Quantitative Research Associates - Fisheries Oceanography

OFFICIAL JOB TITLE: Research Associate

DIVISION: Academic Affairs

WORKING TITLE: Quantitative Research Associate(s)

DEPARTMENT: Fisheries Oceanography

BARGAINING UNIT STATUS: Faculty Federation

FLSA STATUS: Exempt

REPORTS TO: Dr. Gavin Fay

SUPERVISES: Technical associates, and student research assistants

SUMMARY PURPOSE OF POSITION: Statistical and ecosystem modeling research and development of decision support tools to support ecosystem-based fisheries management decision-making. Provide scientific and technical analysis and project leadership for the Fisheries and Ecosystem Management (Fay Lab) research group, and develop semi-independent research under the supervision of the UMass Dartmouth faculty member (Dr. Gavin Fay).

The research will focus on climate integrated modeling to inform fishery resource decision making in a changing Northeast U.S. shelf ecosystem. The successful candidate will work to support the Northeast Climate Integrated Modeling Initiative (NCLIM), and NOAA's Climate, Ecosystem, and Fisheries Initiative (CEFI). Work may include and involve: 1) coupling population and ecosystem dynamics models with fleet dynamics models, 2) develop simulation design and architecture for testing of ecosystem-based fisheries management procedures, 3) test alternatives for reference point determination as part of climate-adaptive management strategies, and 4) evaluate the benefits and challenges of integrating climate forecasting data products into stock assessment and management procedures, and quantify robustness relative to other system uncertainties.

The successful candidate will be expected to engage and manage in all aspects of the research group including the preparation and submission of grant proposals, report writing, publishing research results, supervising students and research staff, and participate in stakeholder and regional fisheries management meetings. and will interact with representatives from industry, federal and state scientific agencies, fishery management councils, and non-governmental organizations.

Follow the University's best practices to build and/or support student academic success and retention, and assist in meeting strategic objectives for persistence and timely graduation of all the student population.

EXAMPLES OF PRIMARY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Statistical and numerical modeling of fish population and fishery ecosystem dynamics, in single-, multi-species, and ecosystem context for stock assessment and management.
• Use of simulation frameworks such as Management Strategy Evaluation to test the performance of options for Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management and scientific monitoring in the context of system change.
• Develop and apply quantitative tools for evaluating tradeoffs among ecological, economic, and societal objectives, to support Integrated Ecosystem Assessment approaches to Ecosystem Based Management.
• Advanced statistical analysis of marine fisheries and ecosystem data
• Participate in stakeholder meetings, leveraging best practices from structured decision making to integrate stakeholder objectives and knowledge for tactical and strategic decision-making for fisheries and coastal communities.
• Use open data science tools to contribute to project and lab-wide data and management workflow efforts to promote sharing, use, and reproducibility of scientific products, including code repository documentation and management.
• Synthesize and share results in scientific papers and to industry, management, and at scientific conferences
• Write and submit proposals for external funding
• Travel to regional meetings, project team workshops, and industry and scientific conferences
• Coordination of grant funded research projects including budgets, purchasing and reporting
• Supervise graduate and undergraduate research assistants and technical associates
• Training of technical staff and students in research computing and statistical methods
• Interact with industry, federal and state scientific agencies, fishery management councils, and non-governmental organizations
• Collaborate with mentor(s) to develop and track progress towards an individual professional development plan

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• EDUCATION: MS in a relevant field
• EXPERIENCE: Research experience
• OTHER: Record of peer-reviewed publications

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:

• Ph.D. in a relevant discipline, such as fisheries science, quantitative ecology, fisheries ecology, statistics, data science, or another field that demonstrates a strong quantitative background. A relevant MS degree plus appropriate work experience may potentially be substituted.
• Experience analyzing and modeling marine ecosystems, fishery population dynamics, and/or fishery economics with statistical, economic, and/or simulation models
• Demonstrated experience and fluency in relevant programming languages, particularly R
• Strong written and communication skills and excellent organizational ability
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and as part of a collaborative team

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Ph.D. or equivalent in a relevant field
• Stock assessment and Management Strategy Evaluation experience
• Experience with structured decision making, tradeoff analysis, and decision support
• Familiarity with relevant data sets, including climate model outputs, spatial ocean data, fish and marine ecosystem surveys, and fishery-dependent data
• Experience in and understanding of marine fisheries and fishing communities
• Use of GitHub to collaborate on code and manage projects
• Experience working in high performance cloud computing environments
• Engagement with fishery and fishing community stakeholders and decision-makers
• Presentations and discussions with stakeholder audiences

NOTE: Other job related duties and responsibilities may be assigned and/or the job description changed periodically to reflect changing organization needs.

SALARY: $60,000-64,000

UMass Dartmouth offers exciting benefits such as:

• 75% Employer-Paid Health Insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Life Insurance
• Long Term Disability
• State Pension Retirement Plan
• Optional Retirement Savings Plans
• Tuition Credit (Employee, Spouse, & Dependents)
• Twelve (12) paid holidays
• And More!

Benefits for Faculty Federation - Librarians/Technicians

To apply please submit a letter of interest, a current resume and the contact information for three professional references.

The review of internal and external applications will be ongoing until the position is filled.