Science Associate

The Nature Conservancy • Concord, NH

225d • Remote

About The Position

The Science Associate supports engagement teams with critical science outputs for place-based watershed projects on behalf of the Nature for Water Facility ('N4W'). Housed within The Nature Conservancy's Resilient Watersheds Strategy, the Nature for Water Facility is a technical assistance outfit that provides hand-in-hand support to local champions seeking to develop watershed investment programs. N4W aims to support 40-60 place-based engagements globally over four years via a mixture of pro-bono and fee-for-service partnerships. The 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 (NbS) for water security, including aspects relating to 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%). The Science Associate will play a vital role in supporting the prioritization of Nature-based Solution (NbS) implementation options for watersheds, ensuring they effectively deliver targeted water security objectives. This role will apply spatial analytical tools, hydrological models, and tools for projecting land use and land cover scenarios. Additionally, the Science Associate will develop implementation management dashboards utilizing relational database visualization tools. This role will work closely with Science Leads, helping them coordinate scientific workstreams, and requires effective collaboration with partners from diverse backgrounds and geographies to incorporate their perspectives and contribute to the development of interdisciplinary science products.

Requirements

• Master's Degree in water resources, ecology, hydrology, civil or environmental engineering, environmental science, geography, or a related field.
• 1 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.
• Programming, statistical, and data science expertise such as Python, R, MATLAB.
• Proficient in the English language, both written and spoken.

Nice To Haves

• 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, Google Earth Engine.
• Hydrological modeling expertise, such as SWAT, WEAP, HEC-HMS, InVEST, MODFLOW.
• Visualization expertise, including Tableau, ArcGIS Online, Power BI.
• Professional experience in NbS project design and implementation.
• Record of peer-reviewed publications and/or grey literature specific to the field of water resource management and NbS.
• Ability to communicate complex scientific concepts to non-technical audiences.
• Stakeholder engagement, facilitation, and human-centered design skills.
• Experience providing capacity building and training to staff and officials from different backgrounds.
• 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, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Swahili).

Responsibilities

• Support engagement teams with critical science outputs for watershed projects.
• Execute primary freshwater analyses and project coordination.
• Gather and analyze information from local, national, and global datasets.
• Obtain inputs from partner subject matter experts and incorporate feedback from local stakeholders.
• Ensure the quality of finalized scientific outputs.
• Provide technical execution support for projects promoting Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for water security.
• Apply spatial analytical tools and hydrological models.
• Develop implementation management dashboards utilizing relational database visualization tools.
• Coordinate scientific workstreams with Science Leads.
• Collaborate with partners from diverse backgrounds.

Benefits

• Health care benefits
• Retirement benefits
• Parental leave
• Paid time off
• Life insurance
• Disability coverage
• Employee assistance program
• Other life and well-being benefits

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Industry: Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations
• Education Level: Master's degree