Wildlife Ecologist/Biologist

The Water Institute is seeking a dedicated wildlife biologist / ecologist to join our team and make vital contributions to monitoring and management support to a range of wildlife resources including birds, marine mammals, and amphibians. This person will have a strong domain knowledge in one of these areas with experience and familiarity with the relevant fauna in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

The position will help coordinate large geographic scale avian monitoring efforts as well as other small and large projects supporting monitoring, targeted data collection, data synthesis, and working with Institute data and database managers and front-end developers in developing data access and delivery for resource managers and researchers. This position will potentially include field work in coastal Louisiana. Excellence in writing is essential. The position will also entail working closely with our partners to support data-driven decision-making for coastal management and restoration. Experience with coordination of meetings and projects across multiple team members is desired.

This is a full-time exempt position that will work within a dynamic team of natural and social science researchers at The Water Institute. We are seeking a scientist who is an extremely motivated problem solver and wants to learn new skills and is capable of effective cross-disciplinary collaboration. Responsibilities will reflect career stage and previous experience. The workload will vary from week to week, and the successful candidate will be flexible, willing to occasionally work evenings, and travel to meetings and conferences.

Required Qualifications

• MS in Wildlife Biology, Wildlife Ecology, or a closely related discipline.
• Working knowledge of coastal wetland ecosystems, particularly those found in Louisiana.
• Basic experience analyzing and visualizing data in R, Python, Matlab, and/or Julia.
• Ability to carry out field work in coastal wetlands, hike over uneven and wet terrain, and lift 50 lbs.
• Excellent interpersonal, teamwork, written, and verbal communication skills, including writing samples
• Excellent organizations skills, strong project management and time management skills.
• Ability to work harmoniously in collaborative research team.
• Pro-active attitude to problem solving, ability to work independently, and self-motivated.
  
  

Desired Qualifications

• Field work experience in estuarine, coastal, or wetland ecosystems.
• Experience with GIS.
• Experience with meeting and project coordination.
• Demonstrated ability to work across disciplinary boundaries and a willingness to work outside areas of expertise and develop new skills.
• Experience with community engagement.
  
  

The Water Institute is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

We are headquartered in Baton Rouge and the position will be located in Louisiana at our main office in Baton Rouge. The hiring pay for the position starts at $57,000 and a final determination is based on the skills, education, and/or experience of the successful candidate. We believe in the importance of pay equity and consider the internal equity of our current staff as part of any final offer. We also offer a generous benefits package for full-time exempt positions.

Unique Benefits of a Water Institute Career

• Growth opportunity: We are always learning and developing new research methodologies and working with partners to solve problems. You will have the opportunity to engage in growing and leading research with ample opportunities to take ownership and grow.
• Flexibility: We understand that our team members have different needs and do our best to work with their schedules while getting the job done.
• Inclusive environment: We are committed to building an inclusive environment where all teammates feel comfortable and supported.
• Fun! We love to keep things fun, both within our work and at company-wide events.
• Work life balance: We are respectful of people’s boundaries and support that through Institute values as well as our Flexible Leave Policy so that our team has time to recharge and do their best work within the mission of the organization.
• The Water Institute Values: Scientific Integrity, Excellence, Transdisciplinary Collaboration, Accountability, Diversity, Work/Life Balance, Respect, Impact