Organizational Summary: Integral Ecology Research Center (IERC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to wildlife conservation and ecosystem health through scientific research. Our mission is to perform ecological research and compile, organize, and disseminate the results of this research to increase scientific knowledge for the public, advance the management and conservation of wildlife species and their communities, and enhance overall ecosystem health and conservation. We collaborate with federal, state, tribal, and local partners to advance species monitoring and management.

Position Summary: The Project Coordinator (PC) plays a pivotal role in bridging project-level execution with program-level strategy within IERC's Reclamation and Restoration Program. This position provides comprehensive operational and supervisory leadership across all daily project activities, serving as the primary liaison between the Program Manager and field or office personnel, including Project Specialists and Technicians.

The PC is responsible for planning, implementing, and managing both field and office operations, including data collection protocols, quality assurance and quality control procedures, and logistical coordination across multiple concurrent workstreams. This includes overseeing the development and implementation of digital data collection and management systems, ensuring all data and associated documentation are properly organized, stored, and delivered in accordance with project specifications and scientific best practices. The PC supports organizational growth through contributions to grant and contract proposals, ongoing budget monitoring and reporting, and facilitation of stakeholder communications at the project level.

Supervisory duties include onboarding, technical training, day-to-day scheduling, timesheet approval, performance tracking, and coordination of formal performance reviews in collaboration with Human Resources. The PC fosters a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performance team environment that supports individual professional development, project success, and long-term organizational growth.

Project Summary: Under the general direction of the Reclamation and Restoration Program Manager, the Project Coordinator will lead coordination efforts for a complex, multi-stakeholder, statewide initiative focused on developing a comprehensive framework for reclaiming, restoring, and remediating environmental damage caused by cannabis cultivation across California. This multi-year project unfolds across two integrated and interdependent phases, each requiring distinct but overlapping coordination demands.

The first phase centers on framework development, training infrastructure development, and procurement. The Project Coordinator will manage the production of a comprehensive, publication-quality statewide cannabis site restoration framework, a multi-section study addressing topics ranging from technologies and regulatory context to reclamation protocols, data management, and policy timeline. This phase requires coordinating closely with a diverse network of subcontractors, including policy reviewers, document design teams, meeting coordinators, and digital data management specialists, while ensuring the timely delivery of all document sections for incremental review and approval by the appropriate parties. 

The second phase involves applied field operations and technology deployment. The Project Coordinator will also support the development and delivery of a multi-tiered reclamation training program targeting three geographically distributed teams across California, encompassing preliminary online training, in-depth field-based training, and proctoring training assessments. The Project Coordinator will help coordinate large-scale aerial survey overflights across California public lands, support ground-based field validation and environmental sampling efforts. Reclamation and restoration training operations involve highly complex logistics and coordination with the following, but not limited to, partners, aviation teams, Tribes, public agencies, hazardous waste contractors, training teams, and IERC team members operating simultaneously across multiple regions.

Throughout both phases, the Project Coordinator will be responsible for progress reporting, invoicing support, subcontract administration, data management & oversight, and ensuring all deliverables are completed on schedule and in full compliance with all applicable requirements. This role demands exceptional organizational capacity, the ability to synthesize complex scientific, regulatory, and operational information from diverse sources, and a strong commitment to collaborative problem-solving across a broad network of agency partners, subcontractors, and community stakeholders actively engaged in conserving California’s natural resources. The duration of the position is estimated to be 24 months. This position is based on grant funding and will be periodically reviewed for extension and is offered on an at-will basis, consistent with California law.

Key Knowledge, Qualifications, and Skills Required for Position

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Environmental Science, Restoration, Ecology, Natural Resources, Biology, or a related field with at least 3 years of progressive, supervisory-level experience in project coordination or research and program operations. 

               OR 

• Master's degree in a related field with at least 2 years of relevant coordination/supervisory-level experience. 

• Experience coordinating multi-stakeholder field logistics, long-term ecological monitoring, and environmental or restoration projects, including contributing to technical guidance or protocol development. 

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, Google Earth, Survey123, ArcGIS Pro, R or equivalent statistical software, and data management systems. 

• Strong written and verbal communication skills. 

• Demonstrated experience with operational reporting and grant support.  

Preferred Qualifications 

• Formal project management certification (e.g., PMP, CAPM, or equivalent).  

Preferred Knowledge and Abilities 

Knowledge of:

• Field-based ecological research methods, environmental restoration practices, and the environmental laws, permitting processes, and inter-agency coordination frameworks governing restoration work on publicly owned lands in California.
• QA/QC standards for scientific data collection, including metadata documentation, geospatial data management, and protocols for large, multi-site dataset organization, analysis, and visualization.
• Subcontract administration, grant compliance, and budget monitoring within multi-partner funded projects, as well as supervisory principles and California employment law requirements applicable to direct staff management.

Ability to: 

• Coordinate complex, multi-phase project logistics across geographically distributed teams, subcontractors, and agency partners with a high degree of independence, proactively resolving challenges and escalating issues with well-reasoned recommendations.

• Synthesize technical, scientific, and regulatory information into clear, publication-quality written documents, and develop data management systems and digital collection workflows that meet scientific integrity and reporting standards.

• Directly supervise and support the development of early-career professionals in field and office settings, while communicating effectively with a broad range of stakeholders including scientists, agency representatives, land managers, and community partners.