Company description

Through education, innovation, and collaboration, Quivira Coalition works in coalition with ranchers, farmers, government agencies, and land stewards to foster resilience on working lands.

• Our New Agrarian Program partners with skilled ranchers and farmers to offer annual apprenticeships in regenerative agriculture. Our apprentices learn from expert practitioners in full-immersion professional settings.
• Our Education and Outreach Program, through our annual conference and open-source publications, creates a space for our coalition to share ideas and resources, and for the general public to learn about the critical role working lands play in the health of our food systems, communities, and our planet.
• Our Carbon Ranch Initiative is working to build the capacity of producers, land managers, and technical service providers to implement land management practices focused on mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. 

Since its establishment in 1997, Quivira has prided itself on its history of working across differences at the radical center, though we have not always accomplished this and continue to strive for improvement. We have become increasingly aware of the work that we must do to ensure that individuals and communities of all backgrounds are truly included and welcomed into our work, and the ongoing legacies of racism. Quivira is taking its steps toward becoming an antiracist organization, and reevaluating what diversity, equity and inclusion means for the organization. This is difficult, often messy, ongoing work, and we are committed to working through the challenges to join the movement for racially-just regenerative agriculture. We have made mistakes, committed harm, and are committed to growth. We hope new hires and the perspectives they bring will continue to help us navigate this path. We invite candidates to ask questions about where we are in this journey, and to join us in moving the organization and the regenerative agriculture movement toward becoming more just, equitable, and inclusive.

Job description

Quivira’s Carbon Ranch Initiative (CRI) is dedicated to research, engagement, and technical support that helps producers build soil health on working lands. We focus on engaging with land stewards around the Healthy Soil Principles, circular economies (making waste productive), and using monitoring and evaluation to inform planning and implementation to combat and build resilience to climate change.    

CRI was recently awarded a USDA Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities grant to strengthen regional livestock value chains and reduce overall carbon emissions involved in producing high-quality meat and other animal-based products in the Southwest. You can see more about the project here: https://soiltosupper.org/

In this project, we will:

1) implement on-the-ground projects to support the transformation of agricultural waste into compost, biochar, and other organic amendments 

2) use organic amendments to build soil health 

3) train producers and other stakeholders in how to monitor and evaluate use of amendments both for carbon and dollar accounting 

4) support production and use of a marketing toolkit for producers making and/or using organic amendments as a climate-smart practice

 

Position Overview
We are seeking an evaluator to join the CRI team. This individual will primarily focus on data collection, analysis, and evaluation of greenhouse gas benefits for the Soil to Supper project and other ongoing in-field demonstration projects. Occasionally, they will be a point person for Soil to Supper producer projects. In addition, this position may assist in designing and implementing systems to evaluate the broader CRI program, including internal culture as well as external metrics, such as survey data from educational workshop participants. In all of these endeavors, the evaluator will collaborate closely with the CRI director and team. The ideal candidate is skilled in technical data evaluation, experienced in managing in-field projects, and committed to supporting regenerative agriculture through equity, collaboration, and innovation.

Primary Responsibilities

Project Evaluation (50%)

• Collaborate with CRI team and partners to collect, quantify, and evaluate greenhouse gas benefits associated with grant-funded activities, including soil carbon sequestration and diversion from alternative waste streams. While many of the procedures for this work have been piloted, this person will also revise and build new tools to effectively and accurately provide reports to stakeholders.
• Conduct interviews and compile data on production costs, transportation, equipment use, and carbon stocks measured in the soil
• Oversee quality assurance/quality check of all data and manage data storage and use to protect private data
• Analyze and report on greenhouse gas fluxes and the economic costs of adopting organic amendment practices
• Use literature and data to estimate the longevity of soil carbon stocks and compile metadata for interrelated datasets
• Produce comprehensive final reports summarizing findings from field tests, soil tests, COMET estimates, and other analyses for general audiences including USDA funders, ranchers, and other stakeholders
• Maintain USDA-required records, including tracking incentives, commodities, and ranch-level identification data, while adhering to strict data confidentiality guidelines
• Present findings through reports, conferences, and other communication channels to stakeholders
   

Project Management (25%)

• Conduct multi-day site visits, facilitate trainings/workshops and in-field monitoring, and work remotely using remote sensing or model-based data collection and analysis
• Work remotely and independently to plan and organize logistics and resources for multi-day site visits, implementation activities, or workshops
• Track time and expenses for each project/deliverable to ensure the project is on time and on budget, or provide sufficient advance notice of issues
• Write reports for funding or collaboration
• Supervise coordinators, interns, volunteers as needed
• Coordinate with outside contractors, including assembling documentation for payment as needed
• Work with the CRI team to manage projects in other aspects of the program
• Engage in research processes and teach evidence-based techniques in regenerative agriculture
• Contribute to and use evaluation tools to adaptively manage projects to achieve program objectives and mission

Program Evaluation and Development (15%)

• Collaborate with the CRI director and team to create systems for evaluating the effectiveness and impact of CRI programs
• Contribute to the design and implementation of methods, protocols, and strategies to operationalize and evaluate CRI activities
• Assist in revising and improving systems to better meet the needs of stakeholders, including historically underserved communities in agriculture

Outreach and Communication (5%)

• Facilitate engagement opportunities and develop educational materials that support regenerative ranching and soil health practices
• Write for newsletters, social media, and stakeholder updates to highlight program activities
• Represent the CRI team at conferences, field days, and other events through presentations and tabling
• Support the annual REGENERATE Conference and other organizational events

Administrative and Collaborative Activities (5%)

• Report regularly to the CRI director and participate in team meetings
• Contribute to Quivira’s internal culture by engaging with staff across programs and supporting cross-program activities
• Assist with tracking and managing the time and expenses of staff and volunteers contributing to CRI projects

Please see our website for the full job description.

 

Terms of employment:

• Reports to the CRI director
• Full-time (36 hours per week), salaried*
• Salary range for manager-level positions: $55,598 - $67,954 (max) depending on experience, paid bi-weekly. Quivira uses a wage scale to determine pay rates and ranges for all positions within the organization.
• This position is primarily remote, but based in New Mexico or Colorado*
• No relocation compensation
• After two months, benefits include health, dental, vision, simple IRA, paid time off, and short- and long-term life disability insurance

*Exceptional candidates interested in a part-time role with fewer project management duties or located outside New Mexico or Colorado are encouraged to apply.

 

Compensation

this position is: salaried, 50k-75k

Location

job can be done remotely

Application instructions

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Deadline

February 21, 2025