2025-209 Senior Fellow, Fisheries Economics & Climate

ABOUT OCEAN CONSERVANCY

Ocean Conservancy works to protect the ocean from today’s greatest global challenges. Together with our partners, we create evidence-based solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Senior Fellow, Fisheries Economics & Climate leads Ocean Conservancy’s development of actionable policy solutions to address the socioeconomic challenges of managing fisheries sustainably within a changing climate. This position reports to the Director, Fish Conservation Program, and works with a team of Ocean Conservancy scientists, attorneys, policy advocates, media and outreach staff; academics; and external partners to advance our fish conservation priorities through the analysis and application of socioeconomic science that supports climate resilience for fisheries and fishing communities, and the development and use of new scientific information and approaches that supports meaningful policy action. The fellow will be a recognized expert in fisheries economics or closely related fields, ideally with experience working at the forefront of developing and integrating new scientific findings and approaches into public policy that achieves management and fishing communities’ ability to rapidly respond to climate change impacts. This fellow will have experience and comfort engaging with both policy experts and interested parties, and a significant duty of this position will be leveraging their expertise to develop, promote, and ultimately advance actionable policy solutions. Finally, this position works with Ocean Conservancy and external partners to transition fisheries policy and management toward a climate-ready paradigm that incorporates climate change and fishing community well-being into sustainable natural resource decision-making.

 PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Leads Ocean Conservancy’s work to transition fisheries management towards approaches that allow for rapid response to the impacts of climate change without compromising conservation goals, focusing on the development of plans and strategies that include climate and fishing community resilience considerations.
• Produces novel socioeconomic research to identify successful management approaches that increase the resilience of fisheries and fishing communities to climate change impacts, and prepares reports and papers detailing the findings of these investigations in order to advance Ocean Conservancy goals.
• Uses findings from economics research and other scientific fields to discern policy implications and develop proposed strategies for advancing Ocean Conservancy’s policy and management priorities.
• Contributes to the development of organizational policies, positions, advocacy strategies, science tools and communication products.
• Leads development of the organization’s annual and multi-year workplans for successful implementation of solution sets in the policy and management arena.
• Identifies gaps in knowledge of socioeconomic fisheries science and management that are barriers to achieving Ocean Conservancy priorities and formulates strategies for filling those gaps.
• Analyzes current and proposed fisheries management policies designed to achieve socio-economic goals to ensure they are scientifically sound and achieving conservation mandates.
• Advocates for sound science in policy and management decisions related to fisheries and climate resilience, and helps communicate this need to a media audience
• Maintains a network of external academic and agency scientists.
• Works cooperatively with other scientists, governmental relations, communications and development staff to help achieve organizational objectives.
• Identifies potential funding opportunities, leads development of proposals and grant reports to support Ocean Conservancy’s work with an emphasis on philanthropic foundations and governments.  

REQUIRED SKILLS/QUALIFICATIONS/EXPERIENCE

• Minimum 7-10 years professional experience focused on the assessment, interpretation, and translation of economics research into actionable policy outcomes.
• Strong knowledge of fisheries economics, socioeconomic analysis, and climate science and tools applicable in a fisheries management context.
• Experience working on issues related to climate resilience in a fisheries policy context.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with other scientists to produce novel findings that are relevant, understood, and ultimately useful to policy audiences.
• Experience working with decisionmakers, tribes, advocacy organizations, researchers, and stakeholders to engage in productive partnerships across sources of knowledge and perspectives.
• Excellent working knowledge of Excel, and with toolsets commonly used in economic analysis including statistical software and computer modeling packages such as R or Stata, and with common fisheries science approaches including bioeconomic modeling and stock assessments.
• Experience with US marine fishery management regulations and policy required, with additional experience in marine fishery management outside the U.S. a plus.
• Proficiency in the interpretation, synthesis, and analysis of information across a range of scientific disciplines in order to affect policy changes in natural resource management arenas.
• Ability to clearly formulate and communicate complex ideas orally and in writing.  Excellent writing skills and proficiency with MS Word (or equivalent).
• Ability and comfort working in collaboration with a diverse project team in a policy advocacy role.
• Ability to work with minimal supervision, set priorities among competing projects, meet objectives and deadlines, resolve routine problems independently, and recognize and work with supervisor to resolve complex or unusual problems.
• Demonstrated leadership and project management skills.
• Willingness to occasionally travel and work long hours when required by project objectives.

EDUCATION/TRAINING

• Masters (PhD preferred) in natural resource economics, natural resource management, or closely related field.

COMPENSATION
Ocean Conservancy is committed to equity in its pay practices and posts expected salary ranges for each of its positions. Compensation will be commensurate with the candidate’s specialty skills, years of experience, geographic location and unique background. The expected salary range is $101,210 to $148,844. We would welcome the opportunity to connect with potential candidates whose salary requirements may be outside of the expected range.

TO APPLY

If you think you’d be a great fit for the job and are interested in joining Ocean Conservancy’s team, please apply here. Please include a resume and cover letter in one file on your application.

HYBRID WORK ENVIRONMENT

Ocean Conservancy embraces a hybrid work environment, which allows our staff the flexibility to work virtually and in-person while building strong connections across the institution.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Ocean Conservancy provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

We encourage applicants who have a diverse level and range of relevant skills and experiences to apply. A 100% match is not required. We want to support employees’ career growth and in return, our employees help Ocean Conservancy grow into a stronger, more inclusive organization.

If you are a person with a disability and need help applying, please contact us at [email protected].