Movement Ecologist/Program Manager for Movement of Life (MOL) Initiative

Job Summary:

Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Front Royal, Virginia is seeking a dynamic movement ecologist to manage the Smithsonian’sMovement of Life (MOL) Initiative. 

MOL is developing partnerships within and outside the Smithsonian to advance the field of movement ecology and its contributions to sustaining biodiversity and understanding how environmental and climate change may affect organismal movement in the future.  MOL also works closely with Partners in the Sky, a private-public partnership between the Smithsonian and industry to advance the use of state-of-the-art technology for animal tracking. MOL focuses on:

• Advancing new tools and technologies to address movement ecology.
• Developing standardized approaches for conducting animal movement research around the world enabling us to scale up global tracking efforts.
• Expanding existing training programs in movement ecology through collaboration with other training organizations (e.g. AniMove; animove.org).
• Creating exciting new stories for our public audiences to learn about animal movement and its role in creating and maintaining life on Earth.

The Program Manager will be responsible for all aspect of MOL.  Additionally, the Program Manager will be expected to collaborate with colleagues in developing and conducting theoretical and applied science in the field of movement ecology and animal tracking.

Although MOL is physically based at SCBI in Front Royal, the Program Manager will work across Smithsonian research centers and bureaus to advance existing and develop new research partnerships.

Successful candidates have significant experience in conducting movement ecological research (terrestrial, aerial, or aquatic) and field campaigns (e.g. designing projects, tracking species in the field and remotely), and have a sound background in analysis of animal movement data.

Duties:

As Program Manager of MOL the incumbent will oversee the continued development and implementation of MOL’s overall strategy, develop and expand existing partnerships, represent MOL at national and international meetings, and lead research collaborations. The incumbent will provide regular progress reports to the cross-SI MOL Working Group as well as the Partners in the Sky steering committee.

This successful candidate will:

• Collaborate with scientists from the within SI and from around the world to design and develop research projects on movement ecology and how environmental and climate change may affect organismal movement.
• Encourage and promote studies of interest to MOL and to advance SI Mission for understanding and sustaining of a biodiversity planet.
• Participate in scientific meetings and symposia, develop scientific papers for presentation, and corresponds with members of the scientific community involved in related research.
• Secure funds to support research projects from both internal and external sources.
• Provide advice and assistance to technicians, students, postdocs, and others carrying out related work.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• A Ph.D. in ecology or a related academic field
• Advanced knowledge in conducting movement ecology research, using animal tracking.
• Experience with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and in using R for analyzing data and programming
• Demonstrated skills in communicating with a wide-range of audiences using different outlets ranging from peer-reviewed scientific articles to web and social media.
• Ability to coordinate collaborative research, conservation, and training programs.

How to apply:

Please send letter of interest explaining your qualifications, a cv, and three references to [log in to unmask] by 15 April 2016.