Natural Resource Specialist III, Wildlife Biologist

Job Description

The Conservation Management Institute (CMI) at Virginia Tech is seeking a field biologist to assist with research projects across various taxa and locations, with a focus on freshwater aquatic fauna. This person will be responsible for working collaboratively with project managers to design and execute various fieldwork and research tasks including aquatic fauna surveys and instream habitat assessments, statistical analysis of biological data, writing technical reports, and developing and managing large‑scale databases across multi‑taxa and sampling‑collection specific datasets.

The successful applicant will have skills conducting freshwater mussel and fish surveys, preferably with experience sampling and identifying mussels in the Upper Tennessee, Atlantic Slope, and New River drainages. This person must be able to travel frequently for fieldwork, swim, and be able to work under a range of field conditions including water, remote sampling locations, adverse weather, and rugged terrain.

• B.S. degree in fish and wildlife sciences or comparable natural resources discipline
• Considerable direct experience working on wildlife and natural resources field projects
• Ability to swim and snorkel
• Ability to carry heavy equipment and navigate through rough terrain and adverse field conditions, and work in remote field locations
• Ability to assist in the field/lab or with data analyses across various aquatic and terrestrial taxa research projects
• Experience conducting freshwater mussel and fish surveys and instream habitat assessments
• Experience using Microsoft Office applications, statistical computing software, and geospatial processing programs
• Experience with database management and analyzing spatially and temporally extensive datasets

• Experience with surveying in, and identifying freshwater mussel species from, the Upper Tennessee River, Atlantic Slope, and New River drainages of Virginia
• Experience with designing and leading mussel surveys using multiple sampling approaches and both qualitative and quantitative methods
• Experience leading and supervising field‑teams and data collection
• Experience using fish collection equipment and various sampling methods (e.g., electrofishing gear, traps, nets, and seines)
• Proficiency with large‑scale database organization and management and using statistical software R programming

4

Non‑Exempt:
Eligible for overtime

Restricted

up to 40

11/17/25

The successful candidate will be required to have a criminal conviction check.

Virginia Tech does not discriminate against employees, students, or applicants on the basis of age, color, disability, sex (including pregnancy), gender, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, ethnicity or national origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, or military status, or otherwise discriminate against employees or applicants who inquire about, discuss, or disclose their compensation or the compensation of other employees or applicants, or on any other basis protected by law.

If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Jennifer Phillips at jewolfor during regular business hours at least 10 business days prior to the event.