Job Opportunity: Statewide Grassland Coordinator 

The Statewide Grassland Coordinator serves as a trusted bridge between Nebraska ranchers and the conservation community.  

This position helps ranchers identify their goals, navigate available resources, and take meaningful next steps toward improved stewardship, profitability, resilience, and long term success. At the same time, the Coordinator helps conservation partners better understand ranch realities, producer priorities, and opportunities for collaboration. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable sitting at a kitchen table with a ranch family, visiting at the sale barn, facilitating a virtual working group meeting, or helping conservation ,partners align efforts around shared funding or goals. They are able to understand and translate between the worlds of ranching and conservation while building trust in both. 

This position reports to the Executive Director of the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition.

It is a full-time role with a remote, virtual team based in Nebraska. 

Core Responsibilities

Working with ranchers: Through Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition’s Grazing School Follow-Through and related stewardship programs, the Coordinator will: 

• Build relationships with ranchers and land managers across Nebraska
• Help producers clarify stewardship, business, and family goals
• Provide practical grazing management and resource support
• Connect producers with technical expertise, conservation programs, educational opportunities, and funding resources
• Coordinate Rancher-Leads’ in the program’s peer-to-peer program
• Help ranchers evaluate options, take the next step, and follow through on implementation

The Coordinator serves as a trusted resource, sounding board, and advocate for producers navigating an increasingly complex landscape of opportunities and decisions. 

Working with Conservation Partners: Through the Nebraska Grassland Alliance, the Coordinator will: 

• Facilitate NGA Working Groups and partner conversations
• Help align efforts and reduce duplication among organizations
• Share information between partners and producers
• Identify gaps in support, resources, and technical assistance
• Strengthen collaboration in service of Nebraska ranchers and grasslands

The purpose of this work is simple: improve outcomes for ranchers, grasslands, and rural communities by helping people work together more effectively. 

Desired Qualifications 

The ideal candidate will bring: 

• Practical experience in ranching, grazing management, rangeland stewardship, or a related field
• Strong technical knowledge of grazing systems and natural resource management
• The ability to build trust with both ranchers and conservation professionals
• Excellent listening, communication, and facilitation skills
• A strong understanding of conservation programs, partnerships, funding sources, and working lands opportunities
• The ability to connect people, resources, and ideas to move projects forward

Most importantly, the successful candidate will be a humble, curious leader, full of entrepreneurial initiative, and genuinely committed to helping Nebraska ranchers succeed. 

About the teams:

The Nebraska Grassland Alliance is a collaborative network of ranchers, landowners, conservation organizations, agencies, tribal nations, businesses, and communities working together to ensure Nebraska's grasslands remain healthy, productive, and resilient for future generations. 

The Alliance exists to strengthen stewardship of Nebraska's grasslands by improving communication, collaboration, and shared action among the many people and organizations invested in the future of our grasslands and rural communities. 

The Nebraska Grassland Alliance and Statewide Grassland Coordinator position are housed under the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition.  

Dedicated to the enhancement of grasslands, the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition is comprised of ranchers and private landowners all focused on creating public awareness and improvement of the grazing lands in Nebraska. The organization’s top focus is to provide voluntary technical assistance and educational opportunities on grazing land management. Healthy Nebraska grazing lands translate directly into forage for livestock, habitat for wildlife, economic benefits for landowners and rural communities, and clean water for much of the Great Plains.

Please send cover letter and resume to [email protected]. 

Applications close Aug. 21.  

Questions about the position may be directed to [email protected] or (308) 235-8420