The Role:
The Project Lead will coordinate and deliver a multi-farm development project focused on establishing six “Changemaker Farms” that demonstrate leading practice in regenerative agriculture. These farms will test, refine and share practical approaches that improve soil health, farm resilience, biodiversity, and financial sustainability to build sustainable food supply chains and demonstrate best practice in local collaborative models can work, Six fields, one Future.
The role sits at the intersection of farm practice, research, and stakeholder collaboration. The Project Lead will work closely with a Postdoctoral Researcher to integrate on-farm experimentation and data collection with practical farm management decisions. They will be the co-ordinator to the six farms, matching and planning training packages and practical support. They will regularly spend time on farm with each of the partner farms to fully understand their needs and measure progress. Opportunities for collaborate working between farms to build a collective approach to improving systems sits at the heart of the programme. The main KPI of project success is capturing proven local, independent and collaborative approaches that can be replicated across other UK and international regions. They will convene and coordinate an advisory group of farm advisors and financial stakeholders to support each farm’s transition. They will be expected to share the milestone achievements and good practice across the wider farming community through a series of events. The Project Lead ensures that activities across the six farms are coordinated, milestones are achieved, and knowledge is shared.
Key Tasks
Specific Duties will include:
- Working with the Farming and Rural Skills Curriculum Manager and post doctorate research team to deliver the Six Fields, One Future programme.
- Lead end-to-end project leadership across the full lifecycle, ensuring delivery within scope, on time, on budget, and to quality standards.
- Design project frameworks, allocate resources, and manage scheduling, monitoring, reporting, and budgets.
- Deliver and track KPIs throughout the project lifecycle to ensure performance targets are met.
- Identify, assess, and mitigate risks while managing dependencies and aligning delivery with organisational objectives.
- Implement robust controls, monitoring, and evaluation processes to ensure deliverables meet performance and sustainability requirements.
- Oversee and manage interdependencies across multiple projects within the organisation.
- Produce regular, insight-driven reports to support strategic decision-making and meet stakeholder and business needs.
- Take the lead in planning and delivering the activity programme for 6 farms - 5 within geographic cluster surrounding Dumfries House and one partner farm in the North East.
- Manage the budget and keep on top of day-to-day spending and organisation
- Set up consistent ways of collecting farm data and benchmarking results in collaboration with Post Doc Agricultural Lead.
- Organise and deliver a programme of events, meetings, and outputs across all six farms.
- Maintain a schedule of regular communications with in-house team and participating farms.
- Arrange and guide meetings with farmers, team members, and key stakeholders.
- Disseminate updates and results from your farms through articles, newsletters, and social media.
- Contribute to the wider agriculture work carried out by The King’s Foundation by producing useful, practical resources for the farming industry.
Person Specification
The essential skills, knowledge and experience required are:
- Able to represent the King’s Foundation professionally at all times, in media, to stakeholders and with local farmers.
- Development and delivery of complex projects through their full cycle, including in
the context of introducing business change.
- Writing and producing briefings and reports for a range of audiences.
- Influencing, facilitating, engaging, and building trust with internal and external stakeholders, including at the most senior levels.
- Strong interpersonal, communication, and organisational skills and the ability to work proactively and flexibly to achieve set objectives.
- The ability to work well within a team, maintaining positive relationships with the wider education staff.
- Practical knowledge and experience in farming or rural skills settings, including animal handling experience.
- Experience working with young people, developing and delivering educational experiences.
- A passion and interest in regenerative farming practice.
Other:
- The post will be based at The MacRoberts Farming and Rural Skills Centre, Dumfries House Estate, Cumnock, KA18 2NJ with the requirement to travel on occasion.
- The contract is a 3-year fixed term post.
- Your working hours will be 37.5 hours per week.
- Willingness to work occasional weekends or evenings as required for education or wider estate events, with a TOIL system in place.
- You must have the legal right to work in the UK.
- This post is considered to be a regulated activity therefore any offer will be subject to a satisfactory disclosure check with the Disclosure Scotland.
- Applications: Please submit a cover letter and CV (please note one A4 page maximum each for CV and letter) to Gordon Watson, email address: - hr.recruitment@kings-foundation.org and request an application form.
- Closing date for applications: Friday 29th of May 2026 at 5pm