Find your place in the field of good food

Our goal is to connect good people with good food. We advertise sustainable food jobs and training opportunities to help jobseekers and employers find each other.

Roots to Work is a project of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.

Farmyard Manager

Stepney City Farm
Stepney, London

Posted: 13 Mar 2025

Deadline: 3 Apr 2025

Compensation: £30,000 - £32,000 depending on experience

Paid Full-time Permanent

Job description

Stepney City Farm is a thriving working urban farm, open to the public six days a week, all year round. We need an experienced farmer with a background in all aspects of livestock management and rearing, working with volunteers and alongside the public. This is an exciting role, a combination of practical work and management, with plenty of scope for implementing your own ideas and further developing a busy open farm. You will be working alongside and collaborating with colleagues delivering a range of programmes including therapeutic volunteering; youth volunteering; schools workshops; corporate volunteering; and community projects.

One of the key objects of the Farm is food education for urban communities, and as such several of the livestock species are bred for meat which is sold seasonally at the Farm. The successful applicant will be responsible for managing volunteers working with the livestock, maintaining the livestock facilities, and overseeing all aspects of the cycle of a working farm.

Stepney City Farm’s purposes for keeping animals include:

• Education about animal husbandry;
• Education about the link between animals and food for urban communities;
• Promoting sustainable and ethical food production;
• Allowing those living in an urban environment to have contact with livestock, with a focus on the therapeutic benefits of animal care and handling.

Currently, the Farm is home to: A herd of Anglo Nubian cross goats; Two types of sheep (Exmoor Horns and Oxford Downs) Two donkeys; two adult Berkshire pigs (with an upcoming litter of piglets); various poultry breeds (including chickens, ducks and geese); four rabbits; three ferrets; two guinea pigs; and four farm cats.

Responsibilities include (but are not limited to):

• Animal welfare lead: Lead responsibility for ensuring that the “five freedoms” are maintained for all animals at Stepney City Farm;
• Legal compliance: Lead responsibility for ensuring that the Farm complies with all laws and regulations relating to managing a working farm, with particular consideration to it being a public site;
• Animal management strategy: Plan and manage the full cycle of rearing animals, from buying stock and breeding, to organising slaughter and sale through the online farm shop;
• Staff and volunteer management: Liaise with colleagues across our volunteering, education, and communities programmes to delegate livestock tasks appropriately for a range of groups on a daily basis. Ensure that staff and volunteers have the knowledge and training required to oversee and carry out basic animal tasks such as feeding and mucking out, and that high animal welfare standards are understood and upheld by all.

For the full job description and application form, visit stepneycityfarm.org/about-the-farm/vacancies

Application information

Visit stepneycityfarm.org/about-the-farm/vacancies for the full job description and application details.

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs