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Employment
Work with the PFI team and agricultural stakeholders across the Midwest to create more resilient farming systems!
Practical Farmers of Iowa provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.
Current Openings
Cropping Systems Research Coordinator
We’re seeking a cropping systems research coordinator to lead some of our ongoing multisite on-farm research projects across the Midwest. One project explores the effect of nitrogen fertilizer on corn yield, financial returns and greenhouse gas emissions in production systems using soil health practices. Another project is looking at how cover crops influence the number of days suitable for fieldwork in corn-soybean production systems.
In this role, you will also perform meta-analyses of existing on-farm research data sets including, but not limited, to the effect of no-till and strip-till in cover crop systems and the effect of planting corn and soybeans into living cover crops (planting green).
Remote Sensing Data Coordinator
We’re seeking a data coordinator to develop remote sensing workflows for interpreting satellite imagery of farmland acres enrolled in our research and incentive programs. You will join a research effort studying how cover crops influence the resilience of Midwestern corn-soybean production systems. As part of the project, we want to use satellite imagery to assess how variables such as cover crop growth and how frequently they are used in a field affect cash crop yield over time.
You will also help us monitor cover crop acres supported by our incentive programs and create detailed maps and spatial analyses for reporting to farmers, funders and other interested parties. Furthermore, we anticipate opportunities for exploring innovative approaches to enhance data collection, processing and analysis techniques.
Field Crops Viability Coordinator
PFI’s farm viability department provides innovative, personalized support to help farmers achieve their goals. We partner with farmers to implement new on-farm practices, develop markets and create robust farm business plans. We develop strategic partnerships across the food and agriculture supply chains and shape the policies that encourage resilient farms to thrive.
Within the farm viability department, the field crops viability team oversees regenerative, row-crop financial assistance programs. This position will support the work of the field crops viability team by providing technical assistance to farmers implementing regenerative row-crop practices, planning events to support communities of practice and helping farmers through the cost-share sign-up process and complete program requirements once enrolled.
Finance Manager
The finance department provides critical organizational support to process, track and manage all organizational income and expenses, and to ensure PFI’s financial sustainability and health to carry out its mission. Practical Farmers of Iowa is in an exciting phase of growth, which brings with it a need for increased efficiency of financial processes to control costs, mitigate risk and streamline internal processes for clarity and expediency.
The finance manager will oversee internal processes that ensure accuracy for the department of all accounts payable and accounts receivable processes.
Field Crops Education Coordinator
The farmer-led education department houses PFI’s long-standing farmer-led education efforts. This department annually delivers robust educational programming consisting of field days, conference sessions, workshops and webinars. These events, along with farmer meet-ups and other programming, aim to help farmers build peer networks and learn from one another. In addition, staff in this department write educational content featuring farmer knowledge for PFI’s media, including PFI’s blog, email newsletters and quarterly magazine.
The field crops education coordinator will support this team by planning and facilitating farmer-led educational and networking events; writing farmer-focused articles, blogs and other outreach on topics related to field crops; and connect with field crops farmers to learn about their challenges, opportunities and how PFI can serve them.