Senior Biologist

Company Description

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There has never been a better time to be at AECOM. With accelerating infrastructure investment worldwide, our services are in great demand. We invite you to bring your bold ideas and big dreams and become part of a global team of nearly 50,000 planners, designers, engineers, scientists, digital innovators, program and construction managers and other professionals delivering projects that create a positive and tangible impact around the world.

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Job Description

AECOM is seeking a Senior Biologist to be a key member of an exciting and transformative new program that AECOM is leading for a major Southern California utility client involving undergrounding of electrical infrastructure. We are seeking an experienced and motivated candidate to take on this career-defining opportunity. As part of this important role, you will support numerous aspects of natural resource management with a focus on environmental compliance for this multi-faceted program. This position is located in our San Diego, CA office with a hybrid work option.

The successful candidate will have:

• Strong working knowledge of environmental regulatory requirements for utility and/or linear projects in California.
• Strong interpersonal, organizational, creative problem-solving, collaboration and leadership skills.
• Experience contributing to a diverse team of professionals.
• Experience managing environmental studies for large, complex, linear projects in multiple locations, with an emphasis on biological and aquatics resources knowledge.
• Experience working with design teams to avoid, minimize and streamline environmental regulatory permitting for biological and aquatic resources.
• Familiarity with regulatory and permitting requirements under the federal Endangered Species Act, California Endangered Species Act, NEPA, CEQA, and the Clean Water Act.

Key responsibilities:

• Maintains project level tracking of environmental tasks across a broad portfolio of similar linear utility projects.
• Apply knowledge of major state and federal regulatory frameworks and regional conservation planning to assigned tasks.
• Support planning and execution of environmental review and technical documents (e.g., Biological Technical Reports, Mitigation and Monitoring Plans, Natural Environment Studies, Biological Assessments, and/or EIR/EIS sections), specifically for biological and aquatic resources.
• Conduct biological survey fieldwork as part of a team and alone in coastal, inland, and desert environments, which can include rugged terrain.
• Identify and record native and non-native fauna and/or flora in the field.   
• Utilize electronic data collection methods and manage data, as needed.
• Function as part or larger team focused on design, permitting, land rights acquisition and environmental, collaborate to obtain project approval in timely fashion.
• Work with client to support external agency communications and submittals.
• Serve as subject matter expert on matters related to biological and aquatic resources and/or regulations.
• Coordinate with project managers to ensure engineering plans and/or proposed construction methods meet requirements of agencies.
• Inform other internal functional groups about requirements and regulations related to environmental issues to assist with compliance with general conditions of approvals at permit and construction stages of the project, and to meet project timelines.
• Support project management responsibilities, including internal and external project status reporting and participation in project and team meetings.
• Work under supervision of senior project managers or senior-level team members.

Qualifications

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s Degree in related field (biology, ecology, etc.) and a minimum of 4 years of experience or demonstrated equivalency of experience and/or education.
• Valid driver license required.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• 7 years or more of experience in a related field.
• Master’s degree in technical or business discipline.
• Strong organizational and communications skills and ability to clearly and proactively communicate with constructio