On-Call Assistant Historian

About the opportunity

SWCA Environmental Consultants is looking for an On-Call
Assistant Staff Historian to support projects in CTO (Central Texas & Oklahoma) Region. We are expanding our Cultural Resources team and are looking for dynamic individuals who are following their passion in delivering the highest-quality project work. This position will perform a variety of office and field tasks including historic research, report writing, completion of historic resource evaluations/assessments, property documentation, oral history documentation, community engagement, and working with and developing new clients.

This is an hourly, on-call (no benefits) position, reporting to our Austin, TX office, and offers the flexibility of either a "hybrid" work environment, with a few days in the office, or a distributed (remote) location. This position has the potential to evolve into a part-time and/or full-time role later.

• Support archaeology, architectural history, and historic preservation projects and assist other project managers in the execution of archaeological, architectural history, historic preservation, preservation planning, and components of multi-disciplinary projects.
• Conduct archival research, focusing on primary and secondary sources, and write historic narratives and context statements.
• Conduct oral history documentation, including but not limited to conducting interviews, transcribing oral histories, and synthesizing oral histories into historic context documentation.
• Coordinate community engagement efforts by developing community engagement plans, holding stakeholder interviews, leading public meeting workshops, and summarizing community engagement results.
• Write technical reports, including but not limited to technical memorandums, critical issues analyses, survey reports, historic context statements, and National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nominations.
• Assist with historic resource surveys of residential, commercial, agricultural, industrial, and institutional properties using tablet computers, digital photography, and other survey methodologies.
• Evaluate historic resources under NRHP criteria.
• Prepare defensible compliance documentation in support of Section 106 review of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA), as amended.
• Carry out project-level review for compliance with the Secretary of the Interior and National Park Service standards in support of NHPA and local permitting projects.
• Assist local governments with creating and revising planning regulations, including historic preservation ordinances.
• Assist with project management tasks (i.e., developing budgets and staff coordination).
• Contribute to proposal and marketing efforts.
• Maintain SWCA’s high standard of ethics and technical quality assurance and ensure that project deliverables meet agency and industry standards and be motivated to identify and resolve problems in creative ways.
• Manage quality and completeness of data collection, analysis, and report completion from start to finish.
• Perform mid-level technical peer review of documents.
• Work closely with the Cultural Resources Director and/or Cultural Resource Team Lead(s), as well as project managers, directors, and principal investigators throughout the company to promote SWCA’s business interests in adherence to its mission, vision, and values.
• Work with clients to identify project needs and make recommendations for management of historic resources.
• Collaborate with SWCA’s Historic Preservation Working Group and architectural historians throughout the company.
• Adheres to the safety program and looks out for the safety of others, promptly communicating and mitigating safety hazards

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in history, Historic Preservation, Public History, Heritage Conservation, Architectural History, or a closely related field. Master’s Degree preferred.
• Experience in cultural resources management as a historian
• Demonstrated knowledge of the history of the United States.
• Strong research, writing, and communication skills.

Preferred qualifications:

• One (1) year of experience in cultural…