Producer Demonstration Lead Coordinator

The Organisation

The Zero Net Emissions Agriculture Cooperative Research Centre (ZNE-Ag CRC) is an initiative brokered by The University of Queensland and Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and involves a consortium of partners across industry, education, and government. It is the largest CRC to be funded with $87 million from the Commonwealth matching $87 million in partner contributions over the ten year life of the grant.

ZNE-Ag CRC aims to catalyse industry, community and government action to achieve Zero Net Emissions from agriculture from 2040, and below zero net emissions by 2050. Agriculture directly contributes to 14% of Australia's national emissions. Their goal is to ensure Australia's agricultural industries keep growing, while they simultaneously achieve ZNE by 2040 and exceed international emissions reduction targets by 2050.

The Opportunity

The CRC is currently in the establishment phase building to the launch of the company with commissioned projects by July 1st. Operations and interim staff are currently supported and resourced by the University of Queensland. As such, the Chief Executive Officer, supported by the Board, has mandated multiple national searches to appoint the key executives to be in place and employed by the newly established CRC upon commencement of operations.

The Role

A unique feature of the ZNE-Ag CRC will be its network of 25 Producer Demonstration sites representing the agro-ecological zones in Australia, where emissions reduction technologies will be scaled up, demonstrated, and combined together to determine how close to net zero emissions a farming system can go. These sites will function as key extension and adoption vehicles - each site will be linked to a grower or producer group and will demonstrate to these farmer groups viable pathways to net zero. The sites will be hosted either by our industry partners, or by Research Institutes involved in the CRC.

The Producer Demonstration Lead Coordinator will lead the establishment and coordination of research activities across the CRCs demonstration site network. Key responsibilities include;

• The PDS Lead Coordinator will have a team of five to ten Producer Demonstration site coordinators to ensure the PDS network is well resourced;
• This role will be responsible for ensuring emissions measurement devices are deployed at appropriate times across the network;
• Ensuring the extensive data generated from these devices is collected in a secure and transparent way; and
• Plan a comprehensive calendar of extension and adoption activities (including field days) centred on the producer demonstrate sites, in collaboration with grower and producer groups in the CRC and in the regions in which the sites are located.

Selection Criteria

• Proven capacity to coordinate large-scale on-farm research across multiple sites, ensuring timely and budget-conscious delivery of milestones;
• Demonstrated leadership in managing teams responsible for agricultural adoption and extension, including the successful execution of field days;
• Effective communication skills in engaging with industry and research partners; and
• Expertise in organising the secure collection of large datasets from diverse sources.

Overwhelmingly, this role is about the provision of leadership and delivery of operational excellence in the establishment and expansion of an exciting new initiative with significant funding and an unseen level of stakeholder engagement from both government and the private sector.

Location

While Head Office will be based in Brisbane, this opportunity offers flexibility in job location across Australia. The final location will be determined based on the preferences and circumstances of the successful candidate.

The advising consultant for this assignment is James Lazarus - Partner, Executive at u&u.

To submit an application, please click below.