Technical Assistance Provider

Mission: Cultivating environmentally sound, economically viable, community-focused farms and food systems

Program overview: Pasa's Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing program will offer technical assistance and financial support for implementing regenerative and resilient practices on 2,000 working farms from Maine to South Carolina and on lands stewarded by Tribal Nations and Indigenous farmers in the same geographic region. By engaging farms in our Soil Health and Financial Benchmark Studies, we will monitor and measure the benefits of climate-smart practices and work to expand market opportunities for climate-smart commodities.
This program is supported by a Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under agreement number NR233A750004G025.

Position overview: The Technical Assistance Provider position is an opportunity to help farmers implement climate-smart practices to increase climate resilience and food sovereignty, and to support the expansion of local market value for crops grown using climate-smart practices. In this role, you will work with farmers from initial project stages through to practice implementation and verification. The technical assistance needed will vary by farm and by practice. This position will be supervised by the Associate Director for Technical Assistance.

This is a primarily remote, field-based position with a seasonally fluctuating 1-2 farm visits a week, some in-person workdays and 2-3 annual in-person staff retreats. All employees are required to attend our annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference, which takes place each February in Lancaster, PA. It is Pasa's policy for all employees to live in Pennsylvania or within 150 miles of Harrisburg, unless they receive approval for Philadelphia or Pittsburgh to be their primary work location, in which case employees are required to live within an hour's drive from Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. This position has an additional requirement for candidates to live or plan to move within 50 miles of the following location: Erie, PA. For this position only, this can include southwest NY and Northeast OH as long as within 50 miles of Erie. If you have questions, please inquire. Employees must comply with Pasa's remote employee policies.

Responsibilities

• Build trusting relationships with farmers and serve as an advocate for the Climate-Smart Farming & Marketing program
• Provide administrative and technical guidance to farmers in developing a whole farm plan including the selection of applicable and project-supported NRCS Conservation practices
• Participate in and occasionally lead virtual and in-person trainings
• Securely collect farm and field level information in a timely and respectful manner from project application to contract completion
• Provide technical assistance and support climate-smart practice implementation in adherence to NRCS conservation practice standards
• Contribute to data collection for continued monitoring and measuring of the impacts of implemented climate-smart practices on soil health and greenhouse gas mitigation
• Communicate any challenges that are faced in the field to facilitate system improvement
• Connect with farmers in a variety of methods from phone calls, emails, in-person farm visits, and networking events

Qualifications

• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and conflict resolution skills
• Experience in environmental sciences or agriculture, or a bachelor's degree in a related field
• At least 3 years experience working on or with farms
• Ability to work collaboratively with farmers to develop climate-resilient management strategies
• Awareness of climate resilience strategies and how climate-smart practices play into these strategies
• Familiarity with digital data collection and organization
• Passion for Pasa's mission
• Commitment to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice

Preferred qualifications

• Working proficiency in English and Spanish
• Direct experience working with historically underserved farmers
• Familiarity with field based geographic information systems
• Familiarity with Google Workspace (Gmail, Calendar, Drive etc.)
• Experience working with USDA/NRCS programs

Compensation: This is a full-time salary exempt position. Annual salary is $55,000. This position is grant funded through March 31, 2028. Benefits include health, vision, and dental insurance; 401K retirement match; flexible scheduling; twelve paid holidays; and a generous leave policy. A work computer is provided, and work-related travel expenses are reimbursed.

Locations Available: This position is available to candidates that currently live or plan to move within 50 miles of the following locations: Erie, PA.

Apply by November 30th, 2024. Our interview process will include an initial independent work activity followed by interviews conducted remotely via Zoom beginning December 9, 2024. The anticipated start date for this position is early January 2025.