Environmental Science & Ecology Jobs

Position: Quantitative Ecologist Intermediate
Company: ESSA TECHNOLOGIES LTD.
Location: Vancouver, BC or Ottawa, ON

Full-Time

The Opportunity

If you are a versatile, quantitative-minded individual interested in applying and growing your advanced knowledge of environmental sciences to inform real-world decision-making, then this posting is for you!

As a quantitative ecologist with ESSA, you will work on diverse interdisciplinary environmental projects related to cumulative effects assessment, adaptive management, climate change adaptation, fisheries and aquatic resource management, ecosystem restoration, and decision support system development.

To be considered, your training and skills will include a (1) a strong pre-existing knowledge base related to marine (key for this role) and freshwater ecological systems (particularly in British Columbia, though knowledge of other ecosystems is also an asset) and familiarity with contemporary literature on these topics; (2) familiarity with the conceptual challenges involved in developing reliable and rigorous statistical, mechanistic, and simulation models of real-world systems, and demonstrated experience in successfully addressing those challenges; (3) demonstrated ability to implement models and interfaces in high quality long-lasting publicly shareable code; (4) exceptionally efficient organizational, research, critical thinking skills; (5) excellent written and verbal communication skills to absorb problem contexts, gather solution options from a variety of sources, and communicate advice and outcomes; (6) well-developed people skills and confidence in client-facing roles, including in Indigenous contexts, and (7) desire to build lasting relationships with clients and prospect and develop new project opportunities.

This is a full-time opportunity based in Vancouver (preferred) or Ottawa. You will have access to our staff benefits, which offer competitive compensation, medical benefits, flexible working arrangements (hybrid workplace, temporary work abroad periods, and opportunities for future home office placement), support for professional development, interoffice travel support to visit colleagues outside of Vancouver and Ottawa, and three weeks of paid vacation plus paid time off between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

About Us
ESSA Technologies Ltd. (ESSA) is an employee-owned Canadian environmental consulting company with offices in British Columbia and Ontario. We envision a world where creativity, a focus on learning, and systems thinking are the foundation of innovative solutions to environmental challenges. Our corporate mission is to “bring together people, science and analytical tools to sustain healthy ecosystems and human communities”. We achieve this mission by helping clients deal with tough, emerging problems, applying a neutral, thorough evaluation of evidence, encouraging diverse participatory processes, and collaboratively guiding our clients to make informed decisions that are designed to learn over time. Learn more about us at essa.com.

At ESSA, we are passionate about what we do and enjoy working with professionals who share our values and mission. ESSA’s staff are purpose-driven problem solvers, big-picture critical thinkers, and motivated by an aspiration to become trusted advisors to our clients and make a difference in the world. In pursuing our corporate mission, we are inclusive of a diversity of perspectives and ways of knowing among both our staff and our clients that may vary depending on experience, race, gender identity, age, disability status, sexual orientation, and religion amongst others.

As part of ESSA’s team, you will be surrounded by a rich intellectual inheritance, and dedicated colleagues committed to collaboration and team-building that are:

• Working on wide-ranging interdisciplinary problems focused on complex interactions in socio-ecological systems, taking a holistic rather than reductionist perspective in organizing and understanding knowledge and data,
• Delivering rigorous, impartial and clear advice to our clients and internally to our own staff, and
• Resolving scientific uncertainty by combining analytical methods and technical facilitation, often within an Adaptive Management mindset.

With offices in British Columbia and Ontario, we acknowledge that our offices are on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish People (the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations) in Vancouver, and the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg People in Ottawa. We acknowledge that we also work in the territories of other Indigenous Nations across Canada and the world.

Your Responsibilities

This position will involve in-depth project delivery work and business development support where you will intermittently lead projects/initiatives and support other members of our team. Your primary role will involve developing, refining, and implementing analytical tools and models to help inform your internal transdisciplinary project team as well as your clients. As part of transdisciplinary project teams, you will also have the opportunity to work on diverse and multifaceted problems that provide ample opportunities for learning and growth while helping our clients and collaborators to make informed decisions regarding natural resource management in marine and freshwater systems.

This position will involve playing both leadership and supporting roles in both project work and business development. We outline some example responsibilities below:

Project Work:

• Working on projects spanning a range of human contexts and ecosystems, with a focus on marine ecosystems in North America.
• Proposing suitable aquatic ecosystem modelling programs and interpreting their results.
• Applying a holistic mindset grounded in the recognition of cumulative effects and systems thinking to the development and undertaking of projects, with an emphasis on the relationships among human and ecological components.
• Conducting strategic vulnerability, risk, and impact assessments as well as cumulative effects assessments related to human activities, climate change, and other environmental stressors, with an emphasis on aspects of the natural environment (e.g., biodiversity, seascapes, waterways, landscapes, waterways, natural assets, natural resources, and ecosystem services).
• Providing technical leadership and direction in project design, including scoping and defining methods and work plans for teams to execute on.
• Reporting on project progress and results through workshops, client meetings, and public-facing science communication products using strong written and verbal science communication skills.
• Occasionally travelling to attend and participate in short-term client meetings, workshops, site visits, and conferences in Canada and abroad (no environmental fieldwork).
• Co-managing/Managing projects and budgets.
• Mentoring early career ESSA staff working on complex technical projects, skills sharing, and enabling other individuals to do their best and grow.

Client Relationship & Business Development:

• Contributing to business development prospecting efforts including generating marketing materials, attending conferences, proposal writing, including co-development of grant proposals for Indigenous clients.
• Building and maintaining good relationships with our clients and collaborators.
• Organizing project research for effective future use by the ESSA team.

Requirements

• You already possess a Master’s degree or possess or are about to complete a Ph.D. degree in ecology, biology, resource management, or environmental sciences.
• We envision that the responsibilities of this role can be handled by and will be rewarding to an intermediate applicant. You must have at least 3 years of relevant professional work experience outside of an academic setting (i.e., excluding post doc assignments or other while-at-University posts and contracts exclusively for University clients), most preferably in private consulting or government roles with a strong research, exceptional writing/editing, and public engagement focus.
• You can develop and execute mechanistic, empirical, and simulation models that can be used to quantify the impacts of anthropogenic stressors on marine (and freshwater) environments.
• You can perform statistical analysis in R using frequentist and/or Bayesian approaches (including multivariate analysis, spatial analysis, and occupancy modeling), conduct QA/QC on the data, interpret model results, test model assumptions, and report on results using clear data visualizations.
• You have experience using Shiny to build interactive interfaces for models in R. Candidates who may have more advanced web development know-how (e.g., Vue.js / React + Rserve) would also be well-positioned.
• You can automate geospatial analysis and map generation through R and/or Python and can conduct geospatial analysis and geospatial editing in desktop applications such as QGIS.
• You can analyze and interpret ecological data and model outputs, including species abundance, species richness, species occupancy, habitat quality and suitability, and other relevant indicators.
• You have experience working on a diverse range of issues in natural resource management, for instance, one or more of: (1) aquatic sciences (e.g., water management, fisheries management, marine spatial planning, ecosystem restoration planning); (2) climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessments; (3) environmental cumulative effects/impact assessments and/or (4) data sciences/statistics (e.g., monitoring design, qualitative data analysis, simulation modelling).
• You possess a strong pre-existing knowledge base on marine and coastal socio-ecological systems and management issues in particular (especially in British Columbia, though knowledge of other temperate and tropical marine ecosystems is considered an asset) and familiarity with contemporary literature on these topics. Your experience should have already at least exposed or better immersed you in issues pertaining to risk assessment, impact assessment, and/or cumulative effects assessment (especially in relation to maritime vessels), as well as marine spatial planning.
• You have advanced proficiency with fundamental software skills and tools used in professional settings, including document mastery for developing complex multi-authored reports and other work products using the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams) and Google Suite (Calendar, Drive, Docs, etc.) as well as experience using virtual collaboration software (Mural, Mentimeter, SurveyMonkey, Zoom, etc.).

Please note: In light of our teaming needs (the successful candidate will be reporting to other project leads and assigned intermediate level tasks), we are very unlikely to consider candidates with more than 12 years’ experience following obtaining their Master’s or Ph.D.

Your differentiating skills may include one or more of the following:

• Prior experience specifically in a non-solo freelance private consulting environment, research institute or not for profit organization is a strong asset.
• Experience working with First Nations people on conservation or resource management issues.
• Advanced knowledge of fish biology at the population-level in marine, coastal, or freshwater environments (especially salmonids) and/or advanced knowledge of stock assessment, including estimating biological carrying capacity, recruitment, and viability.
• Experience in relational database design and maintenance, and aptitude in composing SQL queries.
• Knowledge or experience working with the Ecopath and Ecosim software.
• Experience building big-data machine learning and AI-related applications.
• Registration or eligibility for registration with the College of Applied Biologists or other equivalent professional designation within six months.
• Proficiency in Spanish or French.

Applying

We look forward to welcoming the successful candidate to our team. We offer a welcoming, inclusive workplace and commit to working with staff to help them thrive and prosper. Our total rewards program for employees provides competitive compensation including performance-based profit sharing, medical benefits, flexible working arrangements, and vacation, plus support for ongoing professional development.

Please email a cover letter, résumé to careers@essa.com by December 2, 2024 with “Quantitative Ecologist” in the subject line. We will review applications and contact selected candidates by December 9, 2024. Interviews will be conducted between December 13th to 18th 2024. The preferred start is January 20, 2025.

All applicants must be eligible to legally work in British Columbia and/or Ontario at the time of applying.

Independent industry bench-marked starting base salary range: $80,000 (lower qualifications and experience) -to- $95,000 (95th+ percentile qualifications and experience relative to the requirements detailed in the job description above).

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