Assistant Project Water Resources Scientist – Water Quality

About the opportunity

SWCA Environmental Consultants seeks an on-call Assistant Project Water Resources Scientist to support environmental, land use, and water planning projects. We're looking for passionate professionals to help us deliver impactful, high-quality environmental solutions. This on-call role offers the opportunity to provide highly technical support to innovative projects. This position will be responsible in part for maintaining GIS systems, executing tasks with limited supervision, and working with project managers to deliver high-quality deliverables to our clients.

This position will be an hourly, On-Demand/on-call position (no benefits except wellness time). The individual can work in a hybrid work environment near our Salt Lake City, Utah, office, or be fully remote (= distributed) within Utah.

At SWCA, we believe in fostering a collaborative and supportive environment where every team member contributes their unique skills and perspectives. We value creativity, teamwork, and a passion for delivering Sound Science and Creative Solutions to our clients. The ideal candidate should possess strong GIS technical skills, organizational and project management abilities, and experience with land use, environmental and water planning projects.

Final date to receive applications:
August 17, 2026, 5pm MT.

Our Vision (the North Star), Core Values, and

Purpose:

SWCA is an employee-owned firm and the best workplace and global leader in addressing sustainability, environmental, and social challenges.

We are #OneSWCA and collaborate across all our offices, programs, and disciplines. We are #Always Learning
, we #Never Settle and we #Give Back
. We are 100% employee-owned, and we build our success together. Our company purpose is to preserve natural and cultural resources for tomorrow while enabling projects that benefit people today.

• Serving as a technical point of contact for projects integrating land use, environmental, and water planning.
• Collaborating with project managers and subject matter experts to support complex and innovative multi-discipline projects.
• Developing standards and workflows to improve efficiency and quality of work.
• Using complex spatial databases integrating water, land use and environmental planning.
• Working with robust systems to track project updates, data quality, and version control.
• Demonstrating technical proficiency in geospatial science and tools.
• Gaining familiarity with client interfaces, expectations, and workflows.
• Acting as a liaison between clients, stakeholders, and project managers.
• Using ArcGIS Online (AGOL) maps, applications, and notebooks for projects.
• Supporting GIS tasks with minimal supervision.
• Attending virtual or in-person meetings with clients as needed.

REQUIRED

• Bachelor's degree in Geography, Biology, Environmental Science, or related field with a GIS emphasis (or GIS certificate).
• At least one (1) year in a GIS analyst role with increasing professional responsibility.
• Experience with land use, environmental, and/or water planning projects.
• Experience working with complex datasets supporting planning level workflows.
• Proven ability to support GIS-related aspects of a water and land use planning project, from project startup to final deliverables.
• Experience with ArcGIS Online for managing and distributing spatial data.

PREFERRED

• At least one (1) year in a water resources, land use planning, and/or environmental planning role with increasing professional responsibility.
• GISP or similar professional GIS certification.
• Experience supporting multi-disciplinary and/or multi-faceted projects.
• Experience developing analytical models related to natural or cultural resource processes.
• Understanding of agency internal processes and positive relationships with federal, state, and/or local land management and regulatory agencies.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and adapt to changing project needs.

SWCA Environmental Consultants is a growing employee-owned firm, providing a full spectrum of environmental services. With offices…