Raptor Conservation Field Technician

Classification: FT Temp Exempt

Dates: March 1st (or sooner) - August 1st 2025 

Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Compensation: $810/ week 

Application Deadline: Position open until filled

APPLY HERE

About HawkWatch International

Founded in 1986, HawkWatch International is a raptor conservation nonprofit with a mission to conserve the environment through education, long-term monitoring, and scientific research on raptors as indicators of ecosystem health. As we approach 40 years of conservation, we are ready to invest in people who can help our hardworking team of educators, scientists, and administrative staff.

About the Position

Migration counts from sites across North America indicate declining populations of American Kestrels. This prompted the creation of a research program at HWI to investigate the causes of these declines. Our community science team, composed of staff biologists, partner biologists, interns, students, and volunteers, maintains and monitors hundreds of nestboxes each year to monitor the success of nesting American Kestrels.  In addition to demographic data we collect information on size, diet, habitat associations, movement ecology, and physical health. We band each nestling with a USGS band and unique color bands to learn more about these raptors’ movements, longevity, and more. With 2025 marking our 12th season, the program has evolved and now studies the ecology of all cavity-adopting raptors in our study system. 

HawkWatch International seeks a field technician to support our Cavity Adopting Raptors Ecology Studies (CARES) program. The position involves coordinating with community scientists, data QC, working with a team of interns and biologists, safely capturing and banding raptors, and collecting blood samples. Job duties shift throughout the season, but the position is roughly 70% fieldwork (box maintenance and monitoring, resights, banding American Kestrels and small owls), 15% data entry/QC, 10% communicating with volunteers, and 5% gear and vehicle management/maintenance. This position primarily reports to Kate Sweet, Long-Term Monitoring and Community Science Field Biologist.

Primary Duties & Responsibilities

• Maintaining and installing nest boxes (requires use of ladders and drills)
• Monitoring nest boxes and digital data entry
• Use of spotting scopes to resight color-banded raptors as part of a long-term movement and survival study
• Installation, upkeep, and retrieval of data from nest cameras
• QAQC digital data entries
• Banding and collecting morphometric data 
• Collecting blood and feather samples from adult and nestling birds
• Leading and helping plan nestling banding events for community scientists
• Communicating and coordinating with community scientists 
• Assisting biologists with training intern team as appropriate 
• Occasionally assisting HWI biologists with GPS tag deployment and tag retrieval using bal-chatris and mistnets
• Report to and communicate with immediate supervisor

Qualifications (Essential skills)

• Experience driving field vehicles and caring for vehicles
• 2+ field work seasons (not necessarily all with raptors or birds)
• Experience conducting field work in challenging conditions (heat, long work days, etc.)
• Excellent communication skills 
• Adaptable to changing schedules
• Comfortable using ladders 
• Comfortable with blood and needles
• Experience banding raptors 
• Possess enough capture and banding experience to be added to HWI permit as subpermittee

Characteristics That Will Set You Apart (Desirable skills)

• Previous work with volunteers or community scientists
• Experience collecting blood samples 
• Previous experience training and teaching volunteers or other technicians
• Previous experience working in large-scale study systems
• Experience reviewing and quality-checking field data collected by others 
• A sense of humor in challenging conditions

Additional Information

• Night and weekend work required, some work weeks will exceed 40 hours (occasionally ~60-hour work weeks, generally in May and June during the peak of breeding season). Two days off will be given each week, with rare exceptions.
• As part of our commitment to providing a safe and secure work environment, we conduct background checks on all prospective employees. These checks are conducted in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, and are designed to ensure that our hiring decisions are based on legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons.

Key Points:

• Consent: We obtain written consent before conducting any background check.
• Transparency: Should any information from a background check potentially impact hiring decisions, we will provide you with a copy of the report and an opportunity to respond.
• Non-discrimination: We apply the same standards to all candidates, regardless of race, national origin, color, sex, religion, disability, genetic information, or age.
• Relevance: A criminal record will not automatically disqualify you from employment. We will consider the nature and timing of any offenses in relation to the job requirements.
• Mandatory: Final approval of hiring is contingent upon completion of the background check process.

Compensation

This full-time, temporary, exempt, volunteer position offers a stipend of $810 dollars a week. Free shared housing may be available to hires that do not live locally. 

Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We believe that just as in nature, diversity in the workforce fosters adaptability, resilience, and well-being. We strive to build a team that reflects the stakeholders and communities we serve and the places we work. Our goal is to create an environment where each team member feels valued, respected, and empowered in their work.