Director, Wildland Fire Environment Innovations Program – Part Time

Job Description:

• Initiate, facilitate, and sustain strategic collaborations with external wildland fire agencies and federal sponsors, including the U.S. Forest Service, state fire organizations, and regional management teams
• Identify operational priorities and capability gaps in fire weather, climate, fuels, and environmental information
• Coordinate multi-institutional activities across external partners
• Establish long-term partnership goals, strategic outreach plans, and collaborative frameworks with sponsor leadership
• Translate operational fire management expertise into interdisciplinary research questions
• Lead and co-lead the conceptualization, testing, and iteration of decision-support tools, datasets, and environmental models for wildland fire managers
• Contribute to peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, white papers, and sponsor deliverables
• Evaluate complex environmental challenges in wildland fire management
• Design, author, and deliver specialized training materials and instructional modules
• Conduct technical workshops, technology transfer sessions, and consultation services
• Synthesize practitioner feedback to refine tools and guide future research
• Represent WFEIP and the University to federal decision-makers, agency leadership, fire managers, and interagency research committees
• Serve as an internal operational subject matter expert and liaison to faculty, research groups, and campus units
• Promote program visibility and research impact at conferences, sponsor reviews, and interagency briefings

Requirements:

• Demonstrated expertise in applied meteorology and climatology, recognized as a regional or national subject matter expert (SME)
• Demonstrated knowledge of the inter-agency operational environment of US wildland fire management, including the Incident Command System (ICS) and the National Coordination System (NCS)
• Demonstrated experience developing and delivering training materials for US wildland fire managers
• NWCG 400-level (national) or higher level, especially with fire environment
• Demonstrated ability to build, support, and adapt science-based tools for wildland fire management
• Knowledge of the historical relationship between interagency fire environment science, developed applications, related training and standards, and field practitioner use and experience
• Demonstrated skill in collaborative research

Benefits:

• Part-time employment
• Remote work arrangement