Senior Regulatory Permitting Specialist

WRA’s an employee-owned environmental consultancy. We are a tenacious team of planners, engineers, and scientists, and we aim to leave the lands we love better than we found them. 

Our clients and partners hire us because we’re skilled at navigating through challenging projects involving wildlands, parks, community spaces, and infrastructure. We bring over four decades of expertise, long-standing relationships, and connections to our local communities to make sure that projects are pursued in responsible ways where both people and the environment thrive. 

As an organization, we believe that independence and interdependence are not mutually exclusive. We invest in systems, processes, and employee programs to support our staff’s collective engagement and success. At the same time, we encourage our employees to operate with an ownership mindset, taking responsibility for outcomes and being true to our commitments. 

We are seeking a seasoned project manager to join our dynamic team and help lead and develop a team of biologists and regulatory permitting specialists. In this role, you will support our clients with their environmental permitting and compliance needs across a diverse range of projects. Our current work includes restoration and mitigation projects, open space and trail projects, residential and commercial development, public infrastructure, and private industry projects throughout the greater Bay Area, Central Valley, and North Coast. Our clients include park districts, transit agencies, planning departments, public works departments, flood control and water districts, landscape architects, marinas and harbor districts, fiber optics utilities companies, mining companies, land use attorneys, land developers, and private property owners. Join us in making a positive impact on the environment and our communities!

This role will need to be within commuting distance to one of our 3 Northern California offices (San Rafael, Petaluma, and Emeryville), as periodic site visits will be necessary. 

Your responsibilities will include: 

• Managing small to large projects and proposal efforts;
• Managing and supervising two or more biologists;
• Managing and overseeing the work of sub-consultants;
• Supporting your team leader with staff development and team activities;

To be successful in this role, you will need: 

• A minimum of 5 years of consulting experience.
• Experience with Regional Water Quality Control Board permits (401 Water Quality Certifications, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Nationwide and Individual Section 404 permits), Waste Discharge Requirements, or General Orders), California Department of Fish and Wildlife (Lake or Streambed Alteration Agreements).
• Demonstrated experience in successfully leading aquatic resources and endangered species permitting and mitigation efforts.
• Experience and proficiency in managing and executing biological resources site assessments and other environmental constraints assessments. 
• Experience and proficiency  in managing the work products needed to support regulatory permit applications, CEQA documents, and environmental due diligence investigations (e.g., wetland delineations, rare plant surveys, habitat assessments, biological resources technical reports).
• High quality writing and editing skills.
• Basic knowledge of how and when the California Environmental Quality Act applies to each project, and demonstrated experience managing and working with CEQA experts.
• A Bachelor’s degree in a related technical field is required.

WRA has an established internal leveling system for our staff that maps to salary bands that have been informed by market data. Our leveling system is dependent on years of relevant industry experience, education, and the level of responsibility and autonomy at which you’re expected to operate.

The salary range for this position is $98,000 – $152,000 which spans 2 job levels that WRA is open to considering for this role. Additionally, while the position is being advertised as a Senior Regulatory Permitting Specialist, based on leveling conversations, we may determine that Regulatory Permitting Specialist is the appropriate title for you. There will be opportunities to discuss this toward the end of the interview process; however, if you wish to discuss titles earlier in the interview process, please do so with your recruiter. 

Who are we?

WRA’s company vision is “cultivating a sustainable future where people and the environment thrive” and that starts with our staff. We are committed to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment, and we have developed flexible policies, internal practices, and are investing in programs that prioritize learning and sustainability. We aim to create conditions that allow employees to prioritize their families, lead healthy and balanced lives, and to bring their authentic selves to work every day. We believe that by creating an exceptional workplace, our employees will be able to do their best work and be able to meaningfully contribute to the sustainability of the environment and the communities in which we live.

WRA is an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to creating a diverse environment. We recruit, employ, train, compensate and promote regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, veteran status, and other protected status as required by applicable law.