Nearshore Biologist - Fish and Wildlife Biologist 4 - Permanent - 2026-07067

State of Washington • Thurston County – Olympia, WA

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

Join the WDFW team and apply your expertise in habitat conservation, restoration, and enhancement to help protect and restore Washington’s nearshore marine habitats. In this role, you will serve as a technical lead to develop resources, maintain high-quality spatial data, and communicate complex scientific concepts in accessible ways that help land use practitioners, planners, and staff identify, protect, and enhance critical nearshore habitats.

Requirements

• A bachelor’s degree or higher in biology, conservation biology, landscape ecology, fisheries, wildlife management, natural resource science or management, environmental science, or related field.
• Five (5) years of professional experience in fish management or research, wildlife management or research, or habitat management or research.
• Or Four (4) years as a Fish & Wildlife Biologist 3.
• Demonstrated success in fostering a collegial, collaborative, and productive work environment with colleagues who are not co-located.
• Excellent time management skills.
• Strategic thinker who also demonstrates close attention to detail.
• Successful demonstration of strong critical thinking skills applied to solving complex natural resources problems.
• Ability to adapt to changing needs or ability to be flexible as needs of the position change.
• Ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing.
• Ability to take interest in and understand others' perspectives, easily recognize when others have important information, perspectives, or ideas, demonstrate appropriate assertiveness and be committed to the service of the public, mission, and team.
• Valid Driver’s License.

Nice To Haves

• Demonstrated relevant experience working in nearshore habitats. Relevant experience may include field research, spatial modeling or analysis, remote sensing, and/or natural resources management within a university, local government, environmental or conservation organization, consulting firm, or state or federal natural resources agency.
• Proficiency with GIS and execute basic spatial analytical tasks in a GIS framework including knowledge of ArcGIS desktop and ArcGIS Online software.
• Expert knowledge of landscape ecology, conservation biology, conservation planning, or similar discipline.
• Expert knowledge of nearshore science and modeling approaches.
• Demonstrated ability to understand and explain spatial data characteristics and applications.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct spatial analysis and manage large databases.
• Ability to synthesize complex spatial information and develop analyses in written and visual form.
• Ability to perform complex geoprocessing and manipulate large datasets using scripts.
• Knowledge of scripting (such as Python or SQL) to automate spatial analysis tasks.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex scientific concepts to policy makers, planners, or other non-scientists.
• Knowledge of principles, methods, and objectives of urban and natural resources planning.

Responsibilities

• Incorporate spatial data and identify priority nearshore habitat locations in Washington state into the Priority Habitat and Species (PHS) framework: Translate new or existing or nearshore data into a format appropriate to PHS applications.
• Develop technical documentation of methods used to create spatial data and develop user guides for application of nearshore data.
• Develop management recommendations for protecting nearshore habitat priorities in the land use and transportation planning context.
• Coordinate and support GIS staff in the development and integration of nearshore spatial data into the PHS schema and data delivery system.
• Create methodologies and approaches for prioritizing locations for nearshore habitat protection, restoration, and enhancement.
• Identify spatial data and prioritize nearshore habitat locations in Washington State: Identify appropriate existing spatial data as well as nearshore habitat location and condition.
• Engage and collaborate with scientists and modelers developing, reviewing, or revising nearshore models or technical prioritization efforts relevant to nearshore habitats in Washington.
• Provide technical assistance for the development and application of nearshore habitat data in the context of land use planning and land management: Provide technical assistance on the applications of PHS nearshore data to internal and external users in the context of local land use planning, transportation planning, growth management, shoreline management.
• Develop and provide training and outreach materials to facilitate understanding and implementation of management recommendations.
• Assimilate expertise on nearshore habitat protection and restoration and communicate best practices.
• Represent the agency in a technical capacity on efforts to create new nearshore data products and strategies: Participate in research activities including data collection, evaluation, and analysis to identify priority locations for nearshore habitat protection, restoration, and enhancement.
• Participate in working groups developing nearshore data products, priorities, and implementation strategies.
• Produce or co-produce materials and written deliverables (e.g., reports, maps, toolkits, white papers, and academic articles) with a focus on nearshore science.
• Maintain spatial data identifying priority nearshore locations in Washington State: Review on-going, current nearshore science and modeling to ensure that PHS data meets the best available science standard defined in Washington state code (WAC 365-195-915).

Benefits

• While this position offers a hybrid work arrangement, the successful candidate must be available to report to the Olympia, WA headquarters as needed.
• Click the “Benefits” tab at the top of this announcement to learn more.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level