Senior Climate & Soil Health Scientist

Job purpose 

Reporting to the National Climate and Soil Health Director, the Senior Climate and Soil Health Scientist supports AFT’s Climate and Soil Health Program by advancing connectivity across research, science translation, partnerships, and implementation strategies that accelerate adoption of resilient soil health management systems. This includes a core focus on biochar integration, as well as other climate-beneficial approaches. The position supports AFT’s efforts to catalyze a new conventional agriculture: empowering farmers and ranchers across the nation’s diverse systems to achieve on-farm and societal benefits from systems that are soil health promoting, biodiverse, climate-neutral or better, resilient, equitable, and environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable. 

Position summary 

As an integral member of the Climate and Soil Health Program, the Senior Climate and Soil Health Scientist leads research, technical program development, science translation, partnership building, training, fundraising, and implementation efforts that bridge research and practice. The position includes research responsibilities but is fundamentally a research-to-practice role focused on using science to foster adoption of resilient soil health management systems. The position helps identify and address barriers to adoption and persistence, develops tools and resources that support decision-making, and advances emerging opportunities in biochar, PFAS, climate resilience, and related soil health innovation. The position requires a combination of scientific leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, innovation, excellent communication, and ability to collaborate across disciplines, teams, and diverse stakeholders.  

Duties and responsibilities  

Overall 

The Climate and Soil Health Program is engaged across a growing portfolio of national and regional partnerships focused on advancing adoption of resilient soil health management systems. This role leads projects and workstreams that require collaborating across multiple federal, academic, non-profit, industry and other partners, and collaborates to develop new funded efforts that enable the translation from research to scientifically sound, economically viable, scalable implementation of soil health management systems, including biochar integration. A key priority focus area for this position is to strengthen AFT's leadership in addressing scientific, technical, economic, and implementation barriers that limit the sustainable production, integration, and scaling of biochar as a climate resilience and soil health management tool. 

Scientific leadership for soil health, biochar, and climate 

• Research: Lead applied research, literature review, technical review, data analysis, modeling, life cycle analysis, and impact-oriented programmatic design and implementation, and provide technical leadership for fundraising efforts relating to biochar and soil health. Collaborate across the team to compile, analyze, and publish project data and results. 

• Science Translation & Technical Resources: Lead and collaborate on science translation activities that integrate research findings, producer innovations, and demonstration results into transformative technical resources: decision support tools, guides, factsheets, manuals, peer-reviewed publications, curricula, trainings and educational resources that support successful adoption.  

• Networks & Adoption: Contribute to development and continuous improvement of producer, advisor, mentor, and peer-learning network functioning by integrating scientific findings and AFT’s social, economic, and environmental program evaluation results to strengthen future network outcomes.  

• Systems: Address adoption needs across soil health practices in annual and perennial, high disturbance, and other systems across varied agroecological zones, through AFT’s on-farm trials network, technical resources, and training programs. 

• Training: Contribute scientific leadership and subject-matter expertise to Advanced Soil Health Training, Growing with Biochar Training, peer learning networks, mentor programs, livestock and grazing training, and other capacity-building efforts designed to multiply adoption. 

• Evaluation: Collaborate on the design and implementation of impact measurement, evaluation, and learning systems that assess adoption, persistence, environmental, economic, and network outcomes.  

• Emerging opportunities: Provide scientific leadership for emerging priority areas including biochar, PFAS, climate resilience, soil health systems, ecosystem services, and other strategically relevant topics and entrepreneurial opportunities for AFT investment in partnership development, innovation, and scaling. 

• Fundraising: Support National Climate and Soil Health Director and team in fundraising efforts by developing compelling proposals and pitches and cultivating funder relationships. May serve as PI on future projects. 

Stakeholder and partnership management  

• Build, steward and leverage partnerships for future impact with producers, advisors, researchers, corporate partners, funders, and other stakeholders. 

• Co-develop applied research-to-implementation agendas to ensure scientific work addresses practical adoption barriers and market opportunities.  

• Lead collaborations with partners to develop transformative resources and programs nationwide.  

Thought leadership, training and outreach  

• Serve as an AFT representative and thought leader in meetings, workshops, conferences and other external events reaching diverse audiences, advancing national visibility and engagement around biochar, soil health, climate resilience, and related topics. 

• Help design, refine, deliver, and scale evidence-based curricula and learning pathways, including trainings and associated peer learning networks. 

• Collaborate with AFT's Programs and Communications teams to communicate and elevate the visibility, impact, lessons learned, and thought leadership of AFT's Climate and Soil Health work through stakeholder engagement, presentations, publications, websites, blog posts, press releases, social media, and other communications channels. 

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

Programmatic and team management  

• Lead and manage teams of AFT staff and partners on assigned projects or workstreams. Collaborate across AFT, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), American Biochar Institute (ABI), federal, academic, non-profit, industry, corporate supply chain, and other partners. 

• Provide leadership and programmatic management for funded work, ensuring high quality deliverables, partner coordination, and progress and final funder reporting.  

• Support a strong team culture of shared learning, innovation and problem solving among AFT national and regional staff.  

This is not an all-inclusive list of job-related responsibilities, duties, skills, efforts, requirements, or working conditions. While this is intended to be a reflection of the current job, future fundraising will drive the direction of the program, and management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed as assigned.