the successful transfer of farms and ranches to a next and new generation of farmers and ranchers.
• This important leadership role is critical to galvanizing efforts across AFT and with external partners to ensure FNG programming is strategic, synergistic, and impactful at a national scale.
• The FNG Director leads AFT’s efforts to support equitable access to land for the incoming generation of farmers and ranchers of all kinds, and guarantee pathways for retiring producers to exit with dignity without sacrificing legacy, holistic values, or future opportunities.
• This position requires the ability to effectively and nimbly manage a team and its budget while navigating AFT’s internal administrative processes and structures to deliver impactful programs.
• Additionally, the FNG Director advances multi-division projects and manages internal relationships to effectively leverage unique resources and expertise across AFT in support of this work.
• They collaborate on developing partnerships that can be used to seed or scale land access and transfer projects.
• The FNG Director also cultivates and sustains external partnerships with diverse stakeholders, manages relationships with funders, and fosters personnel development within their team.

Requirements

• Ability to see the big picture and be visionary while also being strategic and detail-oriented.
• Experience directing a complex program including leadership of multi-disciplinary teams (including those with a direct reporting line to the FNG director as well as those who report elsewhere and thus must be led by influence) and multi-year projects and contracts, as well as internal budgeting and project management systems.
• Experience successfully leading a portfolio of diverse projects ranging in size from $100k to multi-million dollar projects.
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills to navigate a diverse ecosystem of internal and external partners, collaborators, and stakeholders.
• Proven track record of successful fundraising with USDA and other institutional partners is necessary; fundraising experience with individual donors and/or corporations preferred.
• Demonstrated success in developing and implementing effective programs and projects with a strategic vision and measurable outcomes and impacts.
• Deep knowledge of land access as well as farm and ranch succession policies, programs, and strategies is necessary, an understanding of farmland protection and retention policies and programs and their role in access and succession is highly beneficial.
• Familiarity with AFT’s land access training pedagogy and curriculum is a plus.
• Experience working with incoming and/or exiting generation farmers and the professionals and organizations that serve them.
• Superior written, verbal, and multi-media communication skills.
• Background working closely with videographers, audiographers and the arts community a plus.
• Experience managing multiple staff and contractors both in person and remotely.
• Ability to deliver high quality work for multiple projects and deadlines with efficiency, flexibility, and good humor while under time pressure.
• Passion for American Farmland Trust’s mission and impact.

Benefits

• Insurance coverage begins the 1st of the month following the date of hire.
• 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: Regular full-time employees accrue 13 “sick days” per year.
• Vacation Leave: Accrue 15 days during the first year increasing by one day per year to 20 days per year maximum.
• Holidays: AFT observes twelve fixed holidays and a week between Christmas and New Years off during the year (all offices closed) plus a choice of up to three (depending on hiring month) floating holidays.