Overview

WRA, Inc. provides professional environmental consulting services in plant, wildlife, and wetland ecology; GIS; environmental planning; regulatory compliance; mitigation and conservation banking; landscape architecture; and engineering. We have been in operation for over forty years and are in the midst of a gradual shift from a small business to a medium sized business. This means that we simultaneously benefit from having developed a relationship-oriented company culture over the years while evolving and implementing systems, processes, and structures to support the growth and evolution as a business. WRA is an employee-owned company, and we are invested in long-term high-quality professional experiences for all of our staff.

Leslie Lazarotti is a Principal and Project Delivery Team Leader based out of our Emeryville office who is seeking an early professional biologist to become the next member of our team. Leslie’s team currently works on development, trail, and coastal projects around the bay area. If you have experience with and enjoy conducting fieldwork, botanical surveys, wetland delineations, have prior exposure to permitting, and you enjoy working on a team, we want to talk to you about joining us.

In this role you may choose to work remotely, in person, or on a hybrid schedule. The ideal candidate will need to be within commuting distance to one of our 3 Northern California offices (San Rafael, Petaluma, and Emeryville), to facilitate access to field work locations and in office team building.

In this role, you will be:

  • Preparing wetland delineation jurisdictional requests, biological technical reports, restoration/mitigation monitoring reports, and botanical/rare plant survey reports
  • Leading aquatic resource permitting efforts with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Regional Water Quality Control Board, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Coastal Commission, and the San Francisco Bay Conservation Development Commission
  • Conducting CEQA analysis, including existing condition evaluations, impact assessments, and mitigation recommendations, for IS/MNDs and EIRs
  • Making ecological management recommendations based on results of ecological surveys and monitoring data
  • Providing oversight and guidance of field work to be completed by junior staff

To be successful in this role, you will need:

  • A Bachelor’s degree in biology,  vegetation, or wetland ecology
  • 1-3 years of environmental consulting experience
  • Experience with aquatic resources regulatory permitting
  • Experience coordinating field surveys at remote and challenging-to-access field sites
  • A desire to continue learning and adding to your technical knowledge and skills
  • Technical knowledge of wetland delineation, hydric soil characterization, the ecology, field identification, and habitat assessment of plant species, botanical survey protocols, vegetation, and habitat mapping
  • Experience in CEQA/NEPA botanical and wetland resource review
  • Experience in managing client relationships and coordinating multiple projects at once
  • Strong organizational and communication skills
  • Resourcefulness, thoroughness, and attention to detail
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, G-Suite: Email, Docs, Drive, Calendar, etc.