Program Operations Manager

Some people love a plan. They love it even more when it comes to fruition.
If that’s you, and you care about Canadian agriculture, we’d like to meet you.
Burr Forest Group (BFG) is looking for a Program Operations Manager to run our training, policy services, and thought leadership pillars. You turn the team’s plans and concepts into schedules, deadlines, and delivered work.
About Burr Forest Group
Burr Forest Group is a Canadian agricultural communications, training, and consulting firm. We work across four pillars: Training, Policy, Communications and Extension Support, and Thought Leadership. We’re farmer-rooted, independent, and small enough that your work matters on day one.
Your work will span:
Training.
The Ag Leadership and Extension Summit, held in person in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. The Effective Extension Exchange, a monthly virtual workshop series accredited for CCA and P.Ag. credits. Custom training for commissions, associations, research organizations, and ag companies. And the Burr Forest Fellow network, practitioners who build and teach courses through BFG.
Policy services.
Policy intelligence, communications and advocacy support for farm organizations.
Thought leadership.
Our podcasts (including, but not limited to, The Extensionists), white papers, research, articles, resources, and some publishing.
The Role
You’ll report to our Principal and work alongside our Senior Project Manager and our Director, Policy and Strategy. You’ll share one project system and one firm-wide calendar.
You’ll work most closely with our Director, Policy and Strategy, who leads policy services and guides program content. Your job is to turn plans into weekly priorities and deadlines, keep new requests inside the plan, and make sure the work gets done.
Some days you’ll be booking a hotel block and confirming lunch for three rooms in Saskatoon. Others you’ll be making sure a policy update reaches a client’s board on time, or walking a new instructor through everything before their first session. Most days, you’ll be making sure the right people know what’s due and when.
What You’ll Do
Own the program plan.
Keep one calendar for training, policy and thought leadership. Run a weekly planning meeting with our program lead, set deadlines, and flag anything slipping early.
Run the training calendar.
Schedule every course, session and event, working back from our lead times. Our busiest season runs November to April.
Produce virtual training.
Zoom webinar setup, Eventbrite registration and passes, reminders, recordings, continuing education credits and certificates.
Gather feedback.
Build and run the feedback form for each course, and share what learners say with instructors and our program lead.
Run in-person training.
Booking venues and hotel blocks, arranging catering, travel and materials, and running the day itself for the Summit and custom deliveries.
Look after instructors (BFG Fellows).
Agreements, onboarding, schedules, and everything they need before they teach, including a dry run so they’re comfortable with the Zoom webinar format. Make sure they’re paid within 30 days.
Keep policy work on schedule.
Deliverable calendars for each policy client, meeting preparation and follow-up, and monthly updates that go out on time.
Run the thought leadership calendar.
Columns, articles and podcast production dates, working with our producer.
Make registering easy.
Short links, team passes, seat blocks and invoicing for organizations that can’t pay by credit card. Work with our bookkeeper so every registration is invoiced and paid.
Track the money.
Program budgets, expenses, and registrations against the minimum each course needs to run. Make the go or no-go call on time. Report monthly.
Keep marketing informed.
Give our marketing support the dates, details and numbers they need.
What You Bring
Two to five years in project management, event coordination, or program and/or account management. Experience in a communications agency or a farm organization is a plus.
Real event experience, from securing venue contracts to running events.
A habit of finishing things on time, and the tact to help colleagues and instructors hit their deadlines too.
The confidence to hold a plan when new requests come in, and to say what has to move to make room.
Clear, plain writing. You’ll be emailing instructors, clients and learners every day.
Comfort with Asana, Google Workspace, Zoom webinars and online registration (Eventbrite), or the ability to learn them quickly.
An understanding of Canadian agriculture and the organizations that serve farmers.
Nice to Have
Experience with extension, adult learning, professional development or policy programs.
Familiarity with continuing education credit programs such as CCA or P.Ag.
Connections across prairie commodity organizations.
What Success Looks Like in the First Year
Every course, event and policy deliverable runs on schedule, and go or no-go calls are made on time.
Our program team works from one weekly plan, and new requests land in it instead of on someone’s desk.
Organizations can register a team and pay by invoice without a second email.
Instructors get what they need before they teach and get paid on time.
Program budgets and registrations are reported monthly, and the numbers are right.
What We Offer
Work from home, with rented office space available if needed.
Travel to our Summits in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
A small, supportive team that plans well and talks often.
Room to grow. Training and policy are the fastest-growing parts of our business, and this role grows with them.
BFG welcomes applications from everyone. If you need an accommodation at any stage of the hiring process, just let us know.
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