Bird Island Science Manager

To manage the long-term monitoring and targeted research projects on higher predators (seals, albatrosses, penguins and petrels) at Bird Island.

This includes management of Bird Island:

• including infrastructure, databases, purchasing, equipment, development of new technologies, public outreach, permits, risk assessment, liaison with Operations, Corporate Services, Science etc.
• recruiting, directing and supporting the 6 zoological field assistants; managing the bird ringing and tracking programmes.
• managing and developing the long-term monitoring and demography databases.
• personal scientific research as lead and in support of other members of Ecosystems and external collaborators.
• applying for external grants as PI or Co-I.
• publishing papers as lead or co-author in peer-reviewed journals.

The post holder will also be required to provide specialist support across the Ecosystems Team and other science teams in BAS.

Duties

Bird Island Science Management

• Manage the science infrastructure at Bird Island.
• BAS management committees and meetings relating to Bird Island.
• Permit applications and reports (PEA, South Georgia RAP, AWERB).
• Lead annual recruitment of new Bird Island Zoological Field Assistants.
• Manage training of the Bird Island Zoological Field Assistants.
• Manage the Bird Island Zoological Field Assistants in the field.
• Manage the bird ringing programmes.
• Manage and develop the predator demography databases and data-entry systems.
• Ecosystems representative on NPRAM.
• Public outreach (including web pages) for the long-term predator monitoring programmes.

Scientific Research

• Lead targeted research projects generating primary science outputs in seabird and marine mammal research.
• Deliver a key piece of software or key dataset or publish on average at least one first-author paper per year in a high-quality journal.
• Contribute on average to two or more papers as co-author per year.
• Develop grant applications (including NERC standard grants or equivalent as PI or Co-I) to undertake innovative predator research, with a strong focus on Bird Island.
• Generate proposals for development of innovative technical systems and capital equipment bids for predator research.
• Code bespoke extracts from the long-term demography and tracking databases for BAS and external collaborators.
• Manage the Predators Argos tracking programs.
• Provide specialist IT, data science, analysis and support to the Predators team, PhD students and Polar Data Centre.
• Maintain/build web pages and associated data feeds for tracking studies.

Skills, Qualifications and Experience

• Experience of research on ecology of birds or mammals.
• Experience of publishing in high quality academic journals.
• Knowledge of marine ecosystems.
• Good first degree or Masters in biological or environmental sciences.
• PhD in biology, ecology, marine science or related field.
• Proven experience of managing and querying relational databases.
• Demonstrable ability to report, analyse and interpret ecological data.
• Proficient in R, MS Office.
• Experience of managing staff, and of planning and management of research programmes and budgets.
• Proficient in written and spoken English.
• Ability to make effective decisions both independently and by consensus.
• Demonstrable ability to work cooperatively as part of a team.
• Good interpersonal skills required for engagement with scientists, collaborators, operations, public and other stakeholders.
• British Trust for Ornithology ringing permit (C or full A).
• Experience of predator research on remote Antarctic/sub-Antarctic islands.
• Expertise on higher predators or predator-prey interactions in marine ecosystems.
• Experience of securing funding for research or associated infrastructure.
• Experience of analysing tracking data.
• Knowledge of SQL or other programming languages; ARGOS data management; web page development; GIS.
• Experience of recruiting staff; remote management of staff.
• Experience of working with multiple stakeholders.

The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role. UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.

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