Senior Coral Reef Restoration Specialist

Overview/ Job Responsibilities

Entarian is seeking a Senior Coral Reef Restoration Specialist to provide technical leadership and support for coral reef restoration activities for the NOAA Office of Habitat Conservation, Restoration Center. This position will support the coordination, planning, implementation, monitoring, and oversight of coral reef restoration projects, with particular emphasis on Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) restoration planning and implementation, environmental compliance, project management, and collaboration with federal, state, nonprofit, and other restoration partners.

The position requires the ability to support field activities and may require periodic regional site visits and meetings with partners, with regular off-site work acceptable. The contractor may be required to travel for meetings, workshops, trainings, conferences, and field activities.

Duties include:

• Coordinate coral reef restoration activities across NOAA, partner organizations, coral nursery sites, propagation programs, researchers, resource managers, nonprofit organizations, and other stakeholders to support consistent and effective restoration approaches.
• Support development and implementation of coral reef restoration coordination plans, best management practices, permitting and authorization requirements, capacity building, technology and methods transfer, and resilience-based recovery strategies.
• Provide technical management and oversight of trustee or responsible-party coral restoration projects, including coordination and development of restoration plans, assessment reports, environmental compliance documents, monitoring plans, permit requests, project budgets, adaptive management plans, and restoration scaling activities.
• Plan, execute, and implement small- and large-scale coral restoration actions associated with NRDA cases, including emergency, primary, and compensatory restoration, and support the scaling of Natural Resource Damages to appropriate restoration.
• Support NRDA restoration planning under the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), including coordination with state and federal trustees, project identification and selection, restoration concepts and designs, monitoring and evaluation plans, case strategy, and technical research.
• Provide project management support for coral restoration projects, including identifying project milestones, developing and maintaining budgets and schedules, overseeing and tracking progress, coordinating contracting activities, and supporting project implementation and reporting.
• Provide field oversight and technical expertise for coral restoration and monitoring activities, including site evaluation, implementation and refinement of monitoring programs, data collection and synthesis, emergency coral restoration, and support for regional coral reef monitoring activities.
• Evaluate and synthesize multi-year coral restoration monitoring data, identify data gaps, conduct or support statistical analyses, refine monitoring protocols, and develop technical reports, memoranda, and scientific publications.
• Develop and support environmental compliance documentation and permitting, including NEPA Environmental Assessments and documentation supporting Environmental Impact Statements; coordinate with NOAA General Counsel for Natural Resources and applicable regulatory agencies; and support consultation requirements under the Magnuson‑Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and Endangered Species Act.
• Support fishery habitat restoration projects that benefit fisheries, protected species, and coastal resilience, including project identification, conceptual design, feasibility assessment, prioritization, implementation, monitoring, and adaptive management.
• Collaborate and communicate with federal, state, nonprofit, scientific, and other partners to enhance restoration outcomes and effectively navigate complex technical and programmatic issues.
• Support cross‑NOAA coral restoration coordination, including communication and collaboration among NOAA programs and offices, leadership of recurring coordination meetings, development of meeting materials and notes, and dissemination of information to program leadership.
• Develop restoration plans, annual reports, leadership briefings, technical reports, and other written products supporting coral reef restoration activities.
• Perform data management and reporting activities,…