Field Biologist: Freshwater Ecology & Mussel Surveys

Virginia Tech; Blacksburg (VA); On-site; USD 48,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

The Conservation Management Institute (CMI) at Virginia Tech is seeking a field biologist to support research across taxa, with emphasis on freshwater aquatic fauna. You will work with project managers to design field surveys, conduct instream habitat assessments, analyze data, and help manage large multi-taxa datasets.

Travel frequently for fieldwork, swim and work in rugged terrain, and contribute to technical reports.

Qualifications

• B.S. degree in fish and wildlife sciences or comparable natural resources discipline.
• Direct experience working on wildlife and natural resources field projects.
• Ability to swim and snorkel.
• Ability to carry heavy equipment and navigate through rough terrain and adverse field conditions, and work in remote field locations.
• Ability to assist in the field/lab or with data analyses across various aquatic and terrestrial taxa research projects.
• Experience conducting freshwater mussel and fish surveys and instream habitat assessments.
• Experience using Microsoft Office applications, statistical computing software, and geospatial processing programs.
• Experience with database management and analyzing spatially and temporally extensive datasets.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement aquatic fauna surveys and instream habitat assessments.
• Statistical analysis of biological data.
• Develop and manage large-scale databases across multi-taxa and sampling-collection datasets.

Skills

Wildlife field experience

Swimming & snorkeling

Heavy equipment handling

Field/lab data analysis

Freshwater mussel surveys

Freshwater fish surveys

MS Office

Geospatial processing (GIS)

Database management

R programming

Education

B.S. in Fish and Wildlife Sciences or related

Tools

R programming

Geospatial processing software (GIS)

Microsoft Excel

Job description

The Conservation Management Institute (CMI) at Virginia Tech is seeking a field biologist to support research across taxa, with emphasis on freshwater aquatic fauna. You will work with project managers to design field surveys, conduct instream habitat assessments, analyze data, and help manage large multi-taxa datasets.

Travel frequently for fieldwork, swim and work in rugged terrain, and contribute to technical reports.