Field Technician III

Status: Full-time Regular, 12-month, Exempt

Department: Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI)

Reports to: Research Associate I

Salary: $58,500/year

Description:

The Adirondack Watershed Institute is a program of Paul Smith’s College, a private undergraduate college located in the heart of the Adirondack Park in upstate New York. The mission of AWI is to protect clean water, conserve habitat and support the health and well-being of people in the Adirondacks through scientific inquiry, stewardship, and real-world experiences for students.

The Field Technician III position is responsible for ensuring that field work and data management meets AWI’s program and project standards.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Collect and prepare environmental samples (water, soil, plants) for analysis.
• Collect hydrologic (stream velocity, flow rate, and stage) and other environmental (e.g. temperature, pH, conductance, dissolved oxygen, turbidity) data from lakes and streams.
• Deploy and maintain autonomous environmental sensor networks.
• With the support of the Chief Scientist and Research Associate, oversee management of AWI field data (metadata, field form data, vertical profile data, logger data, and finalized lab data).
• Conduct general and project specific quality assurance and control of field data to ensure compliance with AWI’s Quality Assurance Manual and project specific Quality Assurance Project Plans.
• Maintain and organize field equipment to ensure field teams are adequately resourced to conduct their work.
• Maintain field site records.
• Work proactively to improve existing field methods and database management.
• Support AWI’s field safety and risk management program.
• Follow and enforce safety and quality assurance guidelines, ensure safety of technicians in the field.
• Lead training of new field technicians, including per diem technicians and seasonal technicians.
• Develop and maintain standard operating procedures for field work.
• Contribute to and support data analysis, reporting, and peer-reviewed manuscripts.
• Support laboratory operations and analysis as needed.
• Support internal audits of AWI field and laboratory data.
• Operate AWI vehicles and watercraft.
• Other related duties as assigned.

Qualifications and Preferences:

• A Bachelor’s degree in environmental science, chemistry, biology, or related field.
• Two years of experience conducting limnological field work.
• Familiarity with limnological field work, including sampling of both lakes and streams, and an ability to conduct such work without direct supervision.
• Strong computer and data entry skills, especially with spreadsheet, database, and instrumentation software.
• Ability to work autonomously and proactively.
• High level of attention to detail.
• Ability to solve problems.
• Basic mechanical skills.
• Understanding of the hazards encountered while working on lakes such as weather, navigation, ice hazards, and other safety issues.
• Ability to work in inclement weather, both off and on the water (including on ice covered lakes).
• Ability to hike distances up to 16-miles in a day while carrying up to 40lbs of field gear.
• New York State Driver’s license and driving record acceptable to the College’s insurance carrier.

Preferred Qualifications:

• A Master’s degree in environmental science, chemistry, biology, or related field.
• Familiarity operating motorized and non-motorized watercraft
• Skills with GIS, R, and SQL

Paul Smith’s College values diversity in the College community and seeks to assure equal opportunity through its continued Affirmative Action program. EOE/AA/M/F/D/V