Sustainable Agriculture Physical Scientist

Sustainable Agriculture Physical Scientist, IS-1301-13

Final date to receive applications: 31 July 2026

Department: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Edgewater, MD

Compensation: $121,785 / year

OPEN DATE: June 30, 2026

CLOSING DATE: July 31, 2026

POSITION TYPE: Trust Fund

APPOINTMENT TYPE: Indefinite

SCHEDULE: Full Time

DUTY

LOCATION:

Edgewater, Maryland

Position sensitivity and risk: Non-sensitive (NS)/High Risk

Open to all qualified applicants

Trust Fund positions are unique to the Smithsonian. They are paid for from a variety of sources, including the Smithsonian endowment, revenue from our business activities, donations, grants and contracts. Trust employees are not part of the civil service, nor does trust fund employment lead to Federal status. The salary ranges for trust positions are generally the same as for federal positions and in many cases trust and federal employees work side by side.

Trust employees have their own benefit program, which may include Health, Dental & Vision Insurance, Life Insurance, Transit/Commuter Benefits, Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance, Annual and Sick Leave, Family Friendly Leave, 403b Retirement Plan, Discounts for Smithsonian Memberships, Museum Stores and Restaurants, Credit Union, Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center (Child Care), Flexible Spending Account (Health & Dependent Care).

• Pass Pre-employment Background Check and Subsequent Background Investigation for position designated.
• Complete a Probationary Period.
• Maintain a Bank Account for Direct Deposit/Electronic Transfer.
• The position is open to all candidates eligible to work in the United States. Proof of eligibility to work in U.S. is not required to apply.
• Applicants must meet all qualification and eligibility requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement.

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), Office of the Under Secretary for Science and Research (OUSSR), Smithsonian Institution is a research unit of the Smithsonian Institution dedicated to ecological research and education.

SERC’s 2,650-acre campus serves as a living laboratory for long-term ecosystem research across forests, farmland, wetlands, shorelines, and estuaries. Located within a rural landscape yet adjacent to the Baltimore–Washington–Annapolis urban corridor on the Chesapeake Bay, SERC occupies a central position within the Bay’s watershed. Our community of approximately 150 staff—including principal investigators, educators, technicians, postdocs, and student researchers—collaborates annually with interns, more than 500 volunteers, and 25,000 public visitors.

SERC’s research and education programs address major environmental challenges identified in the Smithsonian’s Life on a Sustainable Planet initiative. Our work spans ecological scales, leverages long-term studies, and delivers benefits for ecosystems and society. We collaborate widely and prioritize public engagement through participatory science, education, and communication.

This position reports to the Associate Director for Research, serves as a Principal Investigator, and leads an independent research program  ideal candidate will collaborate effectively with a diverse community of staff, students, volunteers, visitors, and partners to develop a high-impact research program.

The selected applicant will have access to extensive field, laboratory, and data resources at SERC, with opportunities to expand these assets, including a potential agrivoltaic research facility. Existing resources include over five decades of watershed research with instrumented experimental watersheds, a watershed-scale stream restoration project, and large biodiversity–ecosystem function agroforestry experiments (BiodiversiTREE and Functional Forests). Additional assets include a NEON site, a ForestGEO plot, the TEMPEST coastal forest experiment, and the Global Change Research Wetland (GCReW), which supports in situ studies of biogeochemical responses to global change.

SERC also offers advanced analytical instrumentation and computing infrastructure for geospatial…