Jobs UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER

As the University's oldest institute, INSTAAR has a long history of responding to pressing environmental issues including climate change. Our traditional focus has been on alpine, Arctic, and Antarctic regions, where effects of global change are especially pronounced. In recent decades, our research has broadened to include environmental challenges that span local, regional, and global scales. INSTAAR’s research activities integrate field studies, state-of-the-art laboratory experiments, sample analysis, and numerical and laboratory modeling. Our field sites are located across all seven continents and the world's oceans.

Our expertise across disciplines helps us generate influential science that can inform public and policy decisions and move us toward a more sustainable society. INSTAAR's national and international research leadership is augmented by exceptional strength in graduate education and bringing undergraduates into the research process.

The Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research Program (Niwot LTER) is one of 27 LTER network sites funded by the National Science Foundation to study ecological processes over decades using long-term observations, experiments, and modeling. The Niwot LTER focuses on understanding how biogeochemical, hydrological, and climatic variation shape ecological dynamics in alpine systems. We are a collaborative team of faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers spanning multiple universities that work together to better understand how complex mountain systems are changing and predict the future of the services they provide to society.

During summer field seasons, responsibilities include leading a field team to conduct limnological surveys of two alpine lakes, collecting water samples from lakes and streams in the Green Lakes Valley, maintaining field cameras that monitor lake ice phenology, and otherwise supporting the aquatic research of Niwot LTER investigators. Additional summer responsibilities include coordinating fieldwork logistics, including preparing research permits, renting a field vehicle, organizing and maintaining field equipment, and coordinating support personnel. The position also involves laboratory work, including sample filtration, chlorophyll-a fluorescence, and zooplankton microscopic analysis. Responsibilities also include the management, coordination, and shipping of stream and lake samples for chemical analysis. During the winter, responsibilities are divided between winter fieldwork, laboratory analyses, and information management. Winter fieldwork—one day/week for most of the winter and two days/week in the spring— will involve a variety of activities that support long-term data collection and ongoing monitoring efforts, including but not limited to maintaining remote environmental sensor instrumentation and associated structures, collecting snow data using snow pits and snow depth measurements, winter hydrological sampling, and participating in the annual snow survey. Data management activities will involve working with the Niwot LTER information manager on several data processing tasks including data entry, data quality assurance and control, metadata preparation, and data archiving of all aquatic data including: zooplankton community composition and traits, water quality from summer surveys and buoy measurements, lake water chemistry, and lake ice phenology photos. Responsibilities also include regular driver and safety trainings for, as well as vehicle maintenance and field repairs of, backcountry vehicles including snowcats, snowmobiles, and utility terrain vehicles. 

$52,000.00 - $57,000.00/year.

• A bachelor’s degree in a field related to ecology or hydrology is required.
• Applicants must have at least two summers of experience with alpine aquatic sampling in the backcountry, including experience leading field crews to conduct research in alpine and subalpine aquatic systems, preferably within the Niwot Ridge region.
• Experience in Excel and R is required, and familiarity with MATLAB and/or python is preferred. Personal transportation to and from the Mountain Research Station (40 minutes West of Boulder) is required one-to-two days a week between September and May.
• Winter conditions will require winter driving experience and 4WD. Strong wilderness and backcountry skills are required for year-round fieldwork in remote and challenging conditions.

• We encourage applicants who have expertise in, and enthusiasm for, high-elevation aquatic ecology, and who are self-motivated, organized, and capable of effectively managing a variety of tasks and changing priorities.
• During the winter, fieldwork will involve weekly travel over long distances by utility terrain vehicles (UTVs) or skis to remote locations in adverse conditions (whiteouts, extreme cold, high winds).
• Summer months will involve extensive hiking with heavy packs, some boating, and driving on rough roads in remote areas.
• As such, strong wilderness skills are needed—particularly winter skills including backcountry skiing and avalanche awareness—as is the ability to operate and provide basic or emergency field maintenance of field vehicles including snowmobiles, snowcats, and UTVs.

• Given the responsibilities of the job we would like applicants to have formal training in wilderness first aid, avalanche awareness, extensive backcountry experience, familiarity with driving trucks, snowmobiles, and UTV’s in rough terrain, and experience with small watercraft.
• We would like applicants to have a minimum of the following certifications: Avalanche I (recreational), Avalanche Rescue, and Wilderness First Aid.