On behalf of the Upper Mississippi/Great Lakes Joint Venture (UMGLJV), the Great Lakes/Atlantic Region of Ducks Unlimited, Inc. (DU) has an opening for a Science Implementation Coordinator (DU Research Scientist IV) to work with partners across the 10-state UMGLJV region to coordinate and support the Joint Venture’s ability to integrate science and conservation planning into strategic habitat conservation delivery. The UMGLJV has a strong science-based foundation and excellent partnerships with state and federal agencies, NGOs, universities, industry, and others and seeks to expand the ability to translate science and planning tools into effective, coordinated implementation of habitat programs across our geography. 

The UMGLJV is a landscape conservation partnership supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and comprised of partners from government agencies, conservation NGOs, universities, industry, tribes, and private landowners to collaborate on bird habitat conservation. The work of the Joint Venture focuses primarily on science support, conservation planning, research and monitoring, coordination of habitat delivery, and communications. 

The UMGLJV is guided by a management board that has identified the need to better translate the body of science developed by the UMGLJV, our partners, and many others into on-the-ground conservation deliverables. The UMGLJV Science Team has been instrumental in informing and guiding the targeted delivery of habitat conservation programs and has also been on the forefront on studying and integrating human dimensions and social science outcomes into planning and delivery strategies. The Science Implementation Coordinator will work closely with the UMGLJV Science Team and other science partners to identify, undertake and communicate the range of science needed by partners to effectively deliver habitat conservation strategies. 

The UMGLJV Science Implementation Coordinator will be employed by DU with wages and benefits provided by DU under agreement with the USFWS and other UMGLJV partners.  The Science Implementation Coordinator will serve and function as an integral member of the UMGLJV team and will be supervised by the Joint Venture Coordinator for annual work planning, performance, schedule and travel planning, and priority and task setting, with administrative supervision provided by DU.  The position will be located with other UMGLJV staff or partners in the USFWS in East Lansing, Michigan. Telework will be available but full remote work is not a consideration. 

Duty 1: JV Science Team support

• Support and coordinate the work of the UMGLJV Science Team, including the Technical Committee and associated workgroups, including facilitating communications, organizing calls and meetings, and serving as liaison between Science Team members and the Joint Venture Coordinator and management board. 
• Serve as the coordinator of the UMGLJV Technical Committee and work with its co-chairs to organize and oversee its purpose and function, including identifying science and research priorities as identified by the workgroups and collaboratively developing strategies, partnerships, and funding mechanisms to address those priorities.  
• Work closely with Technical Committee members, UMGLJV/USGS Research Scientist and Joint Venture staff to develop and strengthen relationships and partnerships with a wide array of science producers – across agencies, academic institutions, and disciplines – to inform and impact on-the-ground conservation delivery. This includes practitioners in biological, ecological, traditional, and social sciences.
• Advance the UMGLJV’s strong science foundation, linking continental, regional, and local plans, population goals and habitat objectives to inform and empower strategic habitat conservation in the UMGLJV.

Duty 2: Science integration

• Seek and facilitate opportunities to bring scientifical research, including biological, ecological, social and climate science, to bear on habitat delivery systems and partners, and support conservation partners in applying science to address key landscape threats and opportunities through voluntary, proactive conservation delivery. 
• Help partners access science to support strategic habitat conservation delivery. This involves meeting partners where they are in terms of technical and professional disciplines, organizational science support, and delivery tools for landscape-scale conservation.
• Represent the voice and needs of conservation delivery partners into the co-development of future research and science applications to address information needs most relevant at various scales.
• Develop, lead, and or support workshops, landscape-based collaborations, and a host of communications tactics and tools designed to help partners apply science in conservation delivery.
• Interpret scientific findings and other relevant information with partners to inform strategic conservation delivery. This consists of brokering mutual respect among scientists and conservation delivery professionals to enable the understanding and adoption of science into conservation programs and on the-ground delivery.
• Work closely with JV/USGS Research Scientist and Technical Committee to identify science priorities and apply scientific findings to implementation. 
• Provide science technical support to the UMGLJV to address complex habitat conservation issues with both social and ecological drivers that directly impact the planning, design, delivery, and evaluation of natural resource management strategies.  
• Serve as nexus for the UMGLJV conservation delivery networks (CDNs), CDN coordinators, and other implementation practitioners on science needs and opportunities. 

Duty 3: Conservation planning and design 

• Work closely with the UMGLJV Science team, UMGLJV Spatial Analyst, and other staff, to coordinate and support work to develop biological conservation plans, designs, and decision support tools at various scales and focused on key landscapes and priority ecosystems. This may include updates to UMGLJV-wide landbird, waterbird, shorebird and waterfowl plans and decision support tools or may be step-down plans and tools as determined by the needs of UMGLJV implementation networks and partners. 
• Lead and support UMGLJV implementation plan updates and revisions and support development of strategic implementation plans at delivery scales. 

Duty 4: Coordination with other conservation collaboratives

• Represent the UMGLJV on appropriate committees, teams, or other groups assembled to address migratory bird and/or landscape issues, including but not limited to NAWMP NSST/UST committees, PIF committees, various AFWA working groups, and others. 
• Establish and build relationships with other Joint Ventures, especially neighboring Joint Ventures, to further understanding of shared migratory bird resources and to capitalize on joint project opportunities.
• Work across USFWS programs and regions to seek opportunities to collaborate on and integrate planning, monitoring and evaluation of priority habitat management efforts.
• Work with other collaborative landscape conservation groups such as Midwest Landscape Initiative, Great Lakes Coastal Assembly, etc. to leverage expertise and resources, identify shared priorities and opportunities for collaboration, and to avoid redundancy or conflicts in planning and delivery efforts. 

Candidate expectations:

The UMGLJV is a partnership of dozens of organizations working together to conserve habitat for migratory birds, other species, and people. We recognize that success in this endeavor requires both technical knowledge and the ability to work effectively with people to catalyze landscape-scale conservation outcomes across the Joint Venture. Although this position requires specific technical expertise, the human element is equally critical to our mission. As such, the knowledge, skills, abilities and experience we seek are as follows:

•  Ability to connect and communicate with, and listen and learn from people with diverse perspectives, experiences, and values. 
• Excellent communication skills—both in the receiving of information and sharing of information. Ability to connect with individuals and audiences by recognizing preferred communication formats and accommodating accordingly. 
• Demonstrated ability to work with a multitude of partners including, but not limited to: private landowners, tribes, researchers, locally and nationally based organizations, funding entities, industry partners, state and federal agencies. 
• Ability to share information effectively and create new platforms of communication using both oral, written, spatial, and other manners of information sharing. 
• Ability to outreach and communicate scientific results to wide ranging audiences using a multitude of platforms and communication techniques to effect desired change. 
• Ability to forge lasting relationships and build partnerships to find common ground among those with diverse perspectives on issues involving natural resource conservation and management. 
• Demonstrated practice of emotional intelligence through exercising self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. 
• Awareness of and ability to apply principles of adaptive leadership to teams and systems to make progress on challenges within the JV community.
• Adherence to UMGLJV Guiding Principles. 
• Experience in Zoom and/or Microsoft Teams, video, and other online presentation formats. 

2. Technical skills, abilities, and experience 

• Ability to synthesize science and technical information in a meaningful way and translate that information through spatial tools and other means to inform and effect change. 
• Detailed knowledge of landscape and/or wildlife ecology, and other facets of ecological science utilized in strategic habitat and landscape conservation. 
• Detailed knowledge of avian ecology, biology, and population modeling, with specific expertise in waterfowl, marshbirds, grassland birds, and forest birds. 
• Detailed knowledge of social science and human dimensions aspects of conservation planning and delivery, including demonstrated ability to incorporate social science/human dimensions into tools, products and plans used by practitioners to guide habitat delivery. 
• Demonstrated knowledge of field techniques and procedures in monitoring and assessing avian population status and habitat conditions, and knowledge of the natural history of the birds of the UMGLJV.  
• Demonstrated abilities in written and oral communications and collaboration with academia, habitat managers, conservation administrators, policy makers, and the public. 
• Experience working with or within other conservation partnership structures, including Joint Ventures, Flyway Councils, Flyway Technical Committees, landscape collaboratives.
• Knowledge and understanding of national bird conservation plans including Partners in Flight and the North American Waterfowl Management Plan. Experience in the development, revision, or stepping down of these plans to different scales is desirable. Experience working with Unified Science Team and/or NAWMP National Science Support Team is desirable.
• Excellent writing skills with proven ability to translate complex concepts into succinct, clear, accessible language for multiple audiences. 
• Experience developing-landscape level conservation plans and strategies and incorporating spatial analysis and population models and assessments. 
• Knowledge of Geographic Information Systems, spatial modeling, and other science tools, as well as their role, utility, and application in characterizing, analyzing, and assessing ecological processes, systems, and conditions, and conducting integrated landscape-level 
• Masters degree or higher in wildlife biology/management, range science, restoration ecology, or related field. 
• Minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in science and/or conservation implementation associated with wildlife, fisheries, water, range management, land conservation, or other aspects of natural resources conservation. 

3. Requirements of the position

• Must be willing to travel extensively across the UMGLJV region and across North America, including possible internationally, to attend meetings, conferences, site visits, and other events. Travel may be for multiple days and as frequently as monthly. 
• Must be able and willing to spend time in the field, possibly under inclement conditions, including strenuous activity in challenging natural environs. 
• Must have a valid driver’s license and be eligible to drive vehicles provided by USFWS and/ or DU.
• Must be willing to bring a positive, productive and collegial attitude to work every day.
• Must be excited by the opportunity to work with the UMGLJV partnership to tackle the big challenges facing habitat conservation in our geography.