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Senior Fisheries Scientist

California, United States

ESA seeks a highly motivated Senior Fish Scientist who is a technical leader and has proven initiative to help drive the growth of our dynamic team of fish and aquatic scientists in Northern California. We are looking for a dedicated and passionate team member with a minimum of 20 years of fish science experience who would provide expertise for a variety of state, federal, and private clients primarily in the Water and Natural Resource markets. The position will be focused on technical leadership, marketing our existing contracts, and strengthening client connections while providing mentoring and guidance to our junior technical staff. This opportunity is focused on collaboration, ensuring outstanding client service, managing projects and overseeing work, ensuring the production of quality work products, and being part of a team with a passion to do great work and have fun together. 

What You Will Do for ESA 

  • Develop new work, generating work for yourself and NorCal Fish and Aquatic Sciences (FAS) staff. You are interested in business development and have experience acquiring work through your existing network. You will lead the preparation of proposals with an aquatic biology focus for contract and project pursuits including providing technical input, contributing to proposal writing, identifying opportunities, and engaging with proposal/interview teams. These efforts will include having the responsibility for preparing scopes of work and budgets and reviewing scopes and budgets prepared by your staff. You will also lead and direct marketing and business development pursuits including developing capture strategies. You possess excellent oral and presentation skills.  
  • Serve as a Project Manager. You will demonstrate a clear understanding of project management principles and practices and be able to develop your staff’s skills in the preparation of environmental permitting documents and planning and implementation of special study investigations in accordance with applicable guidelines and requirements. You will balance the workloads of yourself and the staff and ensure that client expectations, quality, budget, and schedules are met.  
  • Provide mentorship and support for junior staff, including reviewing their work for accuracy and clarity and providing constructive feedback and career development guidance while working on projects together. You will help foster an inclusive team environment where all employee-owners are valued, respected, and enabled to work at their highest level.  
  • As a part of ESA’s FAS Group, you will apply critical thinking and problem-solving to select and apply standard techniques, methods, and procedures for a wide range of fish, hydrologic, and water quality studies. You may lead the collection, interpretation, and analysis of field survey data and may serve as a technical/resource specialist. You will serve as a lead author or a contributing author of environmental documents potentially including technical reports, biological assessments/evaluations, adaptive management plans, scientific publications and other documents. You will prepare technical draft documents that are clear, concise, well-written, and supported. 

Who You Are 

  • Preferably have a master’s degree or PhD with major coursework in fish biology, aquatic ecology, environmental science, chemistry, natural resources management, water quality/limnology, climatology, and/or similar natural resource-related disciplines from an accredited institution. 
  • Minimum of 20 years of experience in leading or directing projects and the development of high-quality environmental analyses. 
  • Demonstrated leadership and supervisory skills. 
  • Experienced project manager and business development leader. 
  • Experience developing and managing scopes of work, project budgets, and schedules. 
  • Experience with contributing to proposal writing and preparation of proposal budgets. 
  • Experienced working on numerous project types, such as: water infrastructure and water diversions; fish passage; fish habitat restoration; transportation and energy; dam removal; Federal and California ESA consultations; CEQA/NEPA; various fisheries and water quality special studies. 
  • You are known for preparing documents that are clear, concise, well-written, and supported, and for your ability to present information understandably and speak persuasively about complex topics to colleagues, clients, agency staff, teaming partners, other project stakeholders, and the general public. 
  • Have a strong understanding of regulatory permitting and the ability to lead the preparation of complex environmental permit applications and provide strategic permitting expertise to clients. 
  • You work collaboratively with clients and interdisciplinary teams to deliver your projects on time and within budget and have developed and tracked scope, schedules, and budgets. 
  • Thrive in a fast-paced, exciting, and challenging environment and be able to manage multiple responsibilities and deadlines while working on a team or independently. 

What’s Special About ESA 

Joining ESA means becoming part of a close-knit team of environmental professionals who contribute to outstanding projects, improve environmental stewardship, and advance a more sustainable and resilient future for our communities and wild places. 

At ESA, we provide benefits such as medical, dental, and vision insurance (paid at 70% for you and your family); annual allocations of company shares through our ESOP; a 401(k) plan with company match; and paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays. 

We also offer specific programs to support you when you want to further your technical expertise, sharpen your business acumen, or help lead the next generation of employee-owners. We want to support you in reaching your career goals through tuition reimbursement, professional development bonuses, and attendance at conferences. 

What’s Special About Our Fish and Aquatic Sciences team in NorCal 

Our Fish and Aquatic Sciences team provides creative and comprehensive fisheries and aquatic science services to help solve some of the most complex scientific and regulatory challenges in Northern California and throughout the nation. The ESA fisheries and aquatic science practice functions across the entire project life cycle—from strategic planning and permitting, to study design and field implementation, all the way through to analysis, reporting, and public outreach.  

ESA has established multiple pay ranges tailored to the economic factors in the geographies in which ESA staff reside. For this position, the range is approximately as listed based on our anticipated hiring locations as noted in the above job details. Actual compensation is determined by several factors including but not limited to an individual’s related experience, education, skills, and the city in which the applicant lives.  

CA Pay Transparency Clause

$129,881 - $158,744 USD

 

 

Who We Are 

We are a 100% employee-owned environmental consulting firm who values diversity and inclusion and celebrate the differences that make each of us unique. Our culture is built on mutual respect, recognizing that our variety of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives leads to better solutions, which fosters our continued success for our employee-owners and clients. 

In accordance with ESA’s duty and responsibility to provide and maintain a safe workplace that is free of known hazards and to minimize the exposure to potential hazards, any employee who works from an ESA office or conducts any other in-person ESA work-related activity is required to submit their proof of vaccination status or have received an approved exemption and accommodation in states which this applies. 

 

ESA is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to a diverse and inclusive work environment. (EOE M/V/F/D) 

 

 

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