Restoration Ecologist

Full-Time | Southern California (Orange County Focus) | $70,000-$95,000 DOE

Every day across California, wetlands disappear, wildlife habitat becomes fragmented, and ecosystems face increasing pressure from growth and climate change. At Endemic Environmental Services, we believe environmental consulting should do more than satisfy regulations:

Since 2009, our scientists, ecologists, restoration specialists, GIS professionals, and environmental planners have partnered with public agencies, utilities, developers, and conservation organizations to restore habitats, protect species, improve water resources, and solve complex environmental challenges.

We're building an organization that protects California today while creating the systems, knowledge, and partnerships needed to restore ecosystems for generations to come. If that mission excites you, we'd love to meet you

Every year our teams help:

• Restore wetlands and native habitats
• Protect threatened and endangered species
• Improve water quality
• Support public agencies throughout California
• Advance conservation through research, education, and restoration

You'll probably enjoy Endemic if you...

• Love solving difficult environmental problems.
• Care about science and field work.
• Take ownership.
• Want responsibility instead of bureaucracy.
• Believe conservation and development can coexist.
• Want your work to matter.

We are looking for an experienced Restoration Ecologist who can lead projects and people. This is a hands‑on role for someone who can translate ecological objectives into clear scopes, schedules, staffing plans, field direction, and client deliverables.

You will manage assigned restoration projects from kickoff through closeout, directly supervise staff, coordinate field operations, and help ensure work is completed safely, professionally, on time, and within budget. You will work closely with our Director of Habitat Restoration and leadership team to strengthen restoration delivery across Southern California.

• Lead habitat restoration and mitigation projects from planning and kickoff through implementation, monitoring, reporting, and closeout.
• Develop and maintain project scopes, schedules, staffing plans, milestones, budgets, and deliverable calendars.
• Directly supervise assigned employees, including work assignment, scheduling, coaching, performance feedback, development, and accountability.
• Review timecards and time-off requests and participate in hiring, onboarding, training, and performance-management processes.
• Coordinate field crews, technical staff, subcontractors, vendors, clients, and regulatory agencies.
• Track labor, budgets, deadlines, and project risks; communicate issues early and drive practical solutions.
• Develop or review restoration plans, plant palettes, invasive species strategies, monitoring methods, success criteria, and adaptive‑management recommendations.
• Review ecological data and technical reports for accuracy, completeness, compliance, and defensibility.
• Serve as the day‑to‑day client contact for assigned projects and support proposals, scopes, fee estimates, and change orders.
• Promote safe field practices, professional communication, and consistent adherence to company and project requirements.

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Ecology, Biology, Environmental Science, Botany, or a related field required; master's degree preferred.
• Experience: 5 or more years of applied restoration ecology, habitat restoration, environmental consulting, or related experience.
• Project Management: At least two years independently managing project scope, schedules, staffing, budgets, deliverables, and client communication.
• People Management: Demonstrated experience directly supervising employees, assigning work, managing schedules, coaching performance, and developing staff.
• Technical
  
  Skills:
  
  Strong knowledge of CEQA/NEPA, ecological monitoring, Southern California plant communities, restoration practices, and technical reporting.
• Leadership…