The Soil Nutrient Health Scheme (SNHS) was launched by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and is managed by Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI). It is a four year, £37m new initiative aimed at improving soil nutrient health and estimating farm carbon stocks across Northern Ireland. The scheme will see the collection of soil samples from approximately 700,000 of Northern Ireland’s agricultural fields. RPS has been hired by AFBI to undertake the soil sampling over a four year period from 2022 to 2026 with peak soil sampling to be undertaken during winter months November to January. Approximately 200 people will be recruited by RPS in the coming months to be soil samplers, with the main sampling period commencing in October 2025.
We are looking for Soil Sampling Technicians on a full time or part time basis in this exciting scheme toenable efficient and sustainable crop production.The roles will be based in counties Antrim, Derry/Londonderry and Tyrone and the sampling period will be approximately 22 weeks (mid-October 2025 to March 2026).
To apply for a role you must be available to work a minimum of 3 full weekdays (Monday-Friday) per week. You will be working as part of a large team collecting soil samples in agricultural fields located primarily in Zone 4 with a limited number of roles available in Zone 3 (refer to map in the attached job description). Work will be lone working and site based in rural agricultural environments. Full training, support, sampling equipment and personal protective equipment will be provided for suitable candidates.
Brief description of the role
Each Soil Sampling Technician will be part of a soil sampling team led by a RPS Team Leader. Although Soil Sampling Technicians are part of a team, the role will be lone working in remote rural areas and Soil Sampling Technicians will be required to use a lone worker app for their health and safety.
Each Soil Sampling Technician will be provided with a ruggedised mobile device which will have the Arc Field Maps app which contains aerial base maps and their allocated fields to sample. On site, the Soil Sampling Technician will navigate to their allocated fields for sampling using Arc Field Maps on their mobile device. In each field, they will be required to collect a minimum of 32 shallow soil samples at equal distances along a W-shaped transect using a supplied soil corer, whilst recording a GPS track of the W track on the mobile device.
Soil Sampling Technicians will be responsible for bagging and correctly labelling the soil samples. If a field cannot be sampled, Soil Sampling Technicians are required to provide photographic evidence and a note using the provided mobile device.
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