{"id":3145957,"url":"https://alion.io/job/spatial-front-lead-esa-section-7-consultation-scientist","title":"Lead ESA Section 7 Consultation Scientist","company":{"id":4414873,"name":"Spatial Front","domain":"spatialfront.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/spatial-front","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Paylocity","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":25,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-11-03T05:54:40Z"}},"role":"Science & Research","role_family":"Science & Research","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"inferred_payroll_markers","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"inferred","locations":[],"countries":[],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":60000,"max":75000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":75000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Gmail","optional":false},{"name":"Microsoft Office","optional":false},{"name":"Outlook","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-07T16:06:49Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-23","last_verified_at":"2026-11-03T13:04:43Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":27,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":27},"description":"Description\nThe National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), a division of the Department of Commerce (DOC), is responsible for the stewardship of the nation's living marine resources and their habitat. The Southeast Regional Office (SERO) is located in St. Petersburg, Florida. SERO also has Field Offices in Galveston, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; West Palm Beach, Florida; St. Croix, USVI; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Beaufort, North Carolina; and Charleston, South Carolina. This task order will provide professional and scientific support services across multiple programs managed by SERO within the Southeast Region.\nSFI is seeking a Lead Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 7 Consultation Scientist to support NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office (SERO) in St. Petersburg, Florida. Will conduct scientific literature reviews to obtain background information necessary to conduct and write up credible, legally, and biologically defensible, project-effect analyses for Section 7 consultation documents.\nThis is a senior-level technical and leadership position supporting high-visibility and mission-critical ESA Section 7 consultation activities. The Lead ESA Section 7 Consultation Scientist will independently perform complex and highly specialized consultation work and provide technical leadership, quality oversight, and guidance to less-senior ESA Consultation Scientists assigned to Section 7 activities.\nWork Location: This position is fully remote and must be worked during east coast business hours.\nResponsibilities\nServing as a senior technical resource for complex, high-visibility, and/or mission-critical ESA Section 7 consultations, independently evaluating complex biological, regulatory, and project-specific issues.\nProviding technical leadership and oversight to less-senior ESA Consultation Scientists, including assigning or coordinating consultation activities as appropriate, providing technical direction, and supporting staff in resolving complex consultation issues.\nMentoring and training junior ESA Consultation Scientists in SERO practices, ESA Section 7 theory and implementation, analysis of effects, consultation document development, and applicable quality standards.\nConducting QA/QC reviews of consultation documents prepared by less-senior staff consistent with the PRD QA Plan and providing technical feedback necessary to ensure biological accuracy, consistency, legal sufficiency, and adherence to established SERO practices.\nParticipating in Section 7 QA/QC meetings and supporting the development and review of complex biological opinions, including preparation or review of technical sections such as environmental baseline, effects analyses, and climate-related considerations.\nCoordinating with consulting biologists, PRD reviewers, species recovery coordinators, Office of General Counsel, federal action agencies, applicants, and other stakeholders to resolve complex consultation issues and facilitate timely completion of Section 7 consultations.\nEnsuring that informational requirements for completing Section 7 consultation are met for incoming consultation requests.\nCollaborating with others to ensure that consultations are consistent, biologically accurate and defensible, legally sufficient, achieve conservation goals.\nDiscussing project methodologies and designs with applicants and federal agencies and recommending reasonable approaches, alternatives, and/or modifications to the proposed action, to reduce impacts to listed species and their habitats and to streamline the consultation process.\nDrafting agency response documents using Microsoft programs, including requests for additional information letters (RAIs, LOCs, and BO's).\nProviding meeting and conference coordination and support.\nSupporting data management, documentation and analysis for Section 7 consultations \nRequirements\nEducation: Master’s degree or higher in Marine Science, Marine Biology, Biology, Oceanography, Marine Policy, or a closely related discipline.\nYears of Experience: Minimum of 5 years of directly related professional experience, including substantive experience applying ESA Section 7 consultation requirements. Experience should demonstrate progressively responsible work involving complex scientific or regulatory analysis, independent judgment, technical review, and/or leadership of less-senior staff.\nDemonstrated ability to independently perform complex or highly specialized ESA Section 7 consultation work with minimal supervision.\nDemonstrated experience providing technical leadership, guidance, mentoring, and/or oversight to less-senior scientific staff.\nDemonstrated ability to review the work of other consultation scientists, identify technical or regulatory deficiencies, and provide actionable guidance to support biologically defensible, legally sufficient consultation products.\nAbility to exercise sound independent judgment and serve as a senior technical resource when addressing complex, sensitive, high-priority, or high-visibility consultation issues.\nExperience related to the application of ESA Section 7 consultation requirements. \nKnowledge of Southeast US species-related habitats (ocean, nearshore marine, estuarine, or rivers where species occur).\nStrong technical writing skills, strong organizational and communication skills, and the ability to work and adapt to standard operating procedures that change frequently.\nStrong understanding of the coastal ecology and marine biology of the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic and knowledge of aquatic habitat restoration or aquatic habitat impact assessment, preferred.\nCurrent knowledge of the ESA, including Section 7 consultation requirements, MSA, and SERO species-related habitats.\nDemonstrated experience conducting substantive technical QA/QC reviews of ESA Section 7 consultation documents prepared by other consultation scientists and applying established quality-assurance procedures.\nAbility to mentor and train junior ESA Consultation Scientists in SERO practices, ESA theory/implementation, and analysis of effects.\nAbility to serve in a senior consultation role, coordinate with PRD reviewers, species recovery coordinators, and legal counsel, and communicate with federal agencies and non-governmental organizations.\nExperience with consultation data management, quality control, administrative records, and NMFS tracking systems (e.g., ECO), as applicable.\nAbility to analyze data and prepare clear scientific and plain-language reports, summaries, graphs, maps, and interpreted information products for varied audiences. \nDesired Qualifications\nAbility to handle multiple simultaneous high priority issues accurately and professionally.\nExcellent verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills.\nAbility to manage short- and long-term priorities.\nExcellent organizational skills with an ability to work in a fast-paced environment, while maintaining a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail.\nProficient in Microsoft office products including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Google enterprise platform including Gmail, Calendar and Hangout.\nAbility to multi-task and prioritize a diverse workload and meet established deadlines with minimal supervision.\nGood judgment, tact, and initiative to make effective independent decisions when necessary.\nStrong organizational and time management skills.\nAdditional Information\nIn order to meet the clearance requirements for this opportunity, candidates must be US Citizen and/or Current Green Card Holder.\nAll candidates will be subject to a complete background check to include, but not limited to Criminal History, Education Verification, Professional Certification Verification, Verification of Previous Employment and Credit History.\nPublic Trust background investigations can take approximately four to eight weeks and requires fingerprinting.\nOther Information\nThe salary for this position is $60,000 - $75,000 annually\nFor information on SFI's benefits please visit http://www.spatialfront.com/pages/career.html\nThis is a full-time W2 position. \nPlease no agencies, third parties, or corp-to-corp.\nSpatial Front Inc. is an Equal-opportunity Employer, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.\nSpatial Front Inc. participates in E-Verify.\nSalary Description\n$60,000-$75,000","description_format":"text","description_chars":8517,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-23T10:15:19Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 5 · green card filings: 2","filings_12m":5,"filings_prev_12m":8,"green_card_filings_12m":2,"median_offered_wage_usd":93929,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-29T16:27:21+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":44,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.581,"p_room":0.75,"age_days":26,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:3","stale_co","velocity","win:late"],"computed_at":"2026-11-03T05:54:40Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":75000,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/spatial-front-lead-esa-section-7-consultation-scientist","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/spatial-front-lead-esa-section-7-consultation-scientist.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-03T22:17:27Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":829,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-04T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":4414873},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=4414873"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fspatial-front-lead-esa-section-7-consultation-scientist"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fspatial-front-lead-esa-section-7-consultation-scientist"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fspatial-front-lead-esa-section-7-consultation-scientist"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/spatial-front-lead-esa-section-7-consultation-scientist\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fspatial-front-lead-esa-section-7-consultation-scientist"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3145957}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"spatialfront.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3145957},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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