About Recovery Adaptation & Restoration Program’s Coral Reproduction & Aquaculture Team
The Reef Recovery, Adaptation and Restoration Program delivers essential components of the science for solutions that are core to AIMS Strategy 2040. Global and local stressors are increasingly impacting the Great Barrier Reef and reefs around the world. Corals that form key ecosystem functions must acclimatise and adapt to persist in a warming future. The Program’s research progresses the understanding of the scope, rates and molecular mechanisms underpinning acclimatisation and adaptation- knowledge that is essential to forecast corals’ responses, including bleaching susceptibility and mortality under different emission and management scenarios.
Applying this fundamental knowledge, the research and development delivered by this Program is testing the feasibility, benefits and risks of novel reef restoration and adaptation interventions that seed corals onto reefs. This includes developing techniques for coral enhancements that improve temperature tolerance and advancing large-scale aquaculture production of selected coral stock. Program staff works closely with partners, particularly indigenous communities, and stakeholders to co-develop reef restoration and adaptation research and development and translate outcomes into benefits and value through relevant knowledge and tools.
The Coral Reproduction & Aquaculture team is focussed on understanding the reproductive biology of corals and to develop methods for upscaled aquaculture production of corals for restoration and adaptation.
About this opportunity
Join AIMS’ as our Senior Research Technician – Coral Reproduction and Ecology where you will play a leading role in advancing world-class research to protect and restore Australia’s iconic coral reefs. This exciting position combines hands-on fieldwork, experimental aquarium research and scientific leadership, with responsibility for coordinating coral spawning and field programs, leading dive and research cruise operations, designing and delivering innovative experiments, analysing complex datasets, and contributing to high impact scientific publications and reports.
This role will supervise and mentor technical staff, students and interns while collaborating with multidisciplinary researchers and reef stakeholders to develop practical solutions that enhance reef resilience in the face of climate change.
About you
You will be an experienced and collaborative marine research professional with a master’s degree in coral biology, ecology or a related discipline, and have extensive laboratory and field research experience. You will be a confident leader who thrives in remote offshore environments, with demonstrated expertise in planning and conducting complex field programs, scientific diving, boating operations, coral deployments, ecological surveys and underwater data collection.
You will have demonstrated strong technical skills in designing and managing aquarium-based experiments, coordinating large-scale coral spawning activities, and applying robust data management and statistical analysis using R. Being an excellent communicator, you will enjoy working collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams, students, stakeholders and research partners, and have a proven ability to produce high-quality scientific reports, manuscripts and technical documentation.
You will have scientific diving and fieldwork experience and are motivated to contribute to innovative research that supports the protection and restoration of Australia’s coral reefs.
Salary range: AUD $100,818 to $114,730 per annum
Application deadline: July 30, 2026
Location: Townsville, QLD
