Agricultural Business Development Manager (UK Remote, with Scotland travel)

We’re an equal opportunity employer. We are looking for the best candidate based on the value they can add. Our culture is hugely important to us and we welcome applicants of all race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status. We encourage all candidates who believe they have the required skills and experience for any of our roles to apply. We also welcome applications from candidates who have a keen interest and passion for fighting climate change.

We are on a mission to remove as much excess CO2 from the atmosphere as we can, in order to avoid the most disastrous effects of global warming and the climate crisis. We’re achieving this by planting forests that are profitable, meaning we can scale up our land holding, plant millions of trees, and grow a climate solution which removes significant amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. Our tools to do this have expanded from reforestation alone to co-deploying reforestation with biochar and enhanced weathering, two relatively new carbon removal technologies being trialled, potentially increasing the amount of carbon sequestered per hectare by an order of magnitude. We have a plan to reach 50k hectares of land holding, and plant 50 million trees.

About the role

As the lead for Enhanced Weathering (EW) Business Development in Scotland, you will be responsible for building and maintaining the enduring relationships which underpin the land access partnerships for our EW operations. You will identify land owners and managers in our future project areas, negotiate for access, plan distribution, and manage operational activity in concert with the operations manager.

The role requires a good understanding of agricultural practice, superb interpersonal skills and a passionate approach to innovation in agriculture. The individual will be entrepreneurial and equally comfortable working alone or in small teams, spending considerable time on site representing the Future Forest Company with partners and contractors.

The main areas of responsibility include but not limited to:

• Design a land access strategy for Scotland, working with the EW team to integrate this into the UK strategy.
• Build local and regional networks of landowners and land managers, negotiating access to land for enhanced weathering operations.
• Plan basalt spreading, accounting for seasonality in agricultural practice, weather and ground conditions.
• Partner with agricultural contractors to deliver spreading operations.
• Monitor and report on partnerships, spreading operations, and land access development.
• Work with the UK operations manager to expand operations across Scotland.
• Manage and maintain long-term partnerships for the Future Forest Company.
• Identify opportunities for cross-selling Future Forest Company products and services, actively working across disciplinary boundaries to create sales.
• Identify opportunities to support community projects and initiatives aligned to the Future Forest Company purpose.
• Contribute to the development and direction of the Future Forest Company.

About you:

• The ideal candidate is a dynamic self-starter with an endless desire to learn, great interpersonal skills and an ability to think beyond the immediate issues of the day
• Relevant experience in the field such as farm manager, agricultural consultant or agricultural contractor
• Ability to manage a broad scope of work, running several projects concurrently while planning several months ahead
• Experience in contract negotiation or business development
• Ability to use basic information technology to plan and execute projects and programmes (Excel minimum)
• Ability to work alone with limited direction whilst contributing to team goals
• Full driving licence
• Excellent communication and the ability to adapt to diverse audiences
• Strong Business acumen
• Desire to help solve the climate crisis

Desirable

• Experience in regenerative agriculture
• Established agricultural networks in the central belt and eastern Scotland
• Understanding of the environmental regulatory framework in Scotland
• Familiarity with Scottish agricultural policy and how it is developed

What you get

• Salary dependent on experience, £45k-55k
• Shares in The Future Forest Company
• Enhanced holiday leave
• Industry leading pension scheme up to 17%
• Home based location with flexible working
• Individual development and training budget
  
• The chance to help build a company that is leading the way in the fight against climate change
• Home office setup scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme, MHFA and wellbeing strategy
• Enhanced Family Leave policies
• Company sickness pay