Environmental Scientist / Coastal & Upland Ecologist

Environmental Scientist / Coastal & Upland Ecologist

Tetra Tech is adding an Environmental Scientist / Coastal & Upland Ecologist to our Central South team based in Texas. This position will support a wide variety of challenging and complex water resources, coastal resilience, ecological restoration, environmental compliance, and natural resources projects throughout Texas, New Mexico, and the broader Southwest. The ideal candidate will bring a background in coastal, marine, estuarine, wetland, riparian, or upland ecology, with the ability to support both field-based biological assessments and technical analyses for environmental planning, permitting, restoration, and watershed projects.

This role is well suited for a biologist, ecologist, or environmental scientist who is comfortable working across coastal and upland environments, including Texas Gulf Coast systems, inland watersheds, riparian corridors, wetlands, grasslands, shrublands, arid landscapes, and project sites throughout Texas and New Mexico.

The following duties are essential to this role. Reasonable accommodation will be provided to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions:

• 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.
• Coordinate 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.

Required 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.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree or PhD in Ecology, Biology, Environmental Science, Coastal Ecology, Marine Science, Natural Resources, or a related field.
• Experience with Texas coastal systems, Gulf Coast ecology, estuarine habitats, coastal restoration, or coastal resilience projects.
• Experience with upland, riparian, grassland, shrubland, desert, or arid/semi-arid ecosystems in Texas, New Mexico, or the broader Southwest.
• Experience conducting or supporting wetland delineations, biological surveys, habitat assessments, mitigation planning, restoration monitoring, or construction-phase environmental compliance.
• Experience preparing or supporting Clean Water Act Sections 404/401 permit applications, NEPA documentation, ESA documentation, biological assessments, environmental assessments, or related regulatory submittals.
• Experience with R, Python, or similar tools for ecological data analysis, data visualization, habitat suitability modeling, species distribution modeling, water quality analysis, or reproducible workflows.
• Familiarity with coastal, estuarine, wetland, riparian, stream, or upland restoration planning and monitoring.
• Experience managing environmental or geospatial datasets, metadata, QA/QC procedures, or data provenance.
• Consulting experience or experience coordinating with clients, agencies, contractors, or multidisciplinary project teams.

Physical Requirements:

• Ability to travel for client and business development meetings as needed. Travel is estimated to be up to 30% yearly (occasional overnight travel).
• Ability to perform fieldwork in rugged conditions for extended periods including walking, standing, bending, and kneeling.
• Ability to work outdoors in a range of weather conditions (heat, rain, wind, cold) during fieldwork.
• Ability to lift and carry materials/equipment up to 50 pounds.
• Ability to sit at a workstation and use a computer for extended periods of time (up to 8 hours/day). Additional hours may be required based on project needs.
• Manual dexterity to use a computer mouse, keyboard, and other tools.
• Ability to communicate effectively in-person and via electronic means.

Additional Information

• For this role, we are open to hybrid work schedules in our Austin, TX or San Antonio, TX offices, or remote work schedules in Houston, TX or Corpus Christi, TX.
• This position is scheduled for full-time work (40 hours/week) with a typical schedule of 8:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday. Additional hours may be required based on project needs.

Life at Tetra Tech:

• The perks of working at Tetra Tech include:
• Comprehensive and market-competitive benefits.
• Merit-based financial rewards.
• Flexibility and company-wide commitment to work/life balance.
• Collaborative team atmosphere that values the contributions of all employees.
• Learning and development opportunities for ongoing professional growth.

About Tetra Tech:

Tetra Tech is the leader in water, environment, and sustainable infrastructure, providing high-end consulting and engineering services for projects worldwide. With 25,000 employees working together, Tetra Tech provides clear solutions to complex problems by Leading with Science® to address the entire water cycle, protect and restore the environment, design sustainable and resilient infrastructure, and support the clean energy transition.

Tetra Tech is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified candidates will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, sex, marital or familial status, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law. Tetra Tech is a VEVRAA federal contractor and we request priority referral of veterans. We invite applications from all interested parties.