Industry Relations Manager

United Dairy Industry of Michigan will also entertain applicants seeking part-time schedules

Mission

Trust and Sales: Promote Michigan dairy and dairy foods to consumers through education, innovation, and research. Instilling trust in our farmers, in dairy foods and growing the dairy community.

Vision

Together, grow a healthier, sustainable, and joyful world.

Values

As a great place to work, we: Know where we are going, both individually and collectively; Show kindness and concern for others; Invite and respect everyone’s perspectives and contributions; Work with positive intent and are open to change; Help each other get our work done, regardless of role; Learn and grow from everything we do; Celebrate differences and create a sense of belonging for everyone.

Who We Are and What We Stand For

We believe dairy is for everyone and every person. We do our part to ensure dairy is accessible to all communities in Michigan. Why? Because dairy is crucial to building strong bodies that stand for humanity, strive for equality, provide nutrients to fuel individuality, and is produced in way that benefits our communities and the earth.

Position Summary:

The Industry Relations Manager leads projects and tactics within the United Dairy Industry of Michigan’s Industry Relations plan. The position supports the work of the Industry Relations Team in establishing and maintaining positive relationships among dairy producers, the dairy industry and the checkoff program. The Industry Relations Manager also works collaboratively with the UDIM Team to protect and promote the image of dairy foods and dairy farmers and to show our farmers the work we do on their behalf.

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Create a plan to build strong relationships with key influential farmers to ensure understanding and support of their promotion investment. This plan could include dairy promotion 101 meetings, farm visits, etc. ensuring we reach those connected and those not connected to checkoff.
• Effectively communicate the value of dairy checkoff to all dairy farmers, dairy cooperatives and other agriculture organizations through meetings and written communication.
• Build and maintain positive working relationships with industry partners including dairy cooperatives and other agriculture organizations to grow support of checkoff throughout their organizations and the farmers they serve. Includes representing UDIM at industry meetings.
• Use the UDIM Project Management system to develop and implement cross-functional team projects.
• Contribute to the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database to keep track of farmers contact information, their involvement in UDIM programs and to gauge their checkoff sentiment over time.
• Share farmer insights and feedback with UDIM leadership. Continually monitor and respond to rapidly evolving industry, co-op and farmer needs. Gather farmer sustainability and animal care best practice stories and share with communications team.
• Provide ongoing counsel and support of and help recruit more participation in UDIM programs and events (e.g. board mentor program, consumer events, etc.)
• Manage dairy producer grant program and dairy promotion material ordering.
• Other duties as assigned by the Chief Executive Officer or Vice President of Industry Relations.

Competencies:

• Project & Program Management
• Manages tactical program elements of multiple projects
• Develops, implements and evaluates projects and overall program or function
• Anticipates and communicates challenges, solutions and new opportunities within a program; seeks opportunities to identify and introduce efficiencies
• Takes into account fluctuating needs and requests; plans and organizes own work to meet job priorities and expectations, team members and team priorities; works with supervisor and team on contingency plans if deadlines cannot be met
• Uses available tools to monitor project and program progress and organize time effectively

Planning & Integration

• Leads integration within and across programs
• Proactively participates in an area of focus planning
• Utilizes insights to build program direction

Budget Management

• Demonstrates responsible use and tracking of program budget

Communication

• Communicates orally and in writing in a clear, concise and impartial manner
• Prepares, creates tools and presents to various audiences
• Expresses views and concerns in an impartial manner with intent to resolve issues

Strategic Thinking

• Synthesizes information to anticipate challenges /obstacles and proactively provide solutions
• Identifies and prioritizes activities with the greatest impact and ROI; challenges the status quo

Partnership Management

• Manages partner/agency contracts
• Manages partner/agency relationships

BOD Engagement

• May assist in managing board engagement activities

Supervisory Duties

• May have staff supervisory responsibility
• May oversee work performed by external contractors

Teamwork

• Actively contributes to setting team goals and achieving results; supports team decisions
• Proposes changes to work approaches and processes to contribute effectively to the team’s work

Judgement & Decision Making

• Consults with supervisor/manager and seeks advice in examining unclear professional issues to evaluate options and make effective decisions
• Ensures discretion and confidentiality, remains focused and objective when making decisions
• Identifies, examines and validates assumptions underlying decisions to ensure consistency with organization values
• Takes responsibility for the impact of decisions (and the actions of the staff members supervised, if applicable) and shows willingness to reconsider decisions made

Achieving Results & Technical Skills

• Defines realistic outputs; clarifies expected roles, responsibilities and results
• Evaluates results; drawing conclusions from lessons learned
• Ensures that work is in compliance with accepted professional standards and methods; provides information that is credible and reliable
• Actively seeks learning opportunities and actively shares knowledge and information with others; shares specialized knowledge, skills and learning from experience across different situations and contexts effectively

Change Management & Resilience

• Maintains a high level of performance when facing pressure and uncertainty; able to remain calm and self-controlled, and respond logically and decisively in difficult situations
• Contributes creative ideas and proposes changes to processes and methods, to overcome identified bottlenecks, challenges and issues
• Readily accepts conditions of uncertainty or unpredictability and remains productive in difficult situations

Travel Required:

1. The job may require up to 60% travel.

Physical Demands:

Activity: (hours / day)

1. Flying- Rarely (Up to 3 hours)
2. Driving - Occasionally (3+ hours / day)
3. Sitting - Frequently (6+ hours / day)
4. Lift / carry (up to 25 lbs.) - Rarely (Up to 3 hours)
5. Push / pull (up to 50 lbs.) - Rarely (Up to 3 hour)

Education, License, Certification, Experience & Languages*
*Note: Equivalent combination of education and/or experience will be considered.

• Bachelor’s degree - Preferred
• 3+ years’ experience in related field - Preferred
• Adobe Creative Cloud
• Office 365 - Fluent
• WordPress
• Asana (project management software) - Familiar
• Salesforce (CRM tool) - Familiar
• Bilingual in English / Spanish is a plus.