About the Role
Fairer Fields is a new organization that works to make agriculture more humane for all by accelerating better agricultural practices for animals, people, and the world. We are currently working to:
- Develop and implement more humane insecticides and insecticide alternatives.
- Conduct research to identify promising new ways to help animals and people impacted by plant agriculture, especially in areas such as pollination services, biological control, or mechanized harvesting.
We’re hiring a Program Associate to build relationships across the insecticide, seed, and agricultural sectors and help develop interventions to improve insecticide practices.q
About the Role
The Program Associate will be responsible for:
- Building and maintaining relationships across the insecticide, seed, and agricultural sectors, including with industry professionals, researchers, and other stakeholders.
- Attending conferences and events to develop Fairer Fields’ understanding of the agricultural landscape, identify potential partners, and represent the organization.
- Meeting with and interviewing relevant experts in areas like insecticide production, seed treatment, agricultural supply chains, and related fields.
- Drafting internal memos and documentation synthesizing what they learn from industry engagement — translating conversations and observations into actionable insight for the team.
- Contributing to intervention development for our insecticide work as the role evolves, helping translate landscape knowledge into concrete strategies and partnerships.
This is an outward-facing role. The Program Associate will spend a significant portion of their time engaging with others working in this space — at industry events, in meetings, and building the relationships that will underpin Fairer Fields’ work.
About You
We’re open to many profiles and backgrounds for this role. Experience in agriculture, policy, advocacy, or research may be especially relevant, but we’ll consider candidates from any background who demonstrate the right mix of skills and disposition.
The ideal candidate has the following characteristics:
- Exceptional interpersonal and networking skills. This is the most important trait for this role. You are someone who builds relationships easily and proactively — not just comfortable in a room full of strangers, but energized by it. Demonstrated experience building professional networks or stakeholder relationships is highly valued.
- Strong written communication skills. Much of this role involves turning conversations, observations, and unstructured information into clear internal memos and reports. You should be able to write with strong reasoning transparency — clearly conveying what you learned, what you think it means, and how confident you are.
- Comfort with uncertainty and ambiguity. We will not quickly resolve the biggest uncertainties this project faces. The ideal candidate will be comfortable with that, and comfortable making calibrated, careful recommendations despite that uncertainty.
- A high degree of agency and personal accountability. Fairer Fields’ operating model and small size require staff who are comfortable managing their own time and driving their own results. We have minimal management and supervision internally — this means you’ll often be responsible for setting your own priorities and following through.
- Comfort with moving quickly when necessary, and working on ambitious goals. We work in a highly goal-driven manner, often on fairly quick turnaround times — the ideal candidate will work well under these constraints.
- Willingness to explore open-ended questions, even if they might not lead to useful results. We expect that what we are doing is hard, and the next few years will be rife with disappointing outcomes and results. This work involves exploring open-ended, difficult questions, and requires being resilient to these disappointments when they arise.
- Industry knowledge in insecticides, agriculture, or seed is helpful but not required.
Finding someone with all of these traits is ideal, but we will consider all candidates with relevant backgrounds. If you think you might be a good fit but don’t meet all our ideal characteristics, we encourage you to apply regardless.
Other Details
- Time Commitment: Full time
- Location: Remote, anywhere in the US, with flexible working hours
- We’re open to considering candidates outside the US, but are primarily considering US-based applicants
- Salary: $75,000–$110,000 USD annually.
- Benefits: 13 holidays and flexible vacation time
We’re a new organization and are just setting up our operations, but in the near future we intend to also add:
- Health insurance
- 401k with employer contribution
- Travel: Required 8–12 times per year
