The Climate Resilience Scientist serves as a technical and scientific lead for efforts to develop plans and tools that integrate land use, climate resilience, and conservation. These plans and tools will demonstrate novel approaches for using nature conservation and restoration to guide land use and climate resilience (e.g., ecological and human community resilience) planning at city, county and regional scales. The Scientist independently identifies conservation issues and important knowledge gaps and applies the scientific approach to help address them. The emphasis for this position will be on developing analyses, tools and applications, and studies that support initiatives to facilitate climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction and advance biodiversity conservation using multi-benefit land use planning. The Scientist ensures that these strategies and associated conservation actions have a strong scientific evidence base. This position leads and supports conservation planning, climate resilience planning, applied research projects, and implementation of statewide, regional, and local strategies in California. They collect, process, interpret, and analyze data including GIS data on species distribution, vegetation, climate change projections and impacts, and land use change trends. The Scientist is a member of multidisciplinary teams focused on developing cutting-edge conservation strategies, and leverages a network of external scientific collaborators in academia, government, for-profit and non-profit sectors to deliver the science needed to advance those strategies. This position collaborates with practitioners, stakeholders, and agencies to integrate their needs into the tools and frameworks. This position nurtures strong connections with Conservancy scientists across the organization to advance Conservancy initiatives in climate resilience planning, adaptation, and mitigation, conservation planning, and spatial analysis. The Scientist strategically and effectively communicates conservation science, to both technical and lay audiences, through publication and oral presentation.

RESPONSIBILTIES AND SCOPE 

• Supports program objectives by providing relevant scientific and technical expertise and products.
• Works in a complex multi-disciplinary organization and supports and/or leads cross-functional teams, including teams of external stakeholders from both technical and non-technical backgrounds.
• Serves as external-facing representative of Conservancy science, especially as it relates to the application of data and tools to decision-making, and the development of land use and conservation assessments, such as greenprints.
• Manages grants and contracts and writes requests for proposals.
• Occasionally works in variable weather conditions, at remote locations, in hazardous terrain, and under physically demanding circumstances.