Senior Archaeologist (NPS, Death Valley National Park

Position: Senior Archaeologist (NPS, Death Valley National Park)
Location: California

The Great Basin Institute, in cooperation with the NPS, is recruiting (1) Senior Flood Response Archaeologist to supervise a unique group with a unique mission. In 2022 and 2023 Death Valley National Park experienced two 1000-year level floods. This led to impacts ranging from mild to profound in all corners of the park. Roads are still being repaired from these floods.

In response, the Park brought in over 80 archaeologists of all skill levels to survey along roadsides as a part of their cleanup. This has resulted in a massive amount of data that still needs to be verified, cleaned up and written into reports. Additionally, emergency actions taken were to open roads, so sites and structures across the park away from roads still need to be visited and documented.

This position would lead a team of one archaeologist, three archaeological technicians, and a GIS specialist to
1) create a GIS model to determine which areas would be most impacted by flooding and then to revisit around 150 cultural resources located in those areas to assess their condition and evaluate flood damage.
2) Additionally, the position would be responsible for field verifying and cleaning up previously collected data, completing field work, and revisiting known sites to complete re-recordings and condition assessments. Afterwards, they (and their team) would rectify new and existing data and write up site and isolate forms, survey reports, condition assessments and evaluate and write determinations of NRHP eligibility and prepare documentation for Park Section 106 compliance and Section 110 projects.

The Senior Flood Archaeologist will also implement and conduct mitigation and protection measures, data entry, damage assessments, condition assessments, direct and review field and office project work of archaeological technicians, and work with volunteers. This position requires good communication and management skills, flexibility, and the ability to create order from chaos.

Duties include completing Section 106 compliance inventories, assessments, documentation and implementing mitigation measures. Documentation includes, but is not limited to, writing cultural resource survey reports, creating reports and site maps, writing monitoring reports, completing standard site records, feature and level forms, writing assessments of effects, damage assessments, artifact forms, attending tribal consultation meetings, drafting letters to Tribes and the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), and completing compliance documentation in NPS databases such as PEPC.Additional

Duties Include:

Maintain field equipment and supplies

Maintain related databases, forms, maps, and files

Review the work of archaeologists and archaeological technicians, assuring accurate and complete records and documentation

Coordinate field work to meet project timelines, and supervise the work of direct reports

Retrieve and compile data as required for resource management reports, interpretive exhibits, etc.

Perform supervised research

Conducts record searches and interviews, and synthesize information collected for scientific, historical, and interpretive values.

Completing archaeological surveys in the desert southwest requires the physical endurance to walk over a variety of terrains and in a variety of weather conditions, including extreme heat, while carrying a heavy pack. Overnight camping for several days at a time in remote areas may be required. Death Valley does follow a heat safety policy.

LOCATIONDeath Valley National Park encompasses nearly 3.4 million acres in southeastern California and western Nevada, a 70-minute drive from Pahrump, Nevada (the nearest grocery story), 2- to 3-hour drive to Las Vegas. Death Valley National Park is in the transition zone and contains both the Mojave Desert and the Great Basin. Aside from the outdoor recreation opportunities and natural wonders within the park, the Mojave Preserve, the Eastern Sierras, as well as Lake Mead and Spring Mountains National Recreation Areas are nearby (2-3 hours) and afford a diversity of outdoor activities ranging from hiking, mountain biking and rock hounding to fishing, boating and skiing/snowboarding.

Nearly everything, including a major airport, can be found in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Field conditions at Death Valley National Park include hot, arid days with high exposure to the sun, as well as cold, winter weather and elevation ranges from
-282 feet to over 11,000 feet. Resources of the region include threatened and/or endangered species habitat, big game habitats, abandoned mine lands, and historic and precontact cultural sites. The Death Valley National Park comanages with the local Timbisha Shoshone Tribe on many projects.

WORK SCHEDULE Full-time (40 hours/week); some overtime and weekend work may occasionally be required.
52-week appointment beginning September or October 2026, and/or upon completion of a Department of the Interior background investigation.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITSWage: $35 to $42 DOE an…