About CNPS

The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is a statewide non-profit conservation organization (www.cnps.org) founded in 1965, with more than 11,000 members in 35 chapters across California and Baja California Mexico. The mission of CNPS is to increase understanding and appreciation of California’s native plants and to conserve them and their natural habitats through scientific study, education, advocacy, horticulture, and land stewardship.

The Project

The Important Plant Areas (IPA) program seeks to identify those areas critical to the conservation of California’s flora in a collaborative and data driven manner, such that they can be protected to preserve our unique flora for generations to come. We are accomplishing this by compiling existing spatial data sets for rare species occurrences, rare vegetation type occurrences, culturally important plant areas, and other areas of particular significance to native biodiversity. The IPA program relies on the participation of external stakeholders and regional experts to inform model development. For more information about the IPA program please visit our website: https://www.cnps.org/conservation/important-plant-areas.

Job Summary

The Important Plant Areas Program Assistant is a full-time non-exempt position directly supervised by the Important Plant Areas Program Manager. This position will assist with the final stages of IPA tool development and public roll out, and is funded for a 2-year term. The IPA Program utilizes large spatial datasets and needs to both manage, curate, and update these databases with new information as it becomes available, as well as visualize such data in a manner suitable for a variety of audiences ranging from general public to academia, and this work is a central part of the Program Assistant’s job.

Duties and Responsibilities

The duties of the Important Plant Areas Program Assistant include:

• Working under supervision, process spatial data and iterate regional IPA models using ArcDesktop software. Models are built using the ArcDesktop Model builder environment.
• Recruit and coordinate outreach to potential webinar participants, schedule webinars to both maximize attendance and meet IPA program timelines, and prepare outcome summaries to distribute to participants following webinars.
• Data management and visualization for both for the IPA modeling and stakeholder review process as well as IPA product public roll out preparation and execution.

Job Requirements

• Demonstrated strong data management and organizational skills, propensity to develop processes that can then be applied consistently, and ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Previous experience with stakeholder outreach and engagement, and event organization.
• 1-3 years GIS experience, or bachelor’s degree in GIS or related field required.
• Experience in data management and visualization/science communication.
• Ability to work independently on a variety of tasks remotely and with little direct supervision.
• Strong “people” skills, commitment to sharing discovery with a diversity of people, and appreciation of the unique and valuable contribution each individual brings to CNPS.

Desired Skills

Applicants that do not possess any or all of the desired skills will still be considered.

• Ability to understand and communicate technical concepts in Spanish, verbally, or in writing.
• Other multilingual skills.
• Proficiency with scripting in R and Python.
• Experience with the ArcDesktop Model builder environment, JSON, Jupiter Notebooks, or HTML coding.
• Experience identifying prospective end users and marketing conservation tools for adoption and implementation.

Physical Requirements

This job requires prolonged sitting, use of computer and mouse, and ability to participate in field trips including traveling off trail in sites with variable grade. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Additional Job Information

• Work may require occasional travel throughout California. Work travel is reimbursed.
• Work schedule is generally eight hours a day, Monday to Friday. Flexible schedules are possible.
• Some evening and weekend work may be required to meet deadlines or to participate in meetings.
• This is a remote position, but may transition to a Sacramento- or Berkeley-based position if work dictates and safety allows.

Compensation and Benefits

The hourly rate offered is $26-$30/hour. CNPS provides a comprehensive benefits package, paying 100% of employee premiums for health, life, dental, and vision insurance with low-cost family coverage options. CNPS offers a 401K retirement plan with up to 6% matching contributions. Annual paid leave benefits include 12 holidays, 12 sick days, and generous paid vacation.

Equal Opportunity Policy

CNPS’s policy is to afford equal employment opportunity to all persons. This policy demonstrates CNPS’s commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive environment that values different perspectives and fosters belonging. To better understand the demographic profile of applicants, CNPS requests candidates to fill out the volunteer questionnaire that is part of the application form. Your responses will remain confidential, anonymized, and not shared with the hiring committee.