Application Deadline: 31 May 2026
Department: Engagement
Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time
Location: Field
Reporting To: Head of Agri Value Chain Engagement
Compensation: £58,000 - £70,000 / year
Job purpose
· This role provides strategic leadership for primary producer. engagement and will develop credible producer. champions for technologies validated in commercial environments, to accelerate sector-wide uptake.
· This role aligns producer engagement activity with Programme milestones, commercialisation pathways, and impact metrics.
· The postholder will act as the senior advocate for primary producers within programme design—ensuring innovation remains practical, commercially viable, and deliverable in real-world systems.
This role is field-based, which means you’ll be travelling to client sites, partner sites and our locations as part of your day-to-day work. You may also work from your home address for a minority of the week or attend one of our sites from time to time. Our main locations are: Oxford, York, Edinburgh, Cranfield, Newport (Midlands).
· With the Head of Agri Value Chain Engagement, develop and own the strategic framework for engaging primary producers to support programme delivery
· Ensure consistent delivery models through effective leadership of Engagement Managers.
· Create structured pathways for awareness → trial → validation → adoption → championing.
· Foster trusted two-way feedback loops between producers, innovators, and programme teams.
· Oversee the development of practical guidance, decision-support tools, and case studies
· Ensure consistent methodology for capturing ROI, productivity impact, and environmental outcomes
· In collaboration with relevant stakeholders develop standardised adoption frameworks that reduce financial and operational risk for producers.
· Identify systemic barriers to adoption that support technology development, working closely with the teams from the Test, Trial & Demonstration department as well as other customer facing teams.
· Provide leadership for UKATC across UK demonstration farms networks through direct management of the Farm Network Manager.
· Maintain standards for data integrity, learning capture, and impact reporting across the network.
· Develop and nurture a visible cohort of “Producer Champions” who influence peer adoption regionally and nationally.
· Support the delivery of coordinated engagement activities including demonstration events, peer learning groups, and digital engagement.
· Support engagement with advisory bodies and supply chain stakeholders to understand their requirements, working closely with the Agri Supply Chain team.
· Line manage Primary Producer Engagement Managers and Farm Network Manager
· Set clear KPIs, targets, and impact metrics aligned to and in support of programme objectives.
· Build capability across the team in stakeholder management, impact capture, and commercial awareness.
· Foster a collaborative, insight-driven culture across regional delivery teams.
· Ensure engagement metrics, adoption data, and case studies are integrated into reporting requirements.
· Accountable for budgetary spend associated with the Primary Producer engagement activity delivery.
Essential Experience
· Extensive experience working directly with commercial primary producers across relevant sectors.
· Demonstrable leadership experience managing distributed teams.
· Strong understanding of farm business drivers: productivity, profitability, sustainability, risk management, and the drivers of adoption.
· Ability to translate innovation into practical, commercially viable on-farm application.
· Strong understanding of the drivers to adoption of Agri-tech
· Familiarity with impact measurement and ROI modelling.
· Established network within UK agriculture and agri-tech ecosystems.
· Credibility and authority with primary producers
· Commercial and operational acumen
· Team development and performance management
· Outcome-focused and impact-driven
Additional Information
Travel will be required.
UK driving licence is mandatory to have.
You will be part of a pioneering organisation driving innovation in agri-tech, whilst working in a collaborative and forward-thinking environment. There is opportunity to grow and develop within a newly established organisation, plus a range of benefits including:
If you are ready for a role that truly makes an impact - join us and be part of something meaningful. We’d love to hear from you!
Established by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, the UK Agri-Tech Centre offers a complete life-cycle of support, driving agri-tech innovation and adoption through world-class facilities, expert knowledge and business support, saving you time and accelerating your progress.
We strengthen the connections between science, business and funders to accelerate research and development, tackling the agri-industry’s most critical challenges such as climate change, labour availability, disease mitigation and environmental sustainability.
As an independent, not-for-profit organisation, we are trusted to provide leadership and guidance to progress transformational change for people and the planet while stimulating economic growth by offering physical centres with cutting-edge R&D laboratories, testbeds, factories and offices.
