Senior Scientist

POSITION OVERVIEW AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The newly established Senior Scientist position builds on Sonoma Land Trust’s five-decade record of conservation innovation and excellence by leveraging the latest science to inform its conservation strategy development planning, preserve management, educational programs, decision making, and advocacy. This position will oversee the Land Trust’s applied field research and scientific data collections, and will work collaboratively across the organization to identify opportunities to implement landscape scale conservation.

In addition to technical expertise and an expansive understanding of the role of conservation in tackling climate, biodiversity, and environmental justice challenges, the Senior Scientist must demonstrate a strong commitment to partnership and forging effective collaborations with peers in the conservation and academic communities. The Senior Scientist is an integral member of the Conservation Program’s team and supports the leadership team in advising conservation research strategy.

They will report to the Director of Conservation and will be responsible for supervising the Land Trust’s GIS Manager.

• Analyze and interpret data to identify key conservation challenges in Sonoma County’s ecosystems and landscapes and inform Sonoma Land Trust’s land management decisions, conservation priorities, and programmatic activities.
• Act as an advisor to the staff and board, aligning strategy with science initiatives.
• Collaborate with program teams to develop, refine and conduct applied research on the Land Trust’s preserves to gather data on ecological conditions and biodiversity, in order to design key conservation strategies.
• Guide the strategic development of data, methods, tools, and integrated information products that result in enduring benefits in the conservation of biological and ecological diversity.

• Plan, manage, and implement research projects in partnership with program teams to meet timelines within budget targets.
• Lead and/or collaborate on funding proposals and grant applications to secure financial resources for scientific research and conservation projects.
• Collaborate with program teams to design and implement durable conservation strategies and land management practices.

• Communicate the scientific findings of field research to diverse internal and external audiences through reports, articles, and presentations.
• Represent the organization in external forums such as meetings with the conservation science community, partners, policymakers, elected officials, donors, and institutional funders.
• Collaborate with the Public Policy and Funding Manager to ensure the integration of science into policy development and advocacy campaigns, providing evidence-based rationales for the Land Trust’s policy positions.
• Build and maintain relationships with regional and national academic institutions, natural resource management agencies, and peer conservation NGOs to foster research, collaboration, and knowledge exchange.
• Engage with local communities, landowners, and tribal government representatives to ensure that conservation research projects recognize the rights and perspectives of community members, provide a benefit to community partners, and make ethical use of data that may be shared with Sonoma Land Trust.
• Serve as a consultant to the Community Engagement and Marketing and Communications Teams in their work to develop scientifically robust educational programming and messaging.

• Identify, evaluate, and prioritize research initiatives and key scientific conservation issues to align with the organization’s mission and drive impactful conservation outcomes within Sonoma Land Trust preserves and throughout the region.
• Ensure the senior leadership team and staff stay informed about and understand current scientific research, consensus, developments, and their implications for and application to the organization’s mission and strategy.
• Collaborate with senior leadership to organize the scientific foundation and direction for Sonoma Land Trust’s…