PHY SCI RES/SCIENTIST III- SE Energy Resource Specialist (Energy Liaison) Southeast Region

This posting is only open to residents of the State of Colorado at the time of submitting your application.

Consider joining the dedicated people of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. It's our mission to manage and conserve Colorado's natural resources for the benefit of people today - and tomorrow. That means we have to balance development with conservation so the state we all love provides similar opportunities for our children and their children.

We invite you to explore our website at to find out more about the work we do to manage Colorado's natural resources for today - and tomorrow.

The State of Colorado believes that equity, diversity, and inclusion drive our success, and we encourage candidates from all identities, backgrounds, and abilities to apply.

In addition to offering rewarding, meaningful work, we offer:

• Medical and Dental plans
• Strong, flexible retirement plans including PERA Defined Benefit Plan or PERA Defined Contribution Plan, plus pre-tax 401K and 457 plans
• Paid life insurance
• Short- and long-term disability coverage
• Employee Wellness programs
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Health Savings Accounts
• 10 paid holidays per year plus generous vacation and sick leave
• Flexible work schedule options and remote-work options
• Career advancement opportunities throughout the State system
• Some positions may qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

COLORADO PARKS AND WILDLIFE

Our Mission is to perpetuate the wildlife resources of the state, to provide a quality state parks system, and to provide enjoyable and sustainable outdoor recreation opportunities that educate and inspire current and future generations to serve as active stewards of Colorado's natural resources.

The Southeast Region work unit is a major, geographical-based organizational unit of the Colorado Division of Parks

and Wildlife (CPW), essentially the Southeast quadrant of Colorado. The Southeast Region of CPW has 8 State Parks and more than 67 State Wildlife Areas and exists to provide outdoor recreation and wildlife management in the Southeast region of Colorado. In addition to the oversight of the state parks and wildlife areas, this unit manages regional outreach, education, customer service, and regional specialists managing water, energy and

land use development, trails program and administration.

This position exists to serve as the Southeast Region Energy Liaison, a multi-disciplinary, fully-operational professional with little to no day-to-day supervision. This position serves as an expert for the development, facilitation and implementation of plans for mitigating, maintaining, reclaiming, and enhancing wildlife habitat affected by energy development with an emphasis on responsible renewable energy development. Serves as the CPW liaison with agencies, industry, and non-governmental organizations on statewide wind energy and renewable energy development. This includes open and regular communication with land use agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), United States Forest Service (USFS), private operators for any energy development industry, other state agencies such as the Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC), counties, as well as interested publics to ensure and optimize the long-term perpetuation of wildlife habitat and populations throughout Colorado. Ensure communication exchange among stakeholders, researchers, collects and evaluates data to assure adequate assessment of impacts to wildlife habitat and the formulation of mitigating strategies to offset such impacts.

Serve as the regional lead for coordinating energy development (including but not limited to: oil and gas, wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, nuclear, battery storage projects). Within CPW, this position uses its knowledge of renewable energy, oil and gas permitting, extraction, and wildlife management to serve as the statewide expert and lead for wind energy, renewable energy development, and coalbed methane. It maintains lead authority on wind/energy development related matters for CPW across branches and regions. In order to protect its interests, CPW needs to maintain internal expertise equivalent to that of the wind/solar development industry. This expertise will be reflected in comments generated by CPW and provide insight regarding updates to federal guidance and implementation plans such as Resource Management Plans, Forest Plans, Programmatic Environmental Impact Statements, as well as other federal evaluation documents required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

This position serves as one of the primary liaisons with other state agencies (CO State Land Board (SLB), Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC), Department of Agriculture (CDA), etc.), and acts as one of the primary liaisons with County and municipal land use planning staff to coordinate CPW input as appropriate. This position is CPW's regional expert on all energy development and associated impacts on wildlife. As such, this position is responsible for providing internal and external energy-related presentations, trainings, and testimony, as appropriate.

Specific duties of this position include:

Wind Energy and Renewable Energy Development:

• This position serves as the primary CPW liaison between internal personnel and external entities in addressing the project-specific impacts and the cumulative impacts of wind energy development and renewable energy development to wildlife habitat, including developers and operators of energy-associated industry, and local, state, and federal agencies.

• This position oversees CPW recommendations to identify, monitor, and/or mitigate potential wildlife habitat impacts associated with wind energy development, advises private industry on how to minimize impacts to the environment and to associated wildlife habitats, and fosters open reciprocal communication between the industry and CPW. This position must be able to travel independently to field sites, both by automobile and on foot.

Oil and Gas Development Negotiation and Mitigation:

• Assesses research and evaluative data and applies scientific principles to develop and negotiate mitigation strategies regarding oil and gas development that consistently address direct and cumulative impacts to wildlife and their habitat within the SE region.
• Coordinates the regional process and implementation for determining the short and long-term impacts of energy development, including, but not limited to, the development of species-specific and habitat specific mitigation models and strategies.

Research and Implementation of Effective Mitigation Strategies:

• Position researches existing literature to identify current and future trends of renewable and non-renewable energy development and wildlife mitigation. Position seeks and develops alternative sources of funding to promote the research impacts of energy extraction upon wildlife habitat and development, as well as effective new mitigation strategies to offset cumulative impacts imposed by such development.

Federal and State Regulatory Agency Coordination:

• Position provides coordination for technical expertise with state and federal land use agencies within the assigned region, as well as private industry energy development staff, in the planning and development of public and private lands for energy extraction and development in Southeast Colorado. Position analyzes data and applies findings along with a knowledge of oil and gas exploration and extraction methodologies, renewable energy development, permitting processes, and long term compliance monitoring to oversee internal formal comments on all state and federal requests related to energy development.
• This position is responsible for work with industry and ECMC to fulfill CPW consultation responsibilities on all state permits under the authority of the Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) including oil and gas, geothermal, and carbon sequestration via geologic storage.
• For federal energy development this position is responsible for review of all NEPA requirements including review and comment on related environmental impact statements, environmental assessments, resources management plans, and Forest Plan revisions in the assigned region.

CBM/Renewable Energy Liaison:

• Position serves on state and federal, and local agency and non-governmental organization committees as the CPW expert in coal bed methane and wind and solar development. Works to ensure the appropriate tracking of wildlife and habitat issues and maintain and enhance the state's working relationship with other entities.

Other duties as assigned.Minimum Qualifications

Eight (8) years of relevant experience in evaluating and mitigating impacts to wildlife from oil and gas development, renewable energy development, or other types of energy development or land use development or an occupation closely related to the work assigned to this position.

OR

A combination of related education in Natural Resources, Wildlife Management, Biology, Aquatic Biology/Fishery Science/Aquaculture/Fishery Management, Ecology, Environmental Science, Environmental Policy, Geology, Zoology/Animal Sciences, Engineering, P.E / Professional Engineer, Water Resources Planning or Management and/or relevant experience in an occupation related to the work assigned equal to eight (8) years.

Class Code: Physical Science Researcher/Scientist

Substitutions

• Additional appropriate experience will substitute for the degree requirement on a year-for-year basis.
• Additional appropriate education will substitute for the required experience on a year-for-year basis.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with regulatory processes including oil and gas and renewable energy permitting, operation, and decommissioning.
• Ability to quickly synthesize complex, multi-disciplinary legal and scientific materials and provide well reasoned analysis and recommendations for the next steps that the agency should take.
• Experience presenting verbal and written information to stakeholders in a clear and concise manner.
• Strong writing skills and experience drafting briefing papers.

Required Competencies

• Energy and land use policy, planning, and/or development experience.
• Organizational and time management skills.
• Strong level of written and oral communication skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, Google suite.

Conditions of Employment

• Must possess and maintain a valid state of Colorado driver's license when operating a State vehicle.
• Travel - The employee must be able to work some evenings and weekends as well as occasional overnight travel.
• This position represents Colorado Parks and Wildlife statewide, which requires periodic travel which equates to 8-10 overnight trips per year and many locations not available through mass transit.
• Position requires advanced skill levels to operate motorcycles, ATVs, snowmobiles and 4x4 vehicles to access difficult back country areas for programs, trainings, project inspections and evaluations in a safe and efficient manner.
• Overnight and extended on-day travel throughout the region and state as needed to understand the issues, geography, and variation of impact on site-specific projects.
• Former State employees who were disciplinarily terminated or resigned in lieu of termination must disclose the information on the application and provide an explanation why the prior termination or resignation should not disqualify their application from the current position. (Please Note: Absent extraordinary circumstances, prior disciplinary termination or resignation in lieu of termination will disqualify the applicant from future State employment with DNR).
• Pursuant to the DNR-120 Fleet and Driving Standards Administrative Directive, any worker who will be expected to drive a State-owned vehicle is responsible for maintaining a safe driving record and a valid driver license prior to driving any State-owned vehicle.

To be compliant with the new fleet vehicle policy, Motor Vehicle Records (MVRs) will be pulled for review for workers who:

• Have an assigned State fleet vehicle

• Are required to operate a vehicle as part of the position

• Utilize a State fleet vehicle as a pool vehicle

The current work arrangement for this position is as follows:

(Please note, this arrangement can be subject to change)

• Hybrid: This position will work in a combination of in office, from a home office, and working in the field after initial training period to be determined with supervisor.

APPEAL RIGHTS:

It is recommended that you contact the Human Resources Specialist listed below to resolve issues related to your possession of minimum qualifications. However, if you receive notice that you have been eliminated from consideration for this position, you may file an appeal with the State Personnel Board or request a review by the State Personnel Director.

An appeal or review must be submitted on the official appeal form, signed by you or your representative. This form must be delivered to the State Personnel Board by email (...), postmarked in US Mail or hand delivered (1525 Sherman Street, 4th Floor, Denver CO 80203), or faxed ...) within ten (10) calendar days from your receipt of notice or acknowledgement of the department's action.

For more information about the appeals process, the official appeal form, and how to deliver it to the State Personnel Board; go to spb.colorado.gov; contact the State Personnel Board for assistance at ...; or refer to 4 Colorado Code of Regulations (CCR) 801-1, State Personnel Board Rules and Personnel Director's Administrative Procedures, Chapter 8, Resolution of Appeals and Disputes, at spb.colorado.gov under Rules.

The Assessment Process

• All applications received by the closing of this announcement will be reviewed by an HR Specialist against the Minimum Qualifications in this announcement.

• Colorado Revised Statutes require that state employees are hired and promoted based on merit and fitness through a comparative analysis process. Part of, or all of, the comparative analysis for this position will be a structured application review by Subject Matter Experts.

• Resumes, cover letters and other attachments are not considered as part of initial reviews, therefore, it is important to document in your application your education, experience, minimum qualifications, and preferred qualifications as outlined in the job announcement.

• Please thoroughly answer all supplemental questions (if listed) since question responses may be evaluated for content, writing ability, spelling, grammar, and effective communication.

• This recruitment may involve additional testing and/or exams to arrive at the top group for interviews.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

The State of Colorado strives to create a Colorado for All by building and maintaining workplaces that value and respect all Coloradans through a commitment to equal opportunity and hiring based on merit and fitness.

The State is resolute in non-discriminatory practices in everything we do, including hiring, employment, and advancement opportunities.

The State of Colorado believes that equity, diversity, and inclusion drive our success, and we encourage candidates from all identities, backgrounds, and abilities to apply. The State of Colorado is an equal opportunity employer committed to building inclusive, innovative work environments with employees who reflect our communities and enthusiastically serve them. Therefore, in all aspects of the employment process, we provide employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, medical condition related to pregnancy, creed, ancestry, national origin, marital status, genetic information, or military status (with preference given to military veterans), or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law.

The Department of Natural Resources is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, our agency will assist individuals who have a disability with any reasonable accommodation requests related to employment, including completing the application process, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, participating in the employee selection process, and/or to perform essential job functions where the requested accommodation does not impose an undue hardship. If you have a disability and require reasonable accommodation to ensure you have a positive experience applying or interviewing for this position, please direct your inquiries to our ADAAA Coordinator, at ...

ADAAA Accommodations

Any person with a disability as defined by the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) may be provided a reasonable accommodation upon request to enable the person to complete an employment assessment. To request accommodation, please contact our Benefits Specialist at ... at least five business days before the date that any accommodation will be required to allow us to evaluate your request and prepare for the accommodation. You may be asked to provide additional information, including medical documentation, regarding functional limitations and type of accommodation needed. Please ensure that you have this information available well in advance of the assessment date.

E-Verify

The Department of Natural Resources participates in E-Verify in accordance with the program's Right to Work for all newly-hired employees. Employees are queried through the electronic system established by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) to verify identity and employment eligibility. You may complete section 1 of the I-9 form upon your acceptance of a job offer letter, but no later than your first day of employment and in addition, on your first day, but no later than the third day, you are required to submit original documents to verify your eligibility to work in the U.S. Learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities.

Toll-Free Applicant Support - Technical Help

If you experience technical difficulty with the NEOGOV system (e.g. uploading or attaching documents to your online application) call NEOGOV at ..., Mon-Fri between 6 am and 6 pm (Pacific Time). The Human Resources Office will be unable to assist with technical issues.