Stranding Response Program Manager (Senior Curator)

The Department of the Virginia Aquarium is hiring an experienced Senior Curator for the Stranding Response Program.

Job duties include the following:

• Creatively lead and supervise a team of Stranding Response staff with broad skills, backgrounds and diverse duties and responsibilities to include performance management, professional development, and time and leave management.
• Manage staff scheduling to ensure field operation duty coverage based on seasonal variations of programmatic needs and on-call rotation.
• Hire and train new staff and coordinate orientation and onboard training within the Aquarium and Stranding Response Program.
• Develop and maintain procedures to optimize staff skills and efficiency, streamline workflow, operational continuity.
• Help develop and maintain operations related to regular, seasonal, and event-based tasks pertaining to standing response, rehabilitation, and necropsy of sea turtles and marine mammals.
• Develop and implement protocols and methods for operational readiness and rapid deployment to emergencies for a variety of response types.
• Facilitate equipment maintenance, safety training, and communications with City and Aquarium departments regarding building maintenance.
• Assist with and/or lead grant proposal writing, and grant execution (e.g., expenditures, budget management, timelines, goals) and reporting (progress and final reports).
• Manage expenditure tracking in City, Foundation and Grant budgets. Provide reports and updates to section leadership and Aquarium’s accounting department.
• Manage procurement needs for the section, including preparing specifications, evaluating products and vendors, completing procurement processes. Follow guidelines for spending authority and procurement for multiple funding sources.
• Assist program leadership to ensure operations comply with all state and federal regulations and permits involved in wildlife and/or marine animal response, conservation, and/or rehabilitation activities. Assist with stranding agreement and/or letter of authorization applications processes.
• Facilitate data collection and curation from stranding events by managing schedules, workloads, and priorities.
• Manage staff conducting federal reporting of stranding data (e.g., STSSN, level A, etc.).
• Coordinate with stranding response leadership and team members on operational needs, planning and execution of stranded animal rescues and disentanglements.
• Coordinate with Senior Scientist and section leadership to implement the Aquarium’s strategic plan, and the conservation and research mission.
• Represent the Aquarium and Stranding Response Program in professional and public venues (conferences, outreach events, etc.). Develop and maintain relationships within the Aquarium, City and external partners and collaborators.

Preferences:

• Post-graduate degree in marine biology, marine science, zoology, biology, environmental sciences, or related field. Experience as a full-time staff in advanced stranding response, rehabilitation and/or necropsy experience with position specific taxa (sea turtles and marine mammals), in a permitted stranding organization, state or federal agency, or academic institution.
• Operating/working knowledge of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the NOAA and USFWS regulations and permitting requirements involved in wildlife and/or marine animal response, conservation, or rehabilitation activities. Working knowledge of stranding agreement and/or letter of authorization applications process.
• Four (4) or more years of experience leading and formally supervising staff. Experience in team management preferably with stranding response, animal care, or scientific teams.
• Experience with budget management and preparation, and procurement policies and procedures. Experience with grant writing, management, and reporting.
• Experience with authorship or co-authorship of scientific peer-reviewed publications. Experience communicating science to the public and scientific community. Experience with statistical analyses. Experience with relational databases.
• A working knowledge of gross anatomy and pathology of sea turtles and/or marine mammals; sea turtle or seal rehabilitation; on-water capture/rescue operations; disentanglement operations.
• Experience with operating small vessels (<50’) in the ocean.
• This posting will remain open until filled. Applications will be reviewed and interviews conducted until a suitable candidate is selected.

Experience Required

• MINIMUMS: Requires any combination of education (above the high school level) and experience equivalent to nine (9) years in fields utilizing the required knowledge, skills and abilities and associated with such positions as Exhibits, Stranding, or Research Technician; Stranding or Research Coordinator; Assistant Curator or Curator.
• Must have, or obtain, a current and valid Virginia or North Carolina drivers license in accordance with Virginia or North Carolina DMV drivers license eligibility requirements.

Further Comments

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Must be available to work evenings, weekends, holidays, and overtime when required to meet operational needs.
• This position may require that incumbents wear and maintain appropriate personal protective equipment such as, but not limited to, closed-toed shoes, boots, safety glasses, gloves, or other safety attire and equipment in designated areas of risk, including for protection from potential zoonotic disease transmission.
• Specific requirements will be determined and communicated by the employees supervisor based on position assigned.
• Upon hire, the selected candidate will be required to receive rabies pre-exposure vaccination provided by the City of Virginia Beach Occupational Health Services.
• Positions within this class have been designated as Alpha I positions requiring employees to work during inclement weather, regardless of the City's operational status.

Perks

• https://www.benefitsatthebeach.com/s/benefits

Salary

• A. 11, $57,816.70 - $89,615.89