Job Type: Temporary
Salary Details: $25.00 – $26.50/HR DOE

The Great Basin Institute (GBI) partners with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) throughout the western United States to implement vegetation monitoring programs such as the BLM’s Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) program. The AIM program is a BLM initiative to collect field data on rangeland indicators characterizing soil, vegetation, and hydrologic resources with an overarching goal to inform land management decisions and conservation actions.

The BLM’s field offices in Idaho collect terrestrial AIM and related datasets on 12 million acres to document effectiveness of the decisions established in Recourse Management Plans, to determine treatment effectiveness, and for habitat evaluation and other purposes through the implementation of the AIM strategy. GBI seeks to fill a Data Management Specialist for data management, processing and analysis in support of the AIM data collection and sage-grouse habitat assessment efforts in Idaho from October 2023 to June 2025 (total of 20 Months). This data specialist is required to have a thorough and comprehensive understanding of terrestrial AIM data collection and data management protocols to enable rigorous data review procedures. The Idaho Data Specialist will work at the BLM Idaho State Office to assist BLM staff with review and completion of QA/QC procedures for AIM datasets, provide technical support and training to the field in the use of Field Maps and/or Survey123, work with BLM staff on data management, and storage issues for AIM and related datasets, and complete analysis and reporting using AIM data as needed for completion of the BLM business. The data specialist will work directly with BLM staff on a daily basis, and will coordinate with the state AIM lead and monitoring coordinator for identification and completion of day-to-day tasks. 
 
This position is intended to be run at the BLM Idaho State Office, with the potential for occasional work-from-home options. Additional travel may be required to support field crews, and for workshops on incorporating AIM data into land health evaluations. Specific tasks may include the following: 

  • Conduct analyses and generate reports that may include aggregation of data provided in two or more databases, summaries of indicators for a given project area, including calculation of confidence intervals, comparisons of indicator values by stratum, and production of basic maps using ArcMap (ESRI);
  • Coordinate requests for analysis and reporting through the BLM Idaho Monitoring Coordinator and the GBI project manager or delegate as needed to manage the data specialist’s workload;
  • Assist terrestrial AIM field crews with mid-season data quality checks and provide further assistance with data quality control at other times as needed;
  • Independently perform quality control checks on the data, organize it in a standardized way as coordinated with the BLM state office staff, and assist in submitting the data to BLM’s national operations center for uploading to TerrADat database; 
  • Periodically retrieve data from TerrADat, Landscape Monitoring Framework (LMF) and/or DIMA databases, complete analysis tasks, and requested reports or summaries; 
  • Attend a Train-the-Trainer course, usually held in Las Cruces, NM, to provide support and training for data collectors in the Oregon/Washington AIM Terrestrial Core Methods training. The training will require travel for five (5) days and four (4) nights; 
  • Maintain government-owned tablet computers for training purposes;
  • During the field season, be available to provide technical support to BLM staff and/or other contractors regarding data entry and management, particularly with regards to TerrADat or other AIM Databases; and,
  • The data specialist may be required to stay overnight at BLM District Offices for up to three (3) days and two (2) nights at each location to assist BLM staff in the office as needed. Additionally, the data specialist may be required to camp overnight with AIM field crews for up to three (3) days and two (2) nights to assist with data collection as needed;
  • Assist BLM staff with analysis efforts related to sage-grouse habitat management and land use plan implementation, such as adaptive trigger casual factor analysis;
  • Create tools like the HAF tool in ArcGIS for data extraction, summary, and evaluation; and
  • Complete legacy HAF database including a GIS spatial component.

The Data Specialist must be able to pass a federal background clearance and complete all required security trainings (FISSA) needed for federal building and computer network access.
 
Contract Timeline:

This position runs from October 2023 to June 2025 (total of 20 Months). Start date is flexible, please contact GBI if you have any questions regarding project timeline.

Location:

This position will be based at the Bureau of Land Management State Office located in Boise, Idaho.

Compensation and Benefits:

  • Pay Rate: $25.00 – $26.50 per hour depending on experience.
  • Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance paid 100% by GBI. Available first day of month following first day of employment. For more details on each benefit plan, please contact hr@gbinstitute.org. 
  • Paid Leave Benefit: Vacation accrued at 4 hours per 80 hour pay period starting on first day of employment. Sick Leave accumulated at 4 hours per pay period starting on first day of employment with a maximum of 40 hours earned and used within the award period of July 1 and June 30 annually.
  • Eligible to enroll in GBI 401K Employer Plan on the first of the month following 90 days of employment. GBI will match up to 4% of employee’s contribution.

Job Qualifications:

Qualifications of the data specialist include:

  • Education: Bachelor’s degree in ecology, botany or related natural resources field. 
  • Experience: Minimum 2 years specialized experience or related graduate work. Ability to work with multiple field and district office leads in complex work environments, interest and ability to learn and grow professional skills. Applicant must have valid state-issued driver’s license.
  • Preferred: Master’s degree, previous Terrestrial AIM monitoring experience, proficiency with ESRI products (e.g., ArcMap, web maps), and experience and/or training in using software (R, Python) to conduct basic statistical analyses, with the ability to clearly instruct others in technical material.

HOW TO APPLY

Apply online using the link below!

https://www.vscyberhosting.com/greatbasin/Careers.aspx?req=2023-AIM-009&type=CONSBOARD