For more information, please follow this link: https://www.conservationjobboard.com/job-listing-operations-research-specialist—hydro-electric-scientist—permanent—11674-22-mill-creek-washington/4694994475?utm_source=ongage&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=regular%20

Salary– $77,028.00 – $101,052.00 Annually

DUTIES

Our Hydro-Electric Scientist, 

Collaborates with internal and external scientists and IT specialists (i.e., database managers) to assemble relevant data for analytical research questions and analysis and hypothesis testing focused on the impacts of hydro-operations on the population dynamics of fish populations.

  • Participate in local and regional work groups to better understand research needs.
  • Collaborate with IT specialists as needed to obtain relevant data for analysis from internal databases such as Salmon Conservation Recovery Engine database (DB), Spawning Ground Survey DB, Age and Scales DB, Juvenile Migrant DB, and external databases including Coordinates Assessments DB, Pit Tag (PTAGIS) DB, Columbia River Data Access in Real Time (DART), and various project specific radio and acoustic tagging DB.
  • Develop large relational project database in ACCESS and PostgreSQL required to provide individual or group level summary statistics that are used to test hypothesis and provide answers to high-priority research questions.

Develop and carry out innovative and effective statistical approaches for hypothesis testing and analytical research questions and perform statistical analysis.

  • Develop open, transparent, and repeatable analyses using open-source statistical software including R, STAN, NIMBLE, INLA, etc.
  • Make analyses available on GitHub (or similar repository) – including data, data summaries, statistical code, and analytical results, including tables and figures.
  • Provide recommendations and analysis synthesis as needed.

Communicate work in written and oral formats. 

  • Use presentations and meetings to communicate results to internal and external scientist and policy makers.
  • Provide white papers, internal reports, and peer-reviewed publications.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

  • Work Setting, including hazards: 
    • Generally, work is performed in an office environment.
  • Schedule: 
    • Typically, 5 days a week, 40 hours per week schedule. 
  • Travel Requirements: 
    • Sporadic travel, primarily within Washington State.
  • Tools and Equipment: 
    • Personal computer with all needed software for the position, smartphone and/or tablet as needed.
  • Customer Interactions: 
    • This position will interact with tribal co-managers, local PUD, state, and federal scientists.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

  • A Master’s degree in in Science, Statistics, Mathematics and/or Computer Science, or a related field.

AND

  • Three (3) years of demonstrated experience in one of the above areas. 

AND 

  • Experience must include at least one (1) year of supervisory experience – this experience may be concurrent to the above required experience.

Please Note: 

  • A Ph.D. may substitute for two (2) years of the desired experience. 
  • Closely related qualifying experience may be substituted for the required education on a year-by-year basis.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Demonstrated success: 

  • In writing peer-reviewed research articles to include three articles published or in press in refereed literature (two articles must be a senior article, the third must be as senior or secondary author).

Experience with: 

  • Coding in and modifying existing code of statistical programming languages and/or platforms, including R. 
  • Descriptive, comparative, and advanced statistical approaches. 
  • Training personnel, assigning work, evaluating performance, and providing feedback. 

Knowledge of: 

  • Salmonid behavior, life history, ecology, and population dynamics. 
  • Fish population dynamics. 
  • Hydro-electric dam operations and passage routes.
  • Sampling theory. 

Ability to: 

  • Design studies to estimate life-stage survival, abundance, or other population parameters.
  • Develop and execute analytical approaches to address scientific hypotheses, and ultimately draw conclusions from biological data based on facts and evidence.