POLICY INITIATIVES ADV-EXEC

Position Summary

This position is in the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection's Secretary Office, serves on the executive leadership team, and reports directly to the Deputy Secretary under general supervision. Operating as a principal executive policy advisor and initiative owner, this position provides critical and complex executive policy development and implementation for major emergency preparedness, response, recovery, and resilience.

Acting with substantially delegated authority, this role will formulate, develop, recommend, direct and implement significant department-wide initiatives. This role will address the severe economic and socials risks that livestock and crop disease outbreaks pose to Wisconsin's agricultural sector, rural farming livelihoods, and public food safety. It is responsible for setting the policy framework, directing cross-divisional execution, resolving competing program needs, and ensuring adopted policies translate into actionable response protocols, training, communications, and corrective action - including necessary recommendations for legislative and/or administrative rule changes.

This position's policy, protocols, procedures, and initiatives will execute the Department's vision for preventing, surveilling, responding, and protecting farming operations, mitigate and contain the spread of animal and food-borne diseases such as High Path Avian Influenza, E.Coli, Salmonella, or Listeria, and maintain consumer trust in the state's food supply chain. Failure to develop and implement these items can lead to substantial agricultural loss, supply chain disruption, animal depopulation, severe mental health crisis amongst farmers, consumer panic, or food price inflation.

This position leads and directs strategic partnerships and cross agency projects within the Department, across state agencies, with federal partners, local governments, private industry, and external stakeholders. To be successful, this role will need to liaise with these stakeholders to advance, advise, and make recommendations to ensure policy, procedures, protocols, and initiatives are implemented to safeguard Wisconsin's agricultural industry. Specifically, this role will exercise executive policy leadership and implementation strategy without replacing statutory or incident command authorities when translating executive policy direction into coordinated action and establishing department level expectations.

For more information, please review the full position description .

Salary Information

The classification of this position is Policy Initiatives Advisor-Exec, which is in schedule-range 81-02 with a starting pay of $50.00-$60.00 per hour ($104,000-$124,800 annually).

This position is not represented by a collective bargaining unit. A 24-month probationary period for this Career Executive position is required. Pay for current state employees will be set in accordance with the State Compensation Plan at the time of hire.

Job Details

At DATCP, we strive to deliver efficient and effective programs and services to Wisconsin agriculture, consumers, and businesses. The Department has numerous on-the-job training (OJT) opportunities and transferable skills, unique to each Bureau and position.

These OJT opportunities and transferable skills include direct experience and practice through collaboration with co-workers/supervisor, peer mentoring, and job-specific training modules.

Conditions of Employment:

DATCP does not sponsor work visas. Any appointment made will be contingent on the selected applicant being able to provide documentation of eligibility to work in the United States.

A criminal background check will be performed on the selected applicant prior to an offer of employment.

Possession of a valid driver's license or the ability to provide one's own transportation for work purposes, is required.

Travel is required for approximately 10% of this position's duties. Overnight stays may be required.

Qualifications

Minimally qualified candidates will have each of the following:

• Experience researching, formulating, evaluating, and implementing entity-wide executive policy or initiatives.
• Experience leading and/or directing emergency preparedness, disaster recovery, continuity of operations, and/or incident response frameworks.
• Experience conducting post-emergency analysis to evaluate response, initiative, and/or policy effectiveness
• Experience creating informational materials (public announcements, executive summaries, briefing papers, etc.) and serving as a liaison to internal and external stakeholders (state/federal partners, non-profits, citizens, private industry, etc.)

In addition to the minimum qualifications above, highly qualified candidates will have one or more of the following:

• Experience consulting executive leadership in the public sector
• Experience developing, implementing, and managing policy and/or initiatives related to agricultural bio-security, livestock and/or crop disease outbreaks, or foodborne supply chain threats (E.coli, Listeria, Salmonella, etc.)
• Experience leading crisis communication strategies or intergovernmental financial recovery processes

How To Apply

If viewing this posting on an external site (such as indeed.com, etc.), please visit Wisc.Jobs and search for this Job ID: # 22534 to complete your application for this posting.

To be considered for this position, you will need to create an account (if you don't already have one) and apply online via the "Apply for Job" button listed on the top right of the job posting page. You will be required to upload a current resume and a letter of qualifications that clearly describes your qualifications and experience as they relate to the qualifications listed in this job posting. If you do not upload these materials, your application will not be considered. Review the applicant resources , including tips on how to write a resume and letter of qualifications.

Submitted application materials will be evaluated by one or more job experts. Candidates who are deemed eligible will be invited to participate in the next step of the selection process, starting with those candidates who are deemed most qualified.

For general Wisc.Jobs user information and technical assistance, please check the Frequently Asked Questions . Please address questions regarding the application process to Joey Stella at joey.stella@wisconsin.gov .

Deadline to Apply

The deadline to apply for this position is 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, November 10, 2026.