Field Coordinator - Central Highlands Ecoregion Foodscape at Nature Conservancy

WE'RE LOOKING FOR YOU

• Are you looking for a career to influence the transition to regenerative food systems for people and nature? We are looking for you. Your role as Field Coordinator - CHEF will be pivotal in facilitating the smooth running of CHEF projects to meet conservation targets. Your responsibilities will mainly be to manage relations with grassroots entities, as well as collaborating with stakeholders to ensure efficient land and resource management.

Specific Roles And Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate and organize project planning, gathering feedback, sampling (soil, water, resource, producers) exercises, and farmer/community awareness on agriculture-conservation nexus.
• Support the CHEF director to liaise with key CHEF stakeholders on day-to-day basis, esp. farmers, community institutions (Water Resource Users Associations, cooperatives, etc.), extension, private sector, civil society to monitor timely implementation of all project lifecycles.
• Ensure on daily basis collaboration with the CHEF Director and the Ag. Innovation Specialist to set up (and act as the main contact point for) the Foodscape Innovation Hub to supply conservation planning teams with site or landscape level information relevant to the planning process.
• Collaborate with the Ag. Ecologist, Cropping Systems Specialist, and Innovation Specialist to ensure the integrity of collective learning sites – incl. ensuring that they consistently meet CHEF objectives.
• Develop and maintain an adequate knowledge of the social, economic, political, and cultural characteristics of the sites.
• Analyze situational information and identify educational needs of producers that can be met through the TNC Agriculture Strategy scaling activities.
• Coordinate the CHEF Program staff in planning and stewardship to ensure that the DEIJ targets and compliance are achieved.
• Prepare field plans of work relating to partners and producers relevant to the planning process.
• May work in variable weather conditions, at remote locations, on difficult and hazardous terrain and under physically demanding circumstances. The position will involve frequent domestic and occasional international travel.

What You'll Bring

• Bachelor’s degree and 3 years’ experience in natural resource management, agriculture or similar field or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Experienced in developing and maintaining excellent relationships with farmers, extension agencies, experts in relevant fields of agriculture (in the County Governments, Universities, Civil Society), and county/national officials involved with soil/land/water management, farming organizations.
• Experienced with stakeholder perspectives and experience building relationships in day-to-day work.
• Experience in problem-solving, and an ability to work capably on own initiative with respect to timelines for extended periods.
• Experience managing staff or volunteers.
• Experience in training.
• Experience using common software applications such as Word, Excel, web browsers, etc., along with other data collection and processing tools/techniques such as GPS, basic GIS.

Desired Qualifications

• Multi-lingual skills and multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience appreciated.
• 3-5 years’ experience in agriculture-conservation nexus, similar field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Ability and willingness to apply science to decision-making and guide activities.
• Familiarity with principles of sustainable agricultural intensification.
• Excellent communication via written, spoken, and graphical means in English and Kiswahili.
• Experience in assisting with an agricultural or environment strategy in respect of farmer training, public planning is highly desired.
• Excellent interpersonal skills including self-motivation, courtesy, enthusiasm, and teamwork skills.
• Knowledge of the intersections of climate, water, biodiversity, and livelihood.
• Must possess a valid driving license, with at least 5 years’ experience driving manual 4x4 field cars.
• Demonstrate relevant experience working directly with diverse local and international partners in the field of soil and land management and rural livelihoods.
• Knowledge of the agriculture-water-environment nexus and experience translating scientific outcomes to easy-to-understand formats for different audiences.