Volunteer Coordinator / Biologist for Bear Research Project

Reliable, mature volunteer coordinator / biologist with strong organization skills needed by the Andean Bear Foundation for the research side of its conservation work in the Intag region of Ecuador.

The ideal candidate will:

• Speak at least intermediate Spanish and fluent English, or vice versa
• Have a background in biology, ecology or similar, and field experience
• Be a “people person” and have leadership experience
• Be physically fit and able to walk at altitude
• Be at least 27 years old
• Commit for at least 6 months

Board and lodging will be provided in the shared volunteer house.  The work schedule is variable but the candidate may need to work weekends with some time off in the week.

The work will involve coordinating and timetabling the research work of volunteers, leading treks and camping expeditions to collect radio-telemetry data, and running the volunteer household (there is a cook/cleaner, but the coordinator will organize the purchase of groceries and control the budget).  The coordinator is the public face of the project and so must have excellent people skills and enjoy spending time with volunteers from around the world as well as with the local community.  The vast majority of the time involves working with people and radio telemetry equipment, not bears.

This is a challenging and responsible position and requires a loyal, dedicated candidate.  For the right person, this opportunity could be the ideal stepping stone on the route to running your own research project in the future.  There could be the possibility of co-authorship of articles publishing project results for a long-term candidate with appropriate skills.

This position is to start 3^rd January 2011.

For more information, including the possibility of combining this post with PhD research, download the PDF from www.andeanbear.org/volunteer-coordinator11a.pdf then apply quoting reference SDBvcOct0.