Job Title: Trail Easement & Land Coordinator

Department: Trail Development

Reports to: Director of Trail Development

Location: Bentonville, AR (office and field-based across Northwest Arkansas)

Type: Full-time, salaried

Salary Range: $52,000 to $64,000 annually

Who We Are

Trailblazers is a nonprofit organization based in Northwest Arkansas dedicated to building world-class trails, advancing active transportation, and fostering healthier, more connected communities. We design, build, and maintain soft-surface trails, paved paths, and bike infrastructure that help make this region one of the best places in the country to ride and live.

Our team is collaborative, mission-driven, and passionate about the impact trails have on quality of life. We work in a fast-moving environment and value people who bring initiative, organization, and ownership to their roles.

Job Description

Trailblazers is seeking a Trail Easement & Land Coordinator to secure the land rights we need to build, maintain, and protect trails. Most of our trails cross private or public land through permanent easements, and this role is the person landowners get to know.

You'll research who owns each parcel, make first contact, walk the property with owners, listen to their concerns, and carry each easement all the way to a recorded document and a clean handoff to our construction team. You'll use your own judgment to prioritize outreach, decide which landowner concerns need leadership's attention, and recommend solutions. The Director of Trail Development sets final terms and approvals. Your job is to make sure nothing falls through the cracks and every promise we make gets kept.

This isn't a high-pressure sales job. Landowners have real questions and concerns, and they deserve honest answers and time to decide. The right person builds trust by listening, explaining clearly, and following through, never by pushing.

We're hiring someone to build trusted relationships with landowners and help trail projects move forward. We'll train you on our process and tools. What we're really hiring for is how you treat people and how you follow through.

There's room to grow. Someone who takes real ownership of the tracker, the landowner relationships, and our procedures over their first year may be considered for a senior role.

Key Responsibilities

• Research ownership and signing authority for each parcel along planned trail routes.

• Reach out to landowners by phone, email, mail, and in person, keeping first conversations focused on sharing information and answering questions.

• Meet with landowners at their property for site walks, follow-up conversations, and document signing.

• Listen to landowner concerns, such as privacy, fencing, access, and construction impacts, and make sure the project team addresses them.

• Keep track of every commitment made to a landowner so it's honored through construction.

• Coordinate with surveyors, legal counsel, and title partners to prepare and finalize easement documents.

• Send, collect, and track agreements, and notarize or arrange notarization.

• See each easement through to recording, and keep parcel files, trackers, and GIS records current (training provided).

• Deliver complete handoff packages to the construction team, including landowner commitments and access instructions.

• Thank and recognize landowners who donate easements.

• Keep track of properties along future trail connections, including changes in ownership.

• Provide regular status updates to the Director of Trail Development.

• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• A bike advocate who believes trails make life better for everyone.

• Clear, calm written and verbal communication, including explaining a trail project to landowners one-on-one, without a supervisor present.

• Comfortable connecting with people from all walks of life.

• A track record, in any line of work, of following a process all the way through and documenting everything carefully.

• Keeps trackers, checklists, and files that someone else could pick up cold.

• Valid driver's license, clean driving record, and willingness to travel across Northwest Arkansas.

Experience with easements, property records, or title work is a bonus, but not required.

Physical Requirements

• Walk and hike unimproved trail routes and property lines on steep, rugged, and uneven terrain, often for extended periods.

• Move safely through brush, creeks, and uneven ground on rural and undeveloped land.

• Work outdoors in changing conditions in every season, including heat, cold, rain, sun, and mud.

• Carry field materials such as maps, plans, survey flags, and a tablet or laptop.

• Drive a Trailblazers vehicle regularly across Northwest Arkansas, including on rural and unpaved roads.

• Sit and work at a computer for extended periods for research, records, and reporting.

• Attend occasional evening meetings with landowners or property owner associations.

Benefits & Perks

• 33 days of paid time off annually

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance

• Life, AD&D, short-term and long-term disability coverage

• 401(k) retirement plan with a 6% employer match

• $1,200 annual cell phone stipend

• Access to Trailblazers vehicle for work travel

• Access to outdoor industry discounts