Senior Scientist

Otak is looking to hire a Senior Scientist / Project Manager to join our Water and Natural Resources team as a technical lead in fisheries, wildlife, and Endangered Species Act compliance, with experience in wetland delineations and preparing permit applications for unavoidable impacts to natural resources.

This position can be located in either our Redmond, WA or Everett, WA office with travel also to the Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA offices as needed.

The Senior Scientist / Project Manager will lead environmental baseline studies, ecological benefits analysis, inform project design for regulatory compliance, prepare permit applications with local, state, and federal agencies, and coordinate with local Tribes throughout project planning and design.

The applicant should be flexible and adept at working with public projects as well as private development projects, ranging from fish passage and stream restoration design to linear transportation and publicly funded capital improvement projects, as well as technical expert reviews for municipal clients.

Strong background with SEPA and NEPA compliance processes and documentation is preferred. The applicant will work with the Natural Resources team of wetland scientists to support wetland mitigation planning, design, and installation.

What you’ll do :

Plan and manage project team efforts to develop and monitor technical scopes of work, project schedules, technical analyses and reports, and project budgets.

Lead, support and / or participate in business development efforts such as proposal preparation and interviews, maintaining client relations and other activities associated with business development.

Provide expertise with aquatic biology, restoration ecology, field work and assessments. This may include stream habitat monitoring, performance monitoring, water quality analysis using BI-BI, and other related project impacts analysis and restoration design.

Provide environmental permitting and regulatory compliance support on projects, including local critical areas report preparation, Shoreline permit applications, SEPA / NEPA compliance documentation, and JARPA preparation for permitting with WDFW and the USACE.

Demonstrated ability to prioritize, manage, and deliver multiple projects with simultaneous deadlines.

Thrive in a multi-disciplinary team-oriented environment, be able to meet tight deadlines, and work independently.

Ability to travel on occasion between different Otak offices and to various site locations for project work.

What you have :

Bachelor’s degree in Biology, Wildlife / Fisheries, Ecology, or related field. Master’s degree preferred.

Must have approximately twelve (12) or more years of professional experience and working knowledge of salmonid ecology in freshwater and estuarine environments in the Pacific Northwest and Puget Sound region.

WSDOT-certified Senior BA Author preferred.

Trained in electrofishing and experience with fish removal for construction activities.

Experience with benthic macroinvertebrate surveys and using BI-BI for water quality analysis.

Professional experience with aquatic restoration projects, assisting with the design, implementation, or monitoring.

Understanding and working knowledge of federal and state (Oregon and Washington) regulatory compliance process, including preparation of JARPAs and JPAs for USACE permitting

Strong desire and aptitude for participating in business development pursuit efforts. Previous experience in successful business development pursuits is highly desired.

Ability to work outdoors in adverse weather conditions and traverse slopes and rough terrain, along rivers, streams, and shorelines.

Be able to work around, in or on water.