Consulting Senior Associate, Field Biologist

Kickstart your environmental career with hands-on fieldwork across Arizona’s most dynamic habitats.

If you’re passionate about wildlife, love being outdoors, and want meaningful experience that builds your ecological skill set, this role offers a chance to do impactful work from day one.

Why This Role Matters

As a Consulting Senior Associate, Field Biologist with ERM, you’ll support conservation-focused projects that shape responsible development across Arizona. Your surveys and assessments help protect sensitive species—like burrowing owls, thrashers, and native plants—while ensuring our clients meet critical environmental compliance requirements. This is an opportunity to grow your field expertise while contributing directly to biodiversity protection. This is a part-time, casual role for a duration of 1 year, renewable.

What Your Impact Is

In this role, you’ll be the eyes and ears in the field, conducting species surveys, habitat assessments, and monitoring efforts that guide real-world environmental decisions. Your onsite observations and detailed reporting will directly influence project planning, permitting, and conservation outcomes. You’ll gain hands-on experience, build technical field skills, and make a meaningful difference in Arizona’s natural landscapes.

What You’ll Bring

Required

• Minimum 3+ years of avian biology experience; burrowing owl expertise is required.

• AZFD Burrowing Owl Surveyor training certification.

• Proficiency in identifying Bendire’s and LeConte’s thrashers and their nests by sight and sound.

• Experience conducting native plant surveys in Arizona.

• Ability to work safely outdoors in variable weather and rugged terrain.

• Working knowledge of sub-meter GPS technologies and map interpretation (NWI, USGS, aerial imagery).

• Strong attention to detail, organization, and documentation accuracy.

• Effective communication skills and independent problem-solving ability.

• Willingness to travel, including potential overnight stays

• Driver's License Required: This position requires a valid driver's license and/or the ability to operate a company vehicle due to the nature of job duties, which include frequent travel to various client locations across a large geographical area.

• This position is not eligible for immigration sponsorship.

Preferred

• Fluency in English and Spanish.

• Experience conducting special-status species surveys beyond those listed.

• Prior construction monitoring or environmental compliance fieldwork.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct pre-construction surveys for burrowing owls, nesting birds, thrashers, and native plants across Arizona.

• Complete habitat assessments and construction monitoring as needed.

• Work independently in remote locations while maintaining strong communication and safety standards.

• Perform electronic data collection using handheld and sub-meter GPS devices.

• Compile daily reports and contribute to comprehensive survey documentation.

• Coordinate with construction crews during pre-construction sweeps; provide compliance guidance.

• Support additional plant and wildlife surveys based on project needs and your skill set.

• Adhere to ERM’s rigorous safety program and standard operating procedures.

• Assist with other duties as required.

As the largest global pure play sustainability consultancy, we partner with the world’s leading organizations, creating innovative solutions to sustainability challenges and unlocking commercial opportunities that meet the needs of today while preserving opportunity for future generations.

At ERM we know that creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment is an essential part of making our company a great place to build a career. We also see our diversity as a strength that helps us create better solutions for our clients. Our diverse team of world-class experts supports clients across the breadth of their organizations to operationalize sustainability, underpinned by our deep technical expertise in addressing their environmental, health, safety, risk and social issues. We call this capability our “boots to boardroom” approach for its comprehensive service model that allows ERM to develop strategic and technical solutions that advance objectives on the ground or at the executive level.