Environmental Scientist 1, 2, 3, or 4 (Solar - Permitting & Compliance)

State of Louisiana•Baton Rouge, LA

About The Position

The Office of Permitting and Compliance (OPC) oversees all permitting and regulatory functions within the Department, ensuring clarity, consistency, and regulatory integrity. By streamlining processes, accelerating permitting timelines and enhancing data-driven decision-making, the Office ensures compliance with environmental standards while supporting responsible economic development. OPC centralizes all permitting and compliance functions, aligning engineering, geology, ecology, design, and compliance divisions into a single workflow. Its structure includes integrity and production audits, UIC and storage regulation, groundwater protection, coastal permits and mitigation, and reservoir and legacy site management. The Environmental Scientist 1, 2, 3, or 4 within the Office of Permitting and Compliance has the responsibility for journeyman level work for program, divisional, or departmental projects including technical review and processing of Solar Permit Applications for complex multi-phased projects, jointly reviewing solar applications with other entry-level Environmental Scientists, and programmatic assistance and technical support.

Requirements

A bachelor’s degree in an environmental, biological, atmospheric, chemical, health, nuclear or physical science field, an engineering field, a geography/geosciences field, a natural resources field, or in a statistics or quantitative methods field; OR A master’s degree or doctorate in an environmental, biological, atmospheric, chemical, health, nuclear or physical science field, an engineering field, a geography/geosciences field, a natural resources field, or in a statistics or quantitative methods field.

Responsibilities

Review and process Solar Permit applications (Immediate Solar Permits and Solar Siting Permits) for complex activities for a wide variety of projects.
Review permit applications for compliance with the department’s guidelines, perform an analysis of project impacts, and make recommendations for permit decisions to leadership.
Produce and analyze reports, maps, and other data from the Office of Permitting and Compliance files and computer system to aid in formulating conditions for permits and recommendations for permit decisions.
Maintains workflows and recommends improvements to the electronic system for the most efficient processing of Solar Permit applications.
Maintain knowledge of current methodologies and procedures regarding solar power generation by reviewing regulatory literature and seminar attendance.
Ensure activity complies with all relevant federal and state regulations, policies and procedures.
Work with other sections when reviewing and processing applications to ensure required permits are obtained.
Develop and serve as the point of contact and contract manager for contracts that provide efficient and effective supplemental assistance to the Solar Permitting program, these contracts may be professional service contracts, interagency agreements, cooperative endeavor agreements and/or any others that meet the needs of the program.
Respond to inquiries from industry and citizens via telephone, electronic mail and regular mail.
Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned by the Director and/or members of the C&E executive leadership team.