Manager, Wildfire Insurance and Resilient Economies; WIRE

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Northern Arizona University

• This position is a hybrid position which allows the incumbent to complete their work at both an NAU site, campus, or facility and at a non‑centralized site with or without accommodation.
• This position is subject to the availability of funding. The incumbent is not eligible for Service Professional non‑renewal notice, or Classified Staff layoff or recall status.
• This position is posted as Manager, Wildfire Insurance and Resilient Economies (WIRE), which is a working title. The NAU system title for this position is Manager, Research Project.
• Driving a vehicle on behalf of the university is anticipated to be a regular part of this position. Arizona Administrative Code Fleet Safety Policy requires all employees who drive on university business to become authorized by submitting driver’s license information for driving record monitoring, and completing training appropriate to the level of driving performed. The law applies to all faculty, staff, and students who drive personal or university‑owned motorized vehicles for any business purpose.
  
  More information on the NAU Authorized Driver Policy can be found on the NAU website.

The Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) at Northern Arizona University serves diverse audiences with objective science and implementation strategies that support ecological restoration and climate adaptation on western forest landscapes. ERI is nationally recognized as a leader in primary and secondary ecological and social science, scholarship, information exchange, collaborative efforts, and policy analysis supporting forest restoration and fire use. ERI is one of three congressionally designated institutes, the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes (SWERI) located in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, focused on bridging science and management to restore western fire‑adapted forests.

The ERI seeks a Manager, Research Projects for the newly formed Wildfire Insurance and Resilient Economies (WIRE) Partnership, which will involve close collaboration with the NAU School of Forestry, other ERI units, and ERI and SWERI partners and collaborators. The WIRE Partnership tackles the growing insurance crisis in the Western U.S., driven by the increasing severity of wildfires. It focuses on understanding and innovating insurance models to support communities and businesses, alongside reframing wildfire economics to emphasize prevention and restoration over reactive suppression and commodity extraction.

Working closely with the aforementioned collaborators, the Manager, WIRE will design and implement a program within ERI that explores the wildfire insurance and economics system, including but not limited to analyzing insurance models to identify impacts and develop equitable, prevention‑focused alternatives; quantifying the economic benefits of wildfire prevention and forest restoration; and educating policymakers, insurers, and communities on the long‑term value of prevention and restoration, sustainable insurance models, and wildfire risk reduction.

In addition to designing and implementing the WIRE program, the successful applicant will work closely with partners and build relationships to facilitate real change on the ground.

The successful applicant will be passionate about working collaboratively with partners and designing a program that is focused on actionable science for decision‑making. The Manager, WIRE will work with other scientists to implement research for the WIRE Partnership, and as such, will need experience leading research using a variety of economic and/or social science methods. In addition, a key component of this position will be communication, and the successful applicant will demonstrate exemplary communication skills, including developing and publishing written products in accessible formats and sharing information in other communication formats.

Finally, as a Manager, WIRE…