Environmental Scientist / Coastal & Upland Ecologist

About the role

Tetra Tech is adding an Environmental Scientist / Coastal & Upland Ecologist to our Central South team based in Texas. This position supports a variety of water resources, coastal resilience, ecological restoration, environmental compliance, and natural resources projects in Texas, New Mexico, and the broader Southwest.

Responsibilities

• 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.
• Collaborate 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.

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.