Hiring: National Program Manager – New Entry

National Program Manager – full-time, year-round
The National Program Manager provides management and oversight for New Entry’s beginning famer land-based training networks and leads robust program evaluation strategies locally and nationally.  Responsibilities include oversight of the FIELD Network, a national technical assistance (TA) and capacity building networks for land-based experiential beginning farmer training programs (incubator and apprenticeship training programs).  This position will lead national program strategy and development; conduct outreach to national organizations, particularly in underserved communities; manage and build partner relationships; support technical assistance for partner organizations and connect them to our network partners for information sharing and program development resources; develop educational resources, toolkits, guidebooks, and webinars to support successful programs; lead program evaluation, data collection, monitoring, and project reporting, and; organize and manage annual conferences and convenings of national partners. This position requires strong strategic planning, project management, leadership, evaluation, and networking skills.

Key Duties will include:
Manage the National FIELD Network (incubator and apprenticeship training programs)

• Oversee strategic planning and national strategy for incubator farm and apprenticeship training programs and support fund development to support and sustain FIELD network functions;
• Conduct national planning, outreach, and technical assistance to emerging or developing beginning farmer training and incubator farm and apprenticeship programs through recruiting clients and engaging national partners in TA and national and regional Community of Practice (CoP) efforts;
• Expand the FIELD network to include a diversity of members and program types: urban/rural, large/small scale ag, enterprise interests, geographically diverse, and culturally/racially diverse programs;
• Research and produce a variety of documents, reports, proposals, webinars, other literature across multiple project partners/authors;
• Develop Technical Assistance (TA) protocols in areas of financial literacy, land and credit access, and metrics and evaluation for farm incubator and apprenticeship training projects;
• Oversee and maintain national FIELD Network TA request and referral system;
• Plan, coordinate and host educational events (webinars, national conferences, meetings) of interest to incubator farm and apprenticeship programs and associated topics;
• Refine and expand upon web-based national clearinghouse for farm incubator and apprenticeship program resources;
• Develop case studies, success stories, and best practices of land-based training programs;
• Organize multi-day national FIELD Schools (conferences) and CoP national meetings/conferences;
• Collaborate on development of national metrics and evaluation of farm incubator and apprenticeship training projects;
• Collaborate on national-level research on incubator and apprenticeship projects;
• Promote and distribute existing land-based training toolkits, fact sheets, and other materials;
• Collaborate with national partners on local and regional-level projects to encourage and strengthen farm incubators and apprenticeship training programs by partnering and serving in an advisory capacity as requested;
• Manage project reporting and evaluation metrics to funders.

Oversee National Programs

• Provide strategic vision, direction, and strategy for national team;
• Manage New Entry’s National Programs Team, including staff, interns, TA partners, consultants, and subawards; manage partner relationships for national programs; create and manage consulting agreements and contracts with program partners;
• Develop and maintain operations manuals for all aspects of National TA program administration;
• Manage grant budgets, grant reporting, and liaise with USDA and partner agency staff;
• Participate in regularly scheduled staff and leadership meetings and lead national team meetings;
• Facilitate connections between national and local programs at New Entry by working with New Entry staff to develop robust program metrics and evaluation tools to share nationally and to educate New Entry staff members about best practices gleaned from national organizations;
• Promote New Entry’s work on a national scale by attending and presenting at relevant conferences and events;
• Participate in other programmatic deliverables as requested.

Basic Requirements:
• Skills and knowledge in multiple aspects of beginning farmer training programs, community organizing, food security, and/or gained through experience working with diverse ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic groups;
• Bachelor’s Degree required; Master’s degree preferred or suitable equivalent work experience;
• Significant work experience in the non-profit sector (at least 5-8 years) with national outreach, and educational resource and fund development; Minimum of 2 years supervisory experience required;
• Experience networking with multiple organizations and collaborative networks; demonstrated leadership and communication skills in networking/relationship building across disparate partners and interests;
• Significant experience in program evaluation, designing surveys, and leading multi-stakeholder assessments required;
• Ability to analyze data, capture trends, insights, and needs of partners and develop clear, actionable vision and related programming to respond to needs and synthesize ideas / present vision for future to network leadership;
• Experience with event planning, conference organization, and multi-stakeholder gatherings;
• Ability to lead projects independently; ability to coordinate innovative programming with multiple partners;
• Experience working with social media, web-based/online learning, and web resource development required;
• Strong commitment to racial equity and social justice;
• Strong organizational skills and acute attention to detail;
• Self- directed; works well within a rapidly-changing, high-performance environment;
• Effective oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills;  Ability to write well and develop compelling impact reports;
• Proficiency with standard computer software (MS Office, Social Media, website content development, graphic design, Excel database).  Experience with Salesforce CRM desired.

Additional Preferred Experience:
• Demonstrated research capacity – ability to explore new areas of learning and to back up ideas with data and metrics;
• Enthusiasm for critically engaging with the local food movement and determining how non-profit programming can better address food insecurity, food access and improve nutritional outcomes
• Organizational development and cross-cultural experience;
• Experience with adult education theory and training strategies preferred;
• Empathy for and sensitivity to food insecurity in underprivileged communities preferred;
• Multilingual a plus.

Compensation and Timeline:  The Tufts University salary range for this position is:  Minimum $70,000.00, Midpoint $87,550.00, Maximum $105,100.00.  Salary is based on related experience, expertise, and internal equity; generally, new hires can expect an offer of pay between the minimum and midpoint of the salary range; New Entry’s grant program budget for this position is $70,000 per year plus generous Tufts University benefits.  The position is open until a suitable candidate is identified; an ideal start date would be no later than May 1, 2024.

Special Work Schedule Requirements: Work happens at office spaces on a farm and on a working farm in all weather conditions, or in a barn/warehouse with limited heating/cooling, so it can be extremely hot or extremely cold in certain settings depending on the weather.  All staff are expected to support on-farm events and pitch in to support farm and food hub activities, so occasional field duties and food hub share packing may be required which can involve bending, lifting, and driving vehicles.  This position has expected work-related travel to meetings throughout the state, region, and nationally.

To Apply, submit a resume and cover letter outlining your skills and qualifications in connection to the job description and mission areas of New Entry.  Applications are accepted online through the Tufts University Human Resources application portal.  Apply HERE.