Freshwater Science Associate at Nature Conservancy

WE'RE LOOKING FOR YOU

The Freshwater Science Associate (‘Associate’) provides critical science inputs as part of broader N4W engagement teams that work with local organizations and agencies to build watershed investment programs that deliver water security and healthy ecosystem outcomes. The Associate’s work involves executing primary freshwater analyses, project coordination, information gathering and analysis from local, national, and global datasets, obtaining inputs from partner subject matter experts, incorporating feedback from local stakeholders, and ensuring the quality of finalized scientific outputs. This position provides technical execution support for projects promoting Nature-based Solutions for water security, including hydrology, geographic information systems, prioritization & optimization algorithms, land use / land cover evaluation, and monitoring & evaluation program establishment. The position requires occasional domestic and/or international travel, including to remote field locations (anticipated travel burden of 20%).

Roles and Responsibilities

• Prioritize watershed nature-based solution (NbS) implementation options to deliver targeted water security objectives.
• Application of commonly used spatial analytical tools and hydrological models.
• Projecting land use/land cover scenarios
• Developing implementation management dashboards via relational database visualization tools
• Assisting engagement Science Leads with the coordination of science workstreams
• Collaborating with partners from diverse backgrounds and geographies to incorporate their perspectives and develop interdisciplinary scientific products.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Master's Degree in water resources, ecology, hydrology, civil or environmental engineering, environmental science, geography, or a related field and one year of professional experience or equivalent combination
• Experience in geo-spatial analysis, hydrological modeling, and remote sensing /earth observation
• Experience synthesizing, interpreting, and communicating scientific information.        
• Experienced in project management planning and techniques, including elaborating clear work plans and managing deadlines.
• Experience writing and speaking in the English language.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 3+ years of professional experience, preferably within water sector consultancies and/or water resource management.
• Ecology expertise across a diversity of ecosystem environments.
• Geo-spatial and remote sensing analysis expertise (Desktop and cloud-based), including ArcGIS, QGIS, and Google Earth Engine.
• Hydrological modeling expertise, such as: SWAT, WEAP, HEC-HMS, InVEST, MODFLOW.
• Programming/statistical/data science expertise, such as: Python, R, MATLAB.
• Visualization expertise, including Tableau, ArcGIS Online, Power BI.
• Professional experience in NbS project design and implementation.
• Record of peer-reviewed publications and grey literature (non-peer reviewed) specific to the field of water resource management and NbS.
• Communication skills in articulating complex scientific concepts/outputs to non-technical audiences.
• Stakeholder engagement, facilitation, and human-centered design skills.
• Experience working in data-poor environments.
• Experience providing capacity building /training to staff/officials from different backgrounds and professional levels on basic to advanced hydrological modeling, GIS, and remote sensing.
• Experience in geospatial and remote sensing field data collection and processing.
• Ability to work efficiently and effectively on multiple concurrent projects.
• Multi-language skills (in particular, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Swahili)