This role is well suited for a biologist, ecologist, or environmental scientist who is comfortable working across coastal and upland environments, including Texas Gulf Coast systems, inland watersheds, riparian corridors, wetlands, grasslands, shrublands, arid landscapes, and project sites throughout Texas and New Mexico.
Why Tetra Tech:
At Tetra Tech, we are Leading with Science to solve the world’s most complex challenges. Our industry-leading experts in engineering and consulting are committed to driving positive change in communities around the world. For 60 years, we have been at the forefront of innovation and sustainability. Today we stand as a market leader, offering cutting-edge solutions in water, environment, energy, and international development. Our work has improved more than 625 million lives around the world.
Position Summary:
We are seeking an Environmental Scientist / Coastal & Upland Ecologist with experience in biological field assessments, GIS mapping, environmental permitting, and technical reporting. The ideal candidate will have strong ecological training and applied consulting skills, with experience or interest in both:
- Coastal, marine, estuarine, and wetland systems, particularly along the Texas Gulf Coast; and
- Upland, riparian, arid, and semi-arid systems in Texas, New Mexico, and the broader Southwest.
This position will support multidisciplinary teams of biologists, ecologists, engineers, hydrologists, modelers, planners, and regulatory specialists. Work may include field surveys, habitat assessments, wetland delineations, threatened and endangered species evaluations, environmental compliance documentation, GIS analysis, restoration planning, watershed studies, and synthesis of ecological data into actionable recommendations for clients.
The role may also involve spatial and temporal data processing, ecological modeling, and interpretation of environmental datasets, but the primary emphasis is on applied ecology, biology, environmental assessment, and project support.
Essential Job Functions:
The following duties are essential to this role. Reasonable accommodation will be provided to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions.
- Conduct field surveys to inventory and assess vegetation, wildlife, wetlands, riparian areas, upland habitats, and coastal or estuarine systems.
- Perform or support wetland delineations, habitat assessments, threatened and endangered species evaluations, and biological resource surveys using applicable federal and state methods.
- Support coastal, marine, and estuarine projects along the Texas Gulf Coast, including assessments of marshes, tidal flats, seagrass beds, oyster reefs, dunes, beaches, bay systems, coastal prairie, and other sensitive ecological resources.
- Support upland, riparian, arid, semi-arid, grassland, shrubland, and desert environmental projects in Texas, New Mexico, and the broader Southwest.
- Assist with environmental permitting and compliance documentation, including Clean Water Act Sections 404 and 401, NEPA, ESA, biological assessments, mitigation plans, monitoring plans, and related environmental review documents.
- Conduct GIS-based mapping and spatial analysis to support biological surveys, environmental constraints analyses, impact assessments, restoration planning, permitting, and technical reports.
- Compile, process, QA/QC, and interpret environmental datasets from field surveys, public databases, agency sources, remote sensing products, monitoring programs, and project-specific studies.
- Prepare technical reports, wetland delineation reports, biological assessments, permit applications, monitoring reports, memoranda, maps, figures, visualizations, and client-ready presentations.
- Support watershed planning, stream and river restoration, coastal resilience, ecological restoration, nature-based solutions, and environmental mitigation projects.
- Coordinate with multidisciplinary teams, including engineers, hydrologists, planners, modelers, regulators, and other environmental specialists.
- Participate in client meetings and project discussions as a technical team member, and support proposal development, scopes of work, technical approaches, and cost estimates as appropriate.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Ecology, Biology, Environmental Science, Marine Science, Coastal Ecology, Natural Resources, or a related field.
- 1–5 years of professional experience in environmental consulting, ecological fieldwork, biological assessment, natural resources management, environmental compliance, restoration, or related work.
- Experience preparing or contributing to technical reports, environmental documentation, biological assessments, wetland reports, permit applications, or monitoring plans.
- Proficient in ArcGIS or similar geospatial software for spatial analysis and mapping.
- Ability to produce clear maps, figures, visualizations, and written summaries of field observations, environmental data, and technical analyses.
- Willingness to support proposal development, scopes of work, and client coordination as appropriate.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills for technical reports and client meetings.
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team, including coordination with clients, agencies, and internal project teams as appropriate.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master’s degree or PhD in Ecology, Biology, Environmental Science, Coastal Ecology, Marine Science, Natural Resources, or a related field.
- Experience with Texas coastal systems, Gulf Coast ecology, estuarine habitats, coastal restoration, or coastal resilience projects.
- Experience with upland, riparian, grassland, shrubland, desert, or arid/semi-arid ecosystems in Texas, New Mexico, or the broader Southwest.
- Experience conducting or supporting wetland delineations, biological surveys, habitat assessments, mitigation planning, restoration monitoring, or construction-phase environmental compliance.
- Experience preparing or supporting Clean Water Act Sections 404/401 permit applications, NEPA documentation, ESA documentation, biological assessments, environmental assessments, or related regulatory submittals.
- Experience with R, Python, or similar tools for ecological data analysis, data visualization, habitat suitability modeling, species distribution modeling, water quality analysis, or reproducible workflows.
- Familiarity with coastal, estuarine, wetland, riparian, stream, or upland restoration planning and monitoring.
- Experience managing environmental or geospatial datasets, metadata, QA/QC procedures, or data provenance.
- Consulting experience or experience coordinating with clients, agencies, contractors, or multidisciplinary project teams.
For this role, we are open to hybrid work schedules in our Austin, TX or San Antonio, TX offices, or remote work schedules in Houston, TX or Corpus Christi, TX.
