Project-Research Manager

Job Description

Project-Research Manager

Department:
Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech

Project:
Evaluation and validation of vegetation, fuel, and fire behavior tools and technology in hardwood-dominated forest ecosystems of Virginia and the eastern United States. The project is led by Dr. Adam Coates and includes Drs. Carrie Fearer, Verl Emrick, and Mark Ford as Co-PIs.

• Inventory of fuels, using traditional transect methods and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), throughout hardwood-dominated locations in Virginia, including the Department of War installations and bases and the George Washington-Jefferson National Forest.
• Investigation of TLS metrics for the calculation and determination of unique wildlife habitat metrics.
• Utilization of fuels inputs from this region in fire behavior modeling.
• Creation of monitoring protocols that can be implemented to advance fuels monitoring and management across the Commonwealth.

• Bachelor's Degree in Forest Resources or a similar discipline.
• FFT2 Wildland Firefighter certification.
• Experience in field sampling and crew supervision.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong analytical skills, including the use of statistical software (R, JMP, SAS, etc.).

• Master in Forest Resources.
• Experience in field sampling and supervision of a team (crew).

Pay Band: 4

Overtime Status:
Non-Exempt:
Eligible for overtime

Appointment Type:
Restricted

Salary: $60,000 - $65,000

Hours per week: 40

Review Date: 05/29/26

Criminal conviction check required.

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