Job Type: Full-time, on-site
Location: Sacramento County, CA
Salary: $7,556-$10,221/month
Application Due Date: August 12, 2025
Overview:
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is California’s fire department and resource management agency. The organization is comprised of nearly 12,000 permanent and seasonal employees. The mission of the Department is to serve and safeguard the people and protect the property and resources of California.
Under the direction of the Senior Environmental Scientist (Supervisory) of Assessment and Planning, the Senior Environmental Scientist (Specialist) performs work related to understanding and reporting on current environmental trends and management concerns for California’s forests and rangelands
Job Duties:
Forest and Rangeland Assessment (40%)
Assist with planning, coordination, and development of the California Forests and Rangelands Assessment.
Serve as an author and Subject Matter Expert for one or more chapters of the Assessment. This includes writing and revising draft chapters of the report, producing tables, figures, and maps to illustrate key findings, and conducting data analysis. Collaboratively work with other program staff to support work on additional Assessment content outside of direct area of subject matter expertise.
Contribute to development of written materials required in state forest assessments for US Forest Service Assessment requirements for Federal grant funding under State and Private Cooperative Program.
Use GIS and statistical software to analyze and display data.
Oversee work to support transition to an online Assessment report and data dashboard that is updated more frequently than the full report.
Assist with reviewing, developing, and updating content to maintain the online dashboard of Assessment data.
Landscape and Project-level Monitoring and Analysis (40%)
Utilize Remote Sensing, aerial, and ground-based data collection systems (e.g., Light Detection and Ranging, photogrammetry) for the purposes of monitoring forest structure, forest health, and forest mortality metrics associated with management activities, disturbance, and climate change.
Serve as program expert on emerging forest and rangeland data collection methods and technologies.
Build and maintain relationships within CAL FIRE and with external partners engaged in collection and processing of data monitoring resources.
Use and process data collected from CAL FIRE Intel program aerial resources on wildfire incidents and baseline data from various sources to understand fire behavior and vegetation, ecosystem, and human/social impacts.
Serve on committees and collaborate with land management partners, state and federal agencies, academic partners, and other stakeholders to interpret and communicate results and implications.
Write reports, present findings, and compose and publish research papers on related topics.
Coordinate with Demonstration State Forest Program to acquire, process, and interpret remote sensing data to support research, inventory, monitoring, and forest management.
Field-based Research Support (10%)
Assist with field data collection and analysis to support FRAP research on State Forests and other collaborative research projects with internal and external partners.
Collaborate on monitoring projects that integrate remote sensing with field-based monitoring protocols.
Special Assignments (10%)
Assist with special projects, bill analysis, media requests, information requests from CAL FIRE executives, and other duties as assigned in accordance with the class specification.
Requirements:
The position(s) require(s) Medical Clearance prior to being hired.
Possession of a bachelor's or advanced degree with a major in a biological, chemical, physical, or environmental science, soil science, water science, hydrology, agronomy, natural resource science, environmental or public health, physical geography, or a closely related scientific discipline. (Admission to a masters or doctoral degree program in a biological, chemical, physical, or environmental science, soil science, water science, hydrology, agronomy, natural resource science, environmental or public health, physical geography, or a closely related scientific discipline shall be considered to meet these education qualifications.)
Desirable Qualifications:
Subject Matter Expert in one of the following natural resource areas is preferred: Water resources, Rangeland ecology and management, Wildlife habitat/ecology, or Forest and Fire ecology.
Experience in remote sensing, data modeling and scripting, landscape ecology, forestry, wildlife, range management or other natural resources experience.
Experience writing scientific reports or manuscripts.
Familiarity with climate models and their application to vegetation dynamics.
Familiarity with one or more commonly used scripting languages to support data analysis.
