Soils Program Manager

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Job Category:

Academic Staff

Employment Type:

Regular

Job Profile:

Outreach Program Manager

Job Summary:

The Soils Program Manager is an exciting new position meant to provide leadership and programming related to soil and nutrient management to Wisconsins agriculture industry within Extensions Crops and Soils Program. The Soils Program Manager will work with Extension faculty and staff and the states agricultural producers to understand the soil and nutrient management related challenges on Wisconsin farms in order to create connections identify needs and develop and maintain robust high-quality outreach education programs. The Soils Program Manager will provide leadership to a team of colleagues engaged in soils and nutrient management programming as well as conduct programming themselves on related issues.

The Soils Program Manager will:

• Provide leadership for nutrient and soil management related programmatic efforts maintain strategic direction build partnerships and seek a diverse funding portfolio to support the work.

• Facilitate the development of a program scope of work with faculty and staff affiliated with program.

• Mentor support and supervise educators and outreach specialists in the Agriculture Institute that are engaged in programming related to nutrient and soil management.

• Collaborate with Extension colleagues industry and other stakeholders to identify needs and develop and maintain robust high-quality outreach education programs that provide solutions to nutrient and soil management issues facing agricultural producers in Wisconsin.

• Develop and maintain expertise related to nutrient and soil management.

• Build trust-based relationships with stakeholders.

• Evaluate and communicate the impact of the work of the program.
  

The ideal candidate will have extensive experience with leading educational programming mentoring and facilitating a diversity of individuals in an academic setting.

Statewide Location

Division of Extension headquarters are located within Madison WI but the position location is flexible and will be determined based on programmatic needs successful candidates preferences and availability of suitable space.

Partial Remote

This position may require some work to be performed in-person onsite at a designated campus work location. Some work may be performed remotely at an offsite non-campus work location. Remote work requires an approved remote work agreement (RWA). A RWA requires successful candidates to possess their own high-speed internet and phone to perform the work on a university provided computer. Per University policy transportation between home and assigned work location is not payable/reimbursable and will be at the expense of the employee.

This position has the possibility of working up to 2 days remote per Extensions Remote Work Policy.

Evening/Weekend Work

This position may be required to work occasional nights and weekends to meet the program needs and priorities of the communities served.

Travel Expectations

It is expected that employees will make individual arrangements for transportation adequate to meet position responsibilities and essential job functions. Read more about UW-Madison Driver Authorization.

Applicants are required to: Have a valid drivers license and a reliable source of independent transportation for periodic in-state work travel and/or comply with requirements for UW-Madison vehicle use authorization.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to walk on uneven ground in the course of farm visits or field work

• Ability to lift 25 pounds

• Ability work outside in inclement weather

Key Job Responsibilities:

• Researches develops and facilitates outreach program content and materials

• Determines outreach program needs and the personnel resource allocation plan

• Develops and implements operating policies and procedures to promote the outreach program in alignment with the strategic plan

• Identifies promotes and maintains external partnerships to support the outreach program

• Reviews recommendations for and provides input on the design and development of new outreach programs or services

• Delivers outreach program content and materials to community members

• Develops and evaluates curriculum and programs and provides recommendations for improvement

• Supervises the implementation of outreach-program-focused strategic planning initiatives and objectives

• May exercise supervisory authority including hiring transferring suspending promoting managing conduct and performance discharging assigning rewarding disciplining and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 FTE or equivalent employees

• Monitors the unit or program budget and approves program expenditures

Department:

UW Madison Division of Extension Agriculture Institute Crops & Soils Program is hiring for a Soils Program Manager.

About Extension

UW-Madisons Division of Extension serves the people and communities of Wisconsin by addressing local statewide and national issues improving lives through research-based education fostering partnerships and action and facilitating positive impacts.

About the Institute

The UW-Madison Division of Extension Agriculture Institute addresses emerging issues related to Wisconsins agriculture and horticulture systems with research-based outreach to advance economically sustainable socially responsible and environmentally sound practices.

About the Program

The Agriculture Institutes Crops and Soils Program works hand-in-hand with row crop forage fruit and vegetable producers to implement best practices for every aspect of the growing phase. The Crops and Soils program provides timely resources and information to help crop producers and their agricultural consultants manage crops efficiently and profitably.

Compensation:

The minimum annual (12 months) starting salary for the position is $80000 but is negotiable based on experience and qualifications.

This position offers a comprehensive benefits package including generous paid time off competitively priced health/dental/vision/life insurance tax-advantaged savings accounts and participation in the nationally recognized Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension fund. Please review the summary of benefits for more information.

Required Qualifications:

• 5 or more years of relevant experience

• Experience managing budgets

• Demonstrated skills in interpreting utilizing and applying evidence-based information and research findings

• Demonstrated ability to communicate scientific materials in written and verbal forms for a variety of lay and other audiences

• Demonstrated educational program development skills including planning and implementing programs evaluation and communicating program impact and value to stakeholders

• Experience with mentoring and/or supervising

• Knowledge and skills to effectively interact with people from different cultural backgrounds including those associated with race ethnicity national origin religion socioeconomic status gender disability sexual orientation and other aspects of human diversity

Preferred Qualifications:

Two years of supervisory experience

• Established track-record of building partnerships with diverse agricultural groups

• Experience in group facilitation to support needs identification decision making and stakeholder engagement with complex issues

• Demonstrated educational program development skills which include planning and implementing programs; evaluating learning experiences; and communicating program impact and value in both written and verbal formats for a variety of lay and other audiences as well as stakeholders.

• Successful experience obtaining funding through grants contracts gifts and/or revenue generation

• Demonstrated experience with soil and nutrient management

Education:

Required Education

Masters required in a field of study related to this positions focus.

Preferred Education

PhD preferred in a field of study related to this positions focus.

How to Apply:

We are eager to learn more about how your experience and passion may align with this position. To begin the application process click the apply now button. You will be prompted to upload the following documents:

• Resume

• Letter of Qualifications (cover letter)
  

Please submit a cover letter referring to your work experience and a resume detailing your educational and professional background as it relates to this position. Your cover letter should communicate your interest in the position and how your skill set aligns with the role. The application reviewers will be relying on written application materials to determine who may advance to preliminary interviews.

For additional guidance and resources on how to tailor your application materials to the job posting please click note that successful applicants are responsible for ensuring their eligibility to work in the United States (i.e. a citizen or national of the United States a lawful permanent resident a foreign national authorized to work in the United States without need of employer sponsorship) on or before the effective date of appointment.

Application is December 3 2025 at 11:59PM (CST).

Contact Information:

Anne Pfeiffer

Relay Access (WTRS): 7-1-1. See RELAYSERVICE for further information.

Institutional Statement on Diversity:

Diversity is a source of strength creativity and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity culture background experience status abilities and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching research outreach and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students faculty and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal OpportunityEmployer.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to including but not limited to race color religion sex sexual orientation national origin age pregnancy disability or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgroundsand encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website .

To request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodation for any step in the hiring process (e.g. application interview pre-employment testing etc.) please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you are applying make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you.

Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct including sexual violence and sexual harassment.

The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7).

The Annual Security and Fire Safety Report contains current campus safety and disciplinary policies crime statistics for the previous 3 calendar years and on-campus student housing fire safety policies and fire statistics for the previous 3 calendar years. UW-Madison will provide a paper copy upon request; please contact the University of Wisconsin Police Department.

Required Experience:

Manager