The Landscape Scientist provides technical and scientific leadership and support for projects of The Nature Conservancy in California. This position provides technical and scientific support to strategic efforts to integrate nature into development and infrastructure planning processes through original research, analytical tool development, conservation planning, and stakeholder engagement. The primary focus of the strategic efforts will be in Southern California and this position will be embedded in multiple cross-functional teams collaborating with colleagues with expertise in policy, marketing, and strategy development and implementation. This position will be based in our Los Angeles office.
The Landscape Scientist serves as a technical and scientific lead for efforts to develop integrated land use and conservation plans (e.g. greenprints) and tools that demonstrate novel approaches to use nature conservation and restoration as a guiding principle in land use and climate resilience planning at city, county and regional scales. The Scientist independently identifies conservation challenges and important knowledge gaps and applies the scientific approach to help address them. The emphasis for this position will be on developing analyses, tools and applications, and studies that support initiatives to restore habitat connectivity, facilitate climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction, and advance biodiversity conservation using multi-benefit land use planning. The Scientist ensures that these strategies and associated conservation actions have a strong scientific evidence base. This position leads and supports conservation planning, support for compensatory mitigation planning, applied research projects, and implementation of statewide strategies in California. They collect, process, interpret, and analyze data including GIS data on species distribution, vegetation, climate change impacts, and land use change trends. This position ensures that the organization’s decision-support tools and conceptual models are built on strong scientific foundations. The Scientist is a member of multidisciplinary teams focused on developing cutting-edge conservation strategies and builds and leverages a network of external scientific collaborators in academia, government, for-profit and non-profit sectors to deliver the science needed to advance those strategies. This position interacts with practitioners, stakeholders and agencies to integrate their needs into the tools and frameworks. This position maintains strong collaborative relationships with Conservancy scientists across the organization to develop approaches that can advance Conservancy initiatives in conservation planning and spatial analysis. The Scientist strategically and effectively communicates conservation science, to both technical and lay audiences, through publication and oral presentation.
RESPONSIBILITIES & SCOPE
- Supports program objectives by providing relevant scientific and technical expertise and products.
- Works in a complex matrixed organization and participates in and/or leads cross-functional teams, including teams of external stakeholders from both technical and non-technical backgrounds.
- Serves as external-facing representative of Conservancy science, especially as it relates to the application of data and tools to decision-making, and the development of land use and conservation assessments, such as greenprints.
- Manages grants and contracts and writes requests for proposals.
- Occasionally works in variable weather conditions, at remote locations, in hazardous terrain, and under physically demanding circumstances.
- Experience leading and working with cross functional teams.
- Strong project management and organization skills.
- Experience synthesizing, interpreting and communicating scientific information.
- Experience preparing reports of findings.
- Experience manipulating, analyzing and interpreting statistical or environmental data.
- Experience managing complex projects including the financial aspect and coordinating the work of peers and partners.
- Experience oral and written communication skills.
- Expertise in GIS data analysis for ecological and/or land use planning.
- Experience in programming in a GIS environment (e.g. R, Python)
- Experience knowledge of common software applications.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- PhD and 1-3 years of experience.
- Strong negotiation skills.
- Record of peer reviewed publications in scientific journals.
- Experience fundraising and/or writing grants and research proposals.
- Experience in custom analytical tool development.
- Experience in infrastructure, resilience and mitigation planning.
- Familiarity with environmental regulation, permitting, and mitigation, including CEQA and NEPA.
The Nature Conservancy offers competitive compensation, 401k or savings-plan matching for eligible employees, excellent benefits, flexible work policies and a collaborative work environment. We also provide professional development opportunities and promote from within. As a result, you will find a culture that supports and inspires conservation achievement and personal development, both within the workplace and beyond.