Wetlands Regional Monitoring Program Lead Scientist – RL 2024-05

This position offers an opportunity to work with an outstanding multidisciplinary team on developing scientific information to support wetland restoration in the Bay Area, and to support innovative nature-based projects that help improve the resiliency of communities and wildlife to land use change (both historical and ongoing) and climate change. 

We are looking for an individual who can start immediately. The selected candidate will have expertise in tidal wetland ecology with a strong technical background and a demonstrated ability to lead and manage complex scientific projects, synthesize scientific information into forms most useful for decision-making, communicate findings to scientific and non-scientific audiences, and work with diverse stakeholders to apply science to management. The selected candidate will also be an exceptional collaborator, have strong interpersonal communication skills, and be a big-picture thinker to provide science visioning for the program. 

Primary Responsibilities:

• Serving as the hub of science-related program development and communications for the WRMP, including leading science team meetings, and other internal and external meetings focused on program management, science communications, and team coordination.
• Leading and managing the synthesis and analysis of monitoring data into information products that are relevant to decision-makers and other stakeholders, including programmatic documents, scientific summaries, reports and peer-reviewed articles, and planning documents.
• Serving as part of the WRMP leadership team in close collaboration with WRMP program managers.
• Collaborating with project partners at San Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP), with whom SFEI co-administers the WRMP) on program development, integration of human dimensions, stakeholder needs, community-engaged monitoring, and information delivery.
• Representing the WRMP at regional and state-wide meetings.
• Making decisions related to the WRMP monitoring site network.
• Managing and supervising WRMP staff, including delegating tasks and assisting in hiring new staff as the program grows.
• Developing and coordinating new and ongoing technical workgroups.
• Developing and managing budgets and work plans.
• Identifying and coordinating subcontractors (science advisors, workgroup leads, and monitoring crews).
• Potentially contributing to other shoreline adaptation planning and tidal wetland projects, including developing adaptation strategies that incorporate nature-based solutions, contributing to studies on cross-sector adaptation, advancing landscape-scale planning that promotes healthy estuarine and urban ecosystems, and advancing multi-benefit projects in complex social and ecological systems.

The position requires a Bay Area location due to in-person attendance at regional meetings and site visits as the Lead Scientist of the WRMP, but we are willing to consider transition time from elsewhere.

If you are excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t perfectly match every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this position or another role or position within SFEI.

Qualifications

We seek highly creative and technically strong candidates to serve as Lead Scientist of the WRMP with expertise (1) in the ecology of tidal wetland ecosystems (or related fields) and knowledge of San Francisco Bay, and (2) project management.

Required Skills

• Strong scientific/technical background and quantitative skills – desired areas of expertise include familiarity with the San Francisco Estuary and its tidal wetland ecosystems, landscape-scale conservation and restoration, nature-based adaptation, and California wetland restoration science.
• Strong project management skills – ability to manage a large project/program, including collaborating with scientific partners and other stakeholders, and developing and overseeing staff, work plans, budgets, schedules, and deliverables.
• Ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team, including experience supervising and mentoring staff with different scientific backgrounds.
• Excellent communication skills; demonstrated ability to communicate findings clearly in writing and presentations and synthesize scientific information for general and technical audiences.
• Ability to develop and maintain excellent working relationships with diverse groups of external partners and stakeholders. Existing relationships with the Bay-Delta science community are a plus.
• Experience presenting at professional or academic conferences and to stakeholder groups.
• Familiarity with remote-sensed imagery and/or GIS and interpretation.

Preferred Skills

• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to track multiple aspects of the program.
• Data analysis and management
• Familiarity with GIS software and tools
• Experience in community-based planning and approaches to facilitate discussion on shoreline adaptation planning.