Senior Nature Based Solutions Specialist

Arcadis is the world's leading company delivering sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets.

We are more than 36,000 people, in over 70 countries, dedicated to improving quality of life. Everyone has an important role to play. With the power of many curious minds, together we can solve the world’s most complex challenges and deliver more impact together.

Role description:

Arcadis is currently seeking a technically proficient ecologist and/or engineer with a minimum of 10 years’ experience to serve as a Senior Nature Based Solutions (NBS) Specialist. This position will be based in New York City and focused on both leading and supporting projects related to NBS, ecological restoration, and climate resiliency. Projects will focus on the greater New York City area and north Atlantic coastline; however, is also anticipated to include select projects throughout North America in support of growth of Arcadis’ national NBS practice.   

As a Senior NBS Specialist, you will lead, and support select accounts and project teams of engineers, ecologists, planners, and modeling specialists in planning and designing a wide range of NBS to address climate change-related risk to people and infrastructure. Frequently, projects will require the design of nature-based measures be tied into or incorporated as part of more structural measures.  This role will also support ecological restoration driven projects focused on compensatory mitigation, mitigation banking, and/or natural resource damage and assessment restoration.  Clients will include federal and municipal governments, private industry, as well as conservation focused non-profit organizations. 

This role requires understanding, synthesizing, and balancing multiple problems, objectives, opportunities, constraints, and considerations present in developed, aged, and heavily used urban and suburban waterfronts challenged by climate change. The anticipated projects will include multi-disciplinary needs to develop natural system-based solutions favorable to both client and relevant stakeholders. The role will require working directly with clients, as well as identified stakeholders through all phases of a project.  A key aspect of the role will be successfully working with the Arcadis team to demonstrate the benefits and values of NBS in terms of risk reduction of critical infrastructure; resiliency to sea level rise, increased flooding and storm surges; long-term cost effectiveness; enhancement of ecological functions and wildlife habitat; and enhancement of ecological services important to surrounding communities (i.e., water quality, public open space). The role will also require directly working with regulators, and leading permitting efforts to support NBS-focused projects. 

The planning and design of structural and nature-based measures, including ecological restoration, is anticipated to include, but not limited to: living shorelines, beneficial re-use of dredge sediments including thin layer sediment deposition, mosquito ditch remediation, tidal hydrology restoration/ improvements, coastal wetland restoration, stream restoration, bluebelts and other nature based stormwater management practices, vegetation management/enhancement, and marsh migration planning. 

Role accountabilities:

Design: Serve as the lead designer for NBS practices, integrated into other design projects. Develop scope of work and budget, including coordination with other disciplines as needed to be able to advance through 100% design. Responsible for collating and curating design details and specifications to develop a library of NBS information. Ensure quality control is in place for diverse, multidisciplinary delivery teams throughout all phases of a project including planning, design, and construction.  

Project Management: Function as a task lead and/or project manager, in establishing meeting project schedules, budgets, and quality objectives; assigning and monitoring of tasks; and ensuring adequate resources to deliver the work for NBS-focused projects. You must be able to work on a variety of projects simultaneously, as well as providing technical expertise and experience on other related projects.  

Client Liaison: This role will commonly include client communications, and leading meetings between the client staff and the consultant team. You will engage with the client regularly from a position of familiarity with the consultant team’s advances and actively participate in knowledge sharing, brainstorming, and work planning with client staff. Part of this responsibility will be to manage existing and an expanding base of clients by meeting or exceeding their expectations, by delivering quality work, and through active communication.

Thought Leadership: Fun