TEMPORARY River Watch YIP Intern – Denver, Colorado

Temporary Position in Colorado River Watch Program

This is a temporary position (6 months) paying $19.25 per hour, 40 hours/week. Employment starts 10/19/2026 through 04/16/2027. To apply, please submit only your application, a resume and a cover letter. The announcement will remain open until filled. You are encouraged to apply early.

The Colorado River Watch program is a statewide volunteer water quality monitoring program managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife and an external non-profit vendor, River Science. Together we support 120 groups statewide including middle and high school groups as well as adult volunteers who collect monthly surface water samples for alkalinity, hardness, pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature and metals from their local rivers.

River Watch has a set annual cycle to gather and deliver water quality and macroinvertebrate data and support its volunteers. This position would be exposed to many aspects of this cycle including field sample collection, laboratory analysis, training volunteers, assisting with volunteer management, program presentations, data analysis, entry and validation, management and filing, laboratory sample preparation and verification, equipment inventory and maintenance, sample processing, site visits, report writing and some Clean Water Act policy work.

The primary responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

• Attend the annual River Watch training.
• Data management, analysis, and scientific data communication
• Update data visualization tools in R Studio (R Shiny App) and an ESRI online storymap, as well as develop other content to deliver data and data stories to volunteers and decision makers.
• Help optimize a program for collecting and analyzing baseline water quality data from hatcheries
• Help optimize a program for collecting and analyzing water quality data with our statewide aquatic biologists
• Assist volunteers (through email correspondence, in-person, and during site visits)
• Maintain laboratory equipment and assist with laboratory analysis
• Assist with water quality research projects
• Update standard operating procedures where needed
• Assist with volunteer management, program presentations, and event planning
• Help expand River Watch water quality data collection in State Parks

In addition to these programmatic needs, the intern will have the opportunity to create other specific experiences relevant to their career goals, both within CPW and externally. A plan with measurable results will be developed that will guide the intern's workload, evaluation, and achievements. We are looking for someone interested in a career in natural resources, including watershed management, wildlife, hydrology, working with volunteers, laboratory analysis, and data and information communication.

We hope this experience will help the intern build a skill set for a related career in natural resources or further studies in an undergraduate or graduate program. This position will be mostly office-based with a strong focus on data management and scientific data communication. There will be some lab and field work, but that will not be the primary focus of this position.

Pay is biweekly, starting after the first two weeks of work and ending two weeks after the last two-week pay period. No official holidays, leave time, or health care benefits come with this position; retirement benefits are included. Parking is free and readily available.

Minimum qualifications, substitutions, conditions of employment & appeal rights:

• Must have transportation to/from work location at 6060 Broadway, Denver office, where supervision, equipment, and support reside.
• Must be able to travel around the state for specific projects as they arise, including periodic lab work at our Fort Collins office.
• Must have a valid driver's license.
• Must be physically able to lift (40-50 lbs. of liquids), carry, or move equipment, both in and out of the field, or for our annual River Watch training.
• Must be willing to work in a laboratory environment.
• Be able to work 40 hours per week in the office between 8 am and 5 pm Monday through Friday.
• Demonstrate an interest and acuity for stream ecology, chemistry, biology, hydrology, hydraulics, fisheries management, and water policy.
• Demonstrate experience or willingness to learn computer programs and assist with data management, analyses, presentation development, and report writing, specifically in R-Studio, ArcGIS, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the Google Suite.
• Willing to teach others watershed science principles, River Watch Protocols, and learn a diverse spectrum of field methodologies, and be able and willing to present on behalf of the River Watch program to a diversity of different audiences.
• Must enjoy working with people.
• Be resourceful and able to work independently while also contributing to a team.
• Attention to detail, particularly as it relates to:
  1) tedious tasks, such as field data collection, laboratory sample preparation and analysis, equipment cleaning, and data entry,…