Principal Ecologist / Team Leader

SLR Consulting New Zealand Limited; Wellington; On-site; NZD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

SLR Consulting New Zealand Limited is seeking a Principal/Team Lead Ecologist to lead the Wellington ecology team and empower senior staff across Wellington and Nelson. You will guide technical excellence, drive business development, and grow a high-performing team.

You will develop and coach staff, win work, deliver high-quality reports, and manage multidisciplinary projects across diverse sectors while ensuring regulatory compliance and strong client relationships.

Qualifications

• A degree in Ecology, Marine Science or a related field.
• 12-15+ years in Ecology or Marine Science with strong technical ability in terrestrial/freshwater ecology.
• Experience winning, leading and managing projects.
• Experience in preparing impact assessments and environmental risk assessments.
• Working knowledge of New Zealand environmental legislation, standards and guidelines.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• New Zealand citizenship or rights to work in NZ.
• Excellent driving history and a current driver’s license.

Responsibilities

• Bringing with you an established network and proven ability to win work will be highly advantageous
• Delivering clear and precise, high-quality reports
• Undertaking fieldwork activities and resourcing the right teams on projects
• Developing, facilitating and enhancing effective relationships with clients and internal SLR team members
• Working within multidisciplinary teams to deliver projects across a range of sectors

Skills

Ecology expertise

Project leadership

Environmental risk assessments

NZ legislation knowledge

Communication skills

Education

BSc/MSc in Ecology or Marine Science

Job description

About the business and the role

Do you believe you can make the world a better place?

SLR’s purpose is Making Sustainability Happen, which we achieve by having a team of expert advisors and technicians, who partner with our clients to tackle some of the world’s most complex sustainability challenges. SLR is an international environmental consultancy with a globally recognised reputation for providing high quality tailored services.

With over 1000 staff in Asia Pacific alone and nearly 200 spanning the length of New Zealand, we provide consultancy advice and support on a wide range of strategic and site-specific issues to a diverse and growing base of business, regulatory and governmental clients.

We celebrate a ‘One Team Culture’, where bringing together diversity of thought and expression is key to building the best team to deliver excellent results.

A great opportunity has come up for a Principal/Team Lead Ecologist to join our Ecology team in Wellington. This role will provide inspirational and empowering leadership to our people in both our Wellington and Nelson Offices. Key focuses will be the development and coaching of senior employees, building a high performing team; business development to ensure our business and team continue to grow and thrive; as well as technical excellence to ensure our team delivers technically excellent work to our clients.

Job tasks and responsibilities

• Bringing with you an established network and proven ability to win work will be highly advantageous
• Delivering clear and precise, high quality reports
• Undertaking fieldwork activities and resourcing the right teams on projects
• Developing, facilitating and enhancing effective relationships with our clients and internal SLR team members
• Working within multidisciplinary teams to deliver projects across a range of sectors

Skills and experience

• A degree in Ecology, Marine Science or a related field
• Demonstrated consulting experience with 12-15+ years in Ecology or Marine Science and ideally as an expert who has exceptional technical ability in terrestrial/freshwater ecology
• Demonstrated experience winning, leading and managing projects
• Experience in preparing impact assessments and environmental risk assesments
• Working knowledge of New Zealand environmental legislation and policies, standards and guidelines
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• New Zealand Citizenship or rights to work in New Zealand
• Excellent driving history and hold a current driver's license

Our Benefits

• We are proud of our unique culture where we work together to collaborate on projects to get the best possible outcome for our clients.
• Whether you’re working in the office, from home or a mix of the two, we recognise that every person is different, and our benefits aim to ensure that we cater for all.
• You can find a comprehensive list here.

We’re Making Sustainability Happen. We don’t have all the answers to the complex sustainability challenges faced by humanity today. But we’re working on it. We are a consultancy with 4,500+ employees, working on projects in over 125 countries around the world. When you join SLR, you’ll work alongside some of the world’s leading advisors and technicians on projects of global importance in the environmental space. We know sustainability starts from within. And no matter how good we are today, we can always do better. We continually work on our internal ethics to set the standard for organisations and reflect the advice we give to clients.