Lead Environmental Planner

About the opportunity

SWCA is seeking a Lead Environmental Planner to join our team based in Florida. This candidate will support office goals by pursuing project opportunities, managing planning projects and clients, directing biological field studies, and supervising and mentoring staff. You will primarily assist clients with projects related to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and other federal, state, and local environmental regulations. SWCA's Florida and Southeast business supports Generation, Transmission, Land Development, State & Local, Water, and Federal industries.

This is a regular, full time, salaried South Florida-based position for a candidate located Miami or surrounding areas.

SWCA offers an enthusiastic, supportive, and casual work environment with flexible schedules and a competitive total compensation and benefits package, including a stock ownership program. If you share in the passion in delivering the highest-quality project work to your customers, then this could be an excellent fit for you!

Application deadline: Our team will begin reviewing applications immediately, and interviews will be scheduled with qualified candidates on a rolling basis. The application process will remain open until we have received a robust pool of qualified candidates. Once we have identified suitable individuals, we may close the application process without prior notice. We appreciate the time and effort invested by all applicants and will carefully consider each submission.

What you will accomplish

• Prepare and provide technical oversight for planning efforts, NEPA documentation, biological resources reports, biological assessments, wetland reports, and other natural resources project deliverables related to Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and other regulatory/permitting/compliance requirements.

• Manage client relationships and conduct business development with new and existing clients.

• Network within agencies and industry organizations to establish and expand our state and regional client base and revenue in the areas of environmental planning, permitting, and broad-based natural resources services.

• Identify and qualify sales opportunities (prospects and proposals), manage opportunities and make recommendations to the Southeast Leadership Team.

• Serve as a project manager for a variety of natural resource projects.

• Productively monitor team utilization and manage staff under/over utilization to maintain productivity

• Work closely with SWCA's other leads in both natural and cultural resources in Florida and throughout the company to promote SWCA's business interests in adherence to its mission, vision, and values.

• Manage the technical execution and financial performance of individual natural resources projects, and effectively coordinate with and manage clients and agencies.

• Proactively manage projects (personal and within the team) to avoid overruns.

• Prepare protocols and supervise surveys for sensitive habitats and species; including general surveys for report writing, focused or protocol-level surveys, and pre-construction surveys.

• Develop recommendations for mitigation measures, monitoring, and permitting specific to biological resources.

Experience and qualifications for success

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Natural Resource Management, Biology, Environmental Science, Fish and Wildlife Science, Ecology, or related field.

• Minimum eight (8) years of progressively responsible experience in business development, managing projects, QA/QC, developing and implementing budgets, schedules, and scopes of work from pre-field tasks to final report preparation within the environmental industry.

• Minimum three (3) years project management experience within environmental consulting.

• Experience with environmental surveys, permitting, and field implementation on a variety of projects.

• Demonstrated experience with federal, state, and local laws and regulations.

• Strong business development skills as a "seller/doer" to develop productive business relationships with agency, client, and industry contacts.

Preferred qualifications

• Existing client base of established clients.

• Prior related work experience in the state of Florida.

Why Work at SWCA:

SWCA Environmental Consultants is a growing employee-owned firm, providing a full-spectrum of environmental services.  Our Vision (the North Star) is to make SWCA the best workplace and industry leader in sustainability, bringing sound science and creative solutions to global environmental challenges while maintaining a dedication to employee-ownership. We live our core values: we collaborate as #OneSWCA; we are #AlwaysLearning, we #NeverSettle, and we #GiveBack.

We are 100% employee-owned, and we build our success together. With offices across the United States, SWCA is one of the largest environmental compliance firms and ranks among Engineering News-Record's Top 200 Environmental Firms. We offer a supportive, team-oriented work environment and competitive wages and benefits, including an 100% employee stock ownership plan (retirement).

At SWCA, we support our team members in developing their careers to make them leaders in their industry. Our Career Landscape initiative is a process and guide designed to help develop chart rewarding career paths for employees at SWCA. We encourage professional conference attendance, internal and external professional development and training programs, education reimbursement, a Science and Leadership Program, and bonuses for publications meeting certain criteria. All regular status employees are eligible to participate in SWCA medical, dental, vision, employee assistance, wellness, life and disability plans, and are eligible to participate in the SWCA 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan and Trust.

If you would like to contact SWCA regarding the accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the online application process due to a disability, please email accommodations@swca.com or call 1-480-581-5378. This contact information is for disability accommodation requests only. All other inquiries will not receive a response.

EOE - women, minorities, individuals with disabilities and veterans are encouraged to apply.  At SWCA Environmental Consultants, we celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive work environment. We strongly encourage candidates from all backgrounds, including those with diverse experiences and veterans, to apply. We believe that a diverse and inclusive workforce enhances creativity, innovation, and overall organizational success.

SWCA is committed to salary equity and salary transparency for all its employees.  In alignment with this commitment, SWCA posts good faith pay ranges in all its advertised job postings to promote pay equity and transparency.

An employee in this Florida-based position can expect a salary of $80,080/year - $102,960/year.  Actual pay within this range may depend on experience, qualifications, geographic location, client requirements where applicable, and other factors permitted by law.  Regular-status employees are also eligible for performance bonuses. Candidates are also encouraged to consider SWCA's Total Rewards package, which includes a competitive Benefits package, forward-thinking workplace flexibility, outstanding corporate culture, award-winning career development, and more.

SWCA continues to invest deeply in career development programs, delivering our award-winning Career Landscape support resources to accelerate the growth of our staff. We recognize the valuable skills and experiences our internal team members bring to SWCA's continued success. Qualified internal candidates are encouraged to apply and will be seriously considered for this position. We believe in promoting from within, where possible, providing our existing employees with compelling opportunities to advance their careers.

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