Coastal Management Specialist

Perot Systems Government Services (PSGS), a contractor to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Services Center (Center) in Charleston, SC seeks a unique individual to provide support to west coast regional operations for the Regional Coastal Services branch of the Coastal Services Center. The west coast regional associate will serve to support the projects, coordination and communication efforts for the west coast region of the Center and aid in planning efforts for the west coast and the Regional Coastal Services branch.

Duties will include conducting needs assessments (including planning, data collection, data analysis, and reporting), workshops, and professional conferences. The goal of these activities will be to provide the west coast with innovative and proven coastal management tools and techniques that address relevant and timely coastal resource management needs in these communities.

The position is a two year position that will provide an opportunity for an early career professional to work on coastal resource management issues primarily in California, but also Washington and Oregon. 

The successful candidate will serve as a regional coastal specialist with responsibilities to the Center and will assist in the development and implementation of regional activities along the West Coast. 

The individual will be involved with a full range of activities and consultations, and will build partnerships with academic institutions and entities, educational organizations, business and industry, public interest groups, and with other federal, state and local governments. The individual will have the opportunity to take a project leadership role providing technical assistance to coastal resource management programs. The position will provide excellent opportunity to develop a skill set to pursue additional positions in the coastal resource management field. 

Specific responsibilities include: 

• Aiding in the development and execution of projects for the Center in the West Coast region. This requires familiarity with the West Coast regional partners and programs, specifically ocean and coastal resource management. 
• Coordinating Center projects and programs in the region with a focus on helping coastal communities become more hazard resilient. Ongoing projects include ecosystem-based management in San Francisco and Humboldt Bay, and coastal water quality technical assistance with the California Water and Land Use Partnership. 
• Facilitating Center regional participation in internal Center, NOAA National Ocean Service (NOS), and NOAA regional efforts, including support for the NOAA West Regional Team, NOAA San Francisco Bay Coordination group, and other coordination and communication work. This work will include helping to develop agendas; responding to meeting tasks; and other developments in support of these efforts. 
• Identify opportunities for and coordinate applications of Center products, including geospatial decision-support tools, along the West Coast. 
• Assisting the West Coast regional manager with the development of and coordination for plans, tasks, schedules, reporting schemes, and measures of success that support regional operations, policy, program, project, and partner requirements. 
• Identifying liaison and relationship building opportunities, in coordination with the West Coast regional manager, with other NOS and NOAA regional interests. This activity includes monitoring NOAA regionalization efforts, Ocean Action Plan implementation, ecosystem approaches to management and integrated ocean observing activities.

Position Overview: 

• The position requires independent work and initiative. 
• The successful candidate must demonstrate strong communication and organizational skills, as well as excellent interpersonal skills. 
• The candidate should be detail-oriented, demonstrate an ability to build relationships with Center management, colleagues, and external partners, and be able to coordinate projects and efforts without being in control of them. 
• The candidate must also have the ability to work without direct day-to-day supervision, but be able to show and communicate progress to a variety of groups within the region and to management and partners across the nation. 
• This position will require travel around California and the west coast as well as to Charleston, SC and other regions in the country as needed. 
• The candidate must be able to effectively work and schedule activities with partners and staff not physically located with Oakland based staff.

Requirements: 

• The candidate should be a recent graduate, having completed at least a Master's degree in the coastal resource management field. 
• Knowledge of coastal and marine programs within the Center and NOAA is preferred, or a demonstrated ability to get up to speed quickly in a new area. 
• Familiarity with coastal resource management issues including those related to hazards and climate change. 
• Having familiarity with ESRI ArcGIS, including the Spatial Analyst Extension. 
• Experience with creating ArcGIS geodatabases and analyzing and displaying geospatial data is a plus. 
• Requires a MS degree in Coastal Resource with 1-2 years of related experience

To Apply:

The job reference number is:  000248:SAT 

To express interest, please visit this website: 

http://careers.psgs.com