Assistant Project Water Resources Scientist – Water Quality

About the role

SWCA Environmental Consultants seeks an on-call Assistant Project Water Resources Scientist to support environmental, land use, and water planning projects. This on-call role offers the opportunity to provide highly technical support to innovative projects, maintaining GIS systems, executing tasks with limited supervision, and working with project managers to deliver high-quality deliverables to clients. The position is hourly and on-demand/on-call, with no benefits except wellness time. You can work in a hybrid environment near our Salt Lake City, Utah, office or be fully remote within Utah.

At SWCA, we foster a collaborative and supportive environment where every team member contributes their unique skills and perspectives. We value creativity, teamwork, and a passion for delivering sound science and creative solutions to our clients.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a technical point of contact for projects integrating land use, environmental, and water planning.
• Collaborate with project managers and subject matter experts to support complex and innovative multi-discipline projects.
• Develop standards and workflows to improve efficiency and quality of work.
• Use complex spatial databases integrating water, land use, and environmental planning.
• Work with robust systems to track project updates, data quality, and version control.
• Demonstrate technical proficiency in geospatial science and tools.
• Gain familiarity with client interfaces, expectations, and workflows.
• Act as a liaison between clients, stakeholders, and project managers.
• Use ArcGIS Online (AGOL) maps, applications, and notebooks for projects.
• Support GIS tasks with minimal supervision.
• Attend virtual or in-person meetings with clients as needed.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Geography, Biology, Environmental Science, or related field with a GIS emphasis (or GIS certificate).
• At least one (1) year in a GIS analyst role with increasing professional responsibility.
• Experience with land use, environmental, and/or water planning projects.
• Experience working with complex datasets supporting planning-level workflows.
• Proven ability to support GIS-related aspects of a water and land use planning project, from project startup to final deliverables.
• Experience with ArcGIS Online for managing and distributing spatial data.

Preferred Qualifications

• At least one (1) year in a water resources, land use planning, and/or environmental planning role with increasing professional responsibility.
• GISP or similar professional GIS certification.
• Experience supporting multi-disciplinary and/or multi-faceted projects.
• Experience developing analytical models related to natural or cultural resource processes.
• Understanding of agency internal processes and positive relationships with federal, state, and/or local land management and regulatory agencies.

Skills

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and adapt to changing project needs.

Pay

A Salt Lake City employee can expect a rate of $27.30/hour to $37.33/hour. Actual pay within this range may depend on experience, qualifications, geographic location, client requirements where applicable, and other factors permitted by law.