ESSA is a visionary employee-owned Canadian environmental consulting company with offices in Vancouver, British Columbia and Ottawa, Ontario. Our mission is to bring together people, science and analytical tools to sustain healthy ecosystems and human communities. We have been pursuing this mission for 40 years in over 40 countries by applying the scientifically rigorous mindset and approach of Adaptive Management to help our clients make better decisions in the face of imperfect information in complex social-ecological systems. At ESSA we are passionate about what we do and take great pride in attracting, developing and retaining high caliber scientists who share our values and mission. Learn more about our story, our approach and our people at www.essa.com.

The Opportunity
We are looking for a highly motivated individual to join our Environmental Assessment (EA)/Cumulative Effects Assessment (CEA) Team in Ottawa. We strive to bring scientific rigour and transparency to difficult problems, challenging the status quo by embracing uncertainty. Our approach is grounded in our Adaptive Management roots. Our work in this area includes cumulative effects assessment, developing adaptive management plans for industry and government agencies, providing third party review of environmental impact assessments, and providing guidance on assessment practices to communities, government, and industry both in Canada and internationally.

This full-time position involves working to support project managers at ESSA on existing projects as well as developing new initiatives within Canada primarily, but also supporting the development of international opportunities. The candidate will support opportunity reconnaissance, proposal development and project delivery, including specialized research, assessment, planning and/or monitoring and evaluation activities across a variety of disciplines (e.g., climate change, fisheries and aquatic sciences, terrestrial ecosystems, and social sciences). The successful candidate will help us to expand our market in these and related domains. Our ideal candidate is a systems thinker with strong quantitative skills, who has an entrepreneurial spirit and will enjoy developing new business and excel over the long-run developing a network of satisfied clients. As a member of the EA/CEA Team, she/he will report to the EA/CEA Team Leader. In addition, the candidate will work closely with other ESSA staff to support other business areas as needed.

Responsibilities
The Environmental Specialist will work in teams and independently to deliver applied research and support on various aspects of client projects. This work emphasizes inter-disciplinary study that focuses on complex interactions in biological and social systems, taking a holistic rather than reductionist perspective in organizing existing understanding and data. We use analyses of ecological and social systems to organize complex information, and to develop new methods and tools for evaluating alternative actions under a range of uncertainties.

The role involves direct interaction with clients at workshops, meetings and teleconferences as well as frequent internal collaborations with our project teams. The successful candidate will be expected to initiate, develop and over time maintain strong relationships with a diverse client base including existing and potential private, public, not-for-profit and Indigenous groups through contributions to the development of proposals and other business development opportunities.

Qualifications
The role requires a minimum of a Master’s degree (e.g., Ecology, Biology, Applied Science, Resource Management, or Geography) and demonstrated quantitative skills. The abilities inherent in the role description above, including the expectation to initiate and develop a diverse client base, demands that the candidate bring a minimum of 3 years of experience with private, public, or non-governmental sectors. The skills and abilities required by the successful candidate are:

• A firm understanding and prior experience delivering environmental management approaches,
  especially environmental and/or social assessments (e.g., CEAA, provincial and international
  processes)
• Demonstrated quantitative skills including one or more of: statistical analysis, experimental design, sampling, simulation modeling, and model-building
• Comfort with statistical software such as R
• Excellent communication skills in written and spoken English, with the ability to produce professional quality technical presentations and reports
• Strong time-management skills with the ability to deliver work products within time and budget constraints
• Solid interpersonal skills and awareness, ability to adapt, very comfortable and confident in small group facilitation settings, strong ability to work effectively and collaboratively within interdisciplinary teams
• Proactive and results oriented, with strong problem-solving skills

Other Skills and Assets include:

• A high degree of comfort with client-relationship management, proposal writing, and project management
• Experience with Indigenous engagement
• Familiarity with environmental policy
• Fluency in Spanish and/or French
• Experience with international projects

Compensation and benefits
We welcome candidates looking for an opportunity to work on interesting and challenging projects with a team of highly skilled professionals. We provide a competitive salary, a profit-sharing plan based on corporate, team and individual performance, an excellent extended health benefit plan, and three weeks of vacation as well as paid time off between Christmas and New Year’s. Support is provided for professional development and growth within your role.

Applying
Please email a cover letter and résumé to careers@essa.com by July 3, 2019 with “Environmental Specialist” in the subject line.  We will review all applications and conduct interviews and skills-testing with select candidates in the latter half of July 2019. The preferred start date for the successful candidate will be the third week of September 2019. While we appreciate all interest, only short-listed applicants will be contacted.

All applicants must be eligible to legally work throughout Canada at the time of applying.