Endangered Species Coordinator

Job Description

This position is for permanent Iowa Department of Natural Resources employees only. Those in any other status are not eligible to apply.

Only applicants who meet the Minimum Qualification Requirements and meet all selective requirements (listed below) will be placed on the eligible list.

The Department of Natural Resources encourages all applicants to upload a current resume and cover letter to their online application.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is seeking a Senior Ecologist for Threatened and Endangered (T/E) animal species. This position leads statewide coordination, compliance, conservation, and environmental review activities for threatened and endangered species under Iowa and federal law. This role combines wildlife science, conservation, environmental review, regulatory compliance, policy development, and interagency coordination. The Senior Ecologist works with a broad range of partners to protect Iowa’s threatened and endangered animal species while supporting responsible management and development across the state.

Key Responsibilities

• State T/E Species Coordination: Maintain Iowa’s threatened and endangered animal species list and support development and updates to related administrative rules.
• Environmental Review & Compliance: Conduct environmental reviews and provide technical guidance to assess and minimize impacts to T/E species and sovereign lands. Work with DNR programs, state and federal agencies, local partners, and private developers.
• Species Conservation & Monitoring: Oversee inventory, monitoring, research, and conservation activities for T/E animal species and manage related data within Iowa’s Natural Areas Inventory.
• State Preserves: Provide scientific and administrative oversight for the State Preserves system, including research proposals, contracts, budgets, and required reports to the Governor and Legislature.
• Permitting: Review and authorize scientific collecting, wildlife rehabilitation, educational projects, and wildlife salvage permits to ensure compliance with state regulations.
• Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) Coordination: Serve as the DNR’s primary coordinator and liaison with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on federal T/E species and ESA requirements.
• Federal Programs & Consultation: Coordinate activities related to species listing and delisting, cooperative agreements, interagency consultations, conservation agreements, private landowner collaboration, recovery planning, federal grants, and annual reporting.
• Policy & Technical Expertise: Provide scientific expertise, data, and recommendations supporting state and federal species conservation decisions and regulatory processes.

Essential Functions:

• Research and understand technical publications as they relate to ecological, botanical and zoological field and research studies
• Perform mid-level spatial analyses and produce cartographic documents using GIS software products
• Utilize software products for the management of ecological, botanical and zoological-based data
• Conduct scientific field surveys and research studies in community ecology, botany and invertebrate zoology
• Develop and comprehend laws, rules, policies, technical documents and position papers and effectively communicate them orally and in writing
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with staff, other state and federal agencies, environmental interests, industry professionals and local stakeholders

Critical Job Competencies:

Accountability, Integrity, High Productivity, Communication Skills, Team Player, Interpersonal Skills, Self-Management, Customer Focus, Computer Skills, Leadership skills, and Technical Skills (Ecology & Zoology concepts)

What You Get From Us:

• A competitive pay plan and rewarding work.
• Insurance benefits that start the first of the month following 30 days of employment.
  (Premiums can start as low as $64/month for single and $210/month for family coverage).
• Separate vacation and sick leave accruals that start on the first day and can roll over annually.
• Nine paid holidays/year.
• Iowa Public Employee Retirement System (IPERS) retirement package with employer match.
• Optional deferred compensation (457/401A) plan with employer match.
• Professional training opportunities.
• Family friendly and professional work environment.
• Employee Discount Programs (vision, cellular, fitness, recreation, season passes, travel, counseling)
• The State’s total compensation package features benefits that are worth about 30% of your total compensation. For a list of additional benefits, please visit the DAS website for more information.
• Flexible work schedules (as approved by the supervisor).
• Opportunities for hybrid telework (as approved by the supervisor). 
• Workout/Gym facilities available onsite at 6200 Park Ave.

Comments:

The starting salary for new state (Executive Branch) employees is expected to be at the base of the pay range. Additional salary increases may occur after the first six months, and then annually (if applicable). The State’s total compensation package features an outstanding set of employee benefits that are worth about 30% of your total compensation. Visit the DAS website for more benefit information.

Ensure you are kept up-to-date on the status of this position by checking your email regularly for emails from [email protected]. This is a system generated email from the DAS application system and it may be sent directly to your Junk/Spam folder.

DNR Application Tips

For more information about DNR Employment Opportunities and position specific notices, please visit the DNR Employment website.

The State of Iowa is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.

E-Verify and Right to Work
The State of Iowa participates in E-Verify, a federal program that helps employers confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. Within the required timeframe, new hires will be verified through the E-Verify system to ensure authorization to work in the United States. The State of Iowa also complies with the federal Right to Work laws, which protect employees’ rights to work without being required to join a labor organization. For more information, please visit www.e-verify.gov.

Iowa DNR Mission:

To conserve and enhance our natural resources in cooperation with individuals and organizations to improve the quality of life in Iowa and ensure a legacy for future generations.

Selectives

Biological Sciences 6 months’ experience, 12 semester hours, or a combination of both in the study of living organisms.  It is broadly divided into zoology and botany. 

OR

Natural Resources 6 months’ experience, 12 semester hours, or a combination of both in one or in a combination of more than one of the following: • Ecology • Environmental planning • Soil conservation • Biological sciences • Wastewater treatment • Forestry • Engineering related to natural resource areas (dams, sanitary engineers, etc.) • Outdoor recreation planning • Physical sciences • River basin planning • Geography • Wildlife management

AND

Geographic Information Systems (Department of Natural Resources) 18 semester hours of education or 1 year of experience that demonstrates the applicant has competencies in the following areas:   • Ability to create, edit, import, export, project, and georeferenced GIS data. • Demonstrated proficiency with the major ESRI software products.  These products include ArcView, ArcInfo, ArcGIS. • Utilize user-developed and/or ESRI scripts and extensions for incorporation and utilization in projects. • Ability to conduct spatial analyses and queries in order to answer complex questions relating to spatial data. • Ability to produce cartographic documents which clearly present outputs from spatial analyses.  Document formats should at a minimum include hardcopy as well as the following digital formats .pdf, .tif, and .jpg. • Ability to work with, or train, others to use GIS to attain a common goal   Applicant must provide specific work examples to demonstrate each of the competencies.  The examples should include a thorough explanation of the project goal, the process utilized and the result of the process.

Minimum Qualification Requirements

Graduation from an accredited college or university with a Bachelor's Degree in a Natural Science and three years of full time professional scientific experience in an environmental program in the areas of water supply, waste water, animal feeding operations, hazardous substances, radiation, sewage treatment, solid waste, geology, history, archeology, flood plain, air pollution, dam safety, or underground storage tanks;

an equivalent combination of education and experience substituting one year of the required full-time professional work for each 30 semester hours of the required education;an equivalent combination of education and experience, substituting thirty semester hours of accredited graduate level coursework in a Natural Science, history, or archeology for each year of the required experience to a maximum substitution of two years;employees with current continuous experience in the State of Iowa Executive Branch that includes twenty-four months of full-time work as an Environmental Specialist or Environmental Engineer.

For additional information, please click on this link to view the job description.

Benefits

Supplemental Questions

Required Question

Agency Information

EmployerState of IowaAgency 542 Iowa Department of Natural Resources Address 6200 Park Ave
STE 200
Des Moines, Iowa, 50321 Website http://www.iowadnr.gov/