Senior Scientist - Sustainable Fertilizers, Soil Health, and Climate Solutions Muscle Shoals

About IFDC

IFDC is a public international organization active in 20 countries in Africa, Asia, and America. IFDC uniquely approaches the global issues of food security and poverty by bridging the gap between research and impact, combining science-based innovations, holistic market systems development, an enabling policy environment, and strategic partnerships to assist farmers and countries to identify and scale sustainable agricultural solutions, including improved nutrient use efficiency.

These approaches are needed to boost soil health and crop productivity while reducing the environmental impact of fertilizer use. IFDC translates research into action by using locally driven, environmentally sound, and impact-oriented solutions. With our partners, we seek to close the yield gap, eradicate global hunger, safeguard the soil on which our lives depend, and generate economic resilience for farming households and the countries in which they live.

The Senior Scientist – Sustainable Fertilizers, Soil Health, and Climate Solutions position will provide scientific leadership and programmatic direction to IFDC’s work at the intersection of fertilizer innovation, sustainable agriculture, soil health, and climate mitigation.

The position is designed to strengthen IFDC’s role as a global authority on evidence-based fertilizer solutions, including biological and organomineral fertilizers, enhanced-efficiency fertilizers, fertilizer stewardship, and climate-smart nutrient management, while advancing IFDC’s engagement in developing robust carbon market mechanisms, biogeochemical modeling, GHG Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) systems, and policy-relevant science.

This role combines strategic leadership, applied research, partnership development, and resource mobilization, translating rigorous science into scalable solutions for farmers, markets, and governments.

• Provide technical leadership on sustainable fertilizer systems, including biological, organomineral, and enhanced-efficiency fertilizers, with a focus on soil health, nutrient‑use efficiency (NUE), and emissions mitigation (N₂O, CH₄).
• Design and oversee field trials, validation studies, and demonstration networks to generate robust agronomic, environmental, and economic evidence for fertilizer products and practices.
• Lead the integration of life‑cycle assessment (LCA), soil carbon, and GHG accounting into IFDC fertilizer research and innovation programs.
• Ensure scientific rigor, quality assurance, and alignment with international best practices and standards.
• Develop and implement innovative approaches for nutrient cycling, including the valorization of organic waste streams and biofertilizers to enhance soil fertility and reduce reliance on synthetic inputs.
• Drive the integration of low‑emissions agriculture principles across all IFDC programs, ensuring that nutrient management strategies align with climate mitigation goals.

• Lead IFDC’s technical engagement on agriculture and soil carbon methodologies, including MRV/DMRV systems relevant to fertilizer and soil management interventions.
• Support the development and validation of carbon‑in‑soil and emissions‑reduction approaches linked to fertilizer use, organic amendments, and regenerative practices.
• Lead IFDC’s engagement in Carbon markets and Agriculture and Land Use projects, including the design, validation, and implementation of robust carbon accounting and crediting methodologies.
• Provide expert guidance on the quantification and verification of soil carbon sequestration and GHG reductions within agricultural value chains.
• Identify opportunities to monetize environmental services from regenerative agriculture practices through carbon and other ecosystem service markets.
• Engage with international standards bodies, auditors, and technical experts to ensure IFDC science informs credible carbon certification and climate finance pathways (without IFDC acting as a certifier).

• Design and manage multi‑country, multi‑partner programs that link fertilizer innovation…