Salary: $117,962 (GS-13) plus federal benefits

Federal position? Yes

Location: Edgewater, Maryland

Work model: Telework eligible

To apply: All applications MUST be sent through USAJOBS via one of the links below. Applications via email or LinkedIn cannot be accepted.

https://www.usajobs.gov/job/793490600 (for non-federal applicants)
https://www.usajobs.gov/job/793488200 (for federal applicants, individuals with disabilities, veterans, military spouses and other special categories)
Tips for Navigating USAJOBS (because we know it’s confusing!) https://serc.si.edu/careers/tips-applying-federal-jobs

Questions? Contact us at SERCJobs@si.edu

Description:

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) invites applications for a Research Biologist with expertise in coastal landscape ecology. We seek scientists who integrate landscape information from many fields to address topics at spatial, temporal, and ecological scales to understand ecological processes and ecosystem functions such as coastal ecosystem responses to climate change, sea level rise, and other human impacts. Our goal is to extend or complement established SERC research themes such as ecosystem responses to climate change, watershed dynamics, landscape and seascape ecology, land-sea interactions, and the effects of land-use and human impacts on coastal ecosystems. We expect the incumbent’s research program to use the model landscape at SERC’s Rhode River site and employ comparative studies at other field sites in the Smithsonian network of long-term ecosystem research, and elsewhere globally as appropriate.

This position reports to the Associate Director for Research, serves as a principal investigator, and leads a research program at SERC. The SERC community seeks to fill this key position with a person capable of working well with a diverse community of staff, students, volunteers, and visitors to develop a strong research program. This is a permanent full-time Federal position with associated benefits.

We are interested in candidates with expertise in any of these areas, including but not limited to:

  • Carbon and nutrient cycling at landscape scales
  • Coastal watershed science and hydrology
  • Integration of coastal data across multiple spatial, temporal, and/or ecological scales
  • Quantitative modeling
  • Landscape-scale restoration, conservation, and/or ecosystem management

Qualifications:

  • Degree: biology, or a related field of science underlying ecological research that included at least 30 semester hours in basic and applied biological sciences.
  • You qualify for this position if you possess one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 level in the federal service or comparable pay band system (be sure to list the duration of this experience in months and years, as well as the number of hours per week you worked, or your application may be rejected).
  • Specialized experience (your application must describe your experience in each of the following):
    • Research investigating coastal ecosystem responses to climate change, sea level rise, and other anthropogenic impacts at landscape scales.
    • Obtaining research funding from competitive internal and/or extramural funding sources.
    • Publishing data-rich papers with regional and/or national application and significance.
    • Presenting research results to scientific and other audiences.

Values and Opportunities:

SERC is a research unit of the Smithsonian Institution dedicated to ecological research and education. SERC’s 2,650-acre campus is a living laboratory for long-term ecosystem research on forests, farmland, wetlands, shorelines and estuaries. SERC is strategically located in a rural landscape with immediate proximity to the Baltimore-Washington DC-Annapolis urban system on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay and central to the Bay’s large watershed.  Our vibrant community of 150 staff includes principal investigators, educators, technicians, postdocs, and graduate and undergraduate researchers, who annually engage and collaborate with interns, 500+ volunteers, and 15,000 public visitors.

Research and education at SERC address grand challenges in environmental science by working across ecological scales, conducting long-term studies, and engaging in comparative, synthetic studies. Our scientists collaborate across the Smithsonian Institution and with federal and state agencies, universities, and international organizations. We value public engagement and have strong programs in participatory science, science education, and science communication.

The successful applicant will have access to and the opportunity to build upon considerable field, lab, and data resources available at SERC, particularly the Coastal Carbon Network which is accelerating the pace of discovery in coastal wetland carbon science by providing the coastal community with access to data, analysis tools, and synthesis opportunities. Other opportunities include over four decades of watershed research on weir-equipped experimental watersheds with near-continuous hydrological and biogeochemical records, automated sensor networks capturing hydrologic dynamics, and a watershed-scale stream restoration experiment.

SERC is home to the Global Change Research Wetland (GCReW) dedicated to in situ experiments designed to unravel biogeochemical processes in coastal wetlands responding to CO2 enrichment, warming, and other global changes. SERC hosts a National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) site, a ForestGEO forest dynamics plot, and a large tree biodiversity-ecosystem function experiment (BiodiversiTree).

In addition, a wide variety of analytical instruments and computing resources are available, including a server and workstations configured for geospatial analysis, statistical analysis, and modeling, and spatial software packages for analysis of maps and imagery data. The successful applicant will be expected to conduct research at the SERC study site as part of their research program and will be expected to develop a research program that is primarily grant-funded.

The SERC community recognizes the value of diversity in promoting innovative science and creative solutions, and we strongly encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply. We recognize that each applicant for this role will bring unique skills, knowledge, experiences, and background to this position. The Smithsonian Institution is an equal opportunity employer, committed to a policy of non-discrimination on the basis of race/ethnicity, national origin, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, martial/parental/caregiver status, and disability.

USAJOBS Tip: For this position, please make sure to upload your full CV and graduate and undergraduate transcripts (unofficial is fine). Your CV must clearly state the start and end dates of each job you have held, and the number of hours a week worked in each job. Your CV must specifically show that you have the specialized experience required for this job, listed below. More tips for applying on USAJOBS