Overview

Location: Jalova, Costa Rica
Type of role: Permanent (minimum 1 year contract)
Start date: June 2022
Speciality: Research, analyse and evaluate rainforest and coastal ecosystem data focused on jaguars, sea turtles, manatees, Geoffrey’s spider monkey, green macaws.

About you

You are passionate about tackling wildlife conservation issues, and believe that how we measure and understand environmental impact is critical to ensuring the protection and preservation of our planet.

You are a self-starter who rolls up your sleeves to get things done, and enjoys tackling a wide variety of tasks as part of your day-to-day. You are looking for an opportunity that will allow you to engage, and build relationships, with like-minded people from all over the globe.

What you will do and how you will grow

GVI develops and leads long-term conservation approaches and programs, to build local capacity, provide high quality data on wildlife trends, and protect and restore important habitats. Our Costa Rica (Jalova) hub is located in the spectacular Tortuguero National Park, surrounded on three sides by protected rainforest and on the other by a beach that is home to one of the largest nesting colonies of green turtles in the world. In partnership with Tortuguero National Park and other local partners our work focuses on monitoring biodiversity, rainforest canals, Caribbean coast, and  protecting critically important species.

The goal of the Wildlife Science Manager is to deliver ethical and impactful wildlife programs and manage the hub’s research and impact reporting. The role reports to the hub’s Program Manager and is supported by GVI’s global Conservation Impact Director. You will engage with our participants, ensure the hub has robust data collection and reporting systems in place, liaise with university lecturers/professors around the hub’s research agenda, and write reports to communicate project results.

Responsibilities

  • Lead and support field staff, volunteers and interns to deliver fieldwork and project activities successfully
  • Serve as a role model by demonstrating strong work ethic and respect for different perspectives and cultures
  • Day-to-day liaising with local partners to build and maintain relationships, ensuring projects are locally-led and have maximum positive impact
  • Write up project concept documents and impact frameworks that outline project goals, short and long-term outcomes, expected outputs, proposed activities and required resources
  • Develop a monitoring strategy and oversee daily impact and research data collection
  • Deliver participant training workshops and oversee participants’ participation in project work and/or research supervision
  • Conduct project evaluations and write up local impact reports including results and lessons learnt for each project
  • Develop content that champions local voices and thought pieces on important conservation issues, drive fundraising initiatives for local partners
  • Provide information and data relating to research, impact and ethics to Marketing, Sales and Finance teams in Central Support
  • Own overall impact of the Jalova hub

GVI is a platform for personal growth and transformation. Innovation and entrepreneurship are not only valued at GVI, they are essential to our organisation’s success. In addition to providing training and mentorship, we empower our teams to learn by doing and get involved in small, ad hoc teams that often involve people from across the business.

Qualifications 

  • Master’s degree or PhD in  biology, ecology, natural resources, wildlife management, or equivalent. Relevant experience will be considered in place of a degree.
  • First aid qualifications also advantageous

Competencies

  • Highly competent in data analysis and graphing in R, Python, or other programming languages
  • Ability to work with large data sets and produce scientific documents across diverse wildlife disciplines. Evidence of scientific scholarship (e.g. peer reviewed publications)
  • Organised and able to set up systems for managing data, processes and information
  • Excellent English communication skills (oral and written), with speaking ability in Spanish being an advantage

Desired experience

  • Conservation work at remote field sites in different regions
  • Conducting ecological surveys focused on rainforest and coastal ecosystems
  • Working with national government agencies, NGOs, small scale fishing communities, marine scientists and academics, working with students or volunteers advantageous
  • Managing research programs and developing wildlife monitoring protocols
  • Impact management, or monitoring and evaluation
  • Training others or teaching and communicating technical information to non-technical audiences

The successful applicant must comply with GVI’s COVID-19 Mandatory Vaccination Policy and Employment Code of Conduct.

Salary package

Monthly cash salary depending on experience and qualifications. Additional benefits:

  • Accommodation
  • Food
  • Insurance
  • Working equipment and materials including computer, internet and base mobile phone
  • For international employees, we also offer a flight stipend and cover any visa costs

Additionally, we provide 

  • The ability to rotate across our different locations bi-annually, growing and learning across stakeholders, programs and partners.
  • A highly collaborative, flat, and entrepreneurial organisation that provides the platform to make an impact on day one.
  • A global team that is uniquely talented, passionate and fun.
  • Engagement with stimulating conservation projects across various industries, geographies, and types of project partners.
  • A deep commitment to improving diversity, equity, inclusion.
  • Competitive salary and career development opportunities.

About GVI

We are a multi-award-winning social enterprise on a mission to build a global network of people united by their passion to make a difference. We run all our own sustainable development programs in 13 countries worldwide aligned to the objectives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

To ensure we are truly having a lasting positive impact, we partner with local governmental and non-governmental organisations on the ground. More than 35,000 participants have either volunteered, interned, or studied abroad with us over the course of our 21 years in operation, and most have noted the experience as ‘life-changing.’

Our programs can be found at gviworld.com

To apply

Please submit your application to: https://gvi.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=33

Your application should include: CV/ a resume and a cover letter that provides responses to the following questions:

  • What drew you to this role, and which part are you most excited about?
  • Tell us about what wildlife research topics you are experienced or interested in?
  • What do you think are a few key challenges and opportunities related to strengthening wildlife conservation in Costa Rica?