Project Management and Administrative Support - ORAU

The EPA National Student Services Contract has an immediate opening for a full time Project Management and Administrative Support position with the Office of Research and Development at the EPA facility in Research Triangle Park, NC.

The Office of Research and Development (ORD) at the EPA supports high-quality research to improve the scientific basis for decisions on national environmental issues and helps EPA achieve its environmental goals. The Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA) within ORD is a leader in the science of human health and ecological risk assessment, a process used to determine how pollutants or other stressors may impact human health and the environment. CPHEA conducts research to understand the impact of environmental exposures to pollutants, in conjunction with other stressors such as impacts from climate change and climate-related extreme events, on individuals, populations, and ecosystems, emphasizing the people and ecosystems most susceptible to the adverse effects of such exposures and stresses. The Center occupies a critical position at the nexus of science and policy, between researchers, both within and outside of EPA, who are generating new data and findings, and the regulators in EPA’s program and regional offices who must make regulatory, enforcement, and remedial action decisions.

What the EPA project is about

CPHEA’s Integrated Climate Sciences Division (ICSD) provides research, scientific assessments, technical support, and capacity building in response to the climate priorities expressed by EPA program, regional, state, and tribal partners. ICSD conducts cutting-edge research to develop innovative climate assessment methods and tools, including advancing the integration of the social sciences with the physical, ecological, and health sciences and engineering to develop research and assessment products and providing programmatic and regional support for the translation of these products to inform policy outcomes. ICSD research and assessment products are widely recognized as authoritative within the United States as well as internationally. Furthermore, ICSD plays a leadership role in shaping ORD’s research agenda on climate change. As climate change is increasingly causing substantial adverse impacts, damages, and losses across individuals, populations, communities, species, and ecosystems, and as these impacts are occurring in combination with other man-made chemical and non-chemical stressors that are themselves being altered with the changing climate, there is a clear and pressing need for EPA’s mission to understand the potential cumulative and interactive effects of climate change and chemical exposures on health and ecological endpoints, placing these issues at the center of ICSD’s work.

ICSD leads a Regional Climate Assistance Network (RCAN) to support EPA’s ten regional offices in their work to address climate change in their mission-focused environmental program areas, acting as a center of gravity for connecting ORD climate research and expertise to regional needs. RCAN delivers regionally relevant assessments, technical assistance, and capacity building in support of climate adaptation, resilience, and mitigation efforts, especially for communities most vulnerable to climate change impacts or disproportionate environmental burdens. It depends upon building and fostering relationships with EPA program and regional office partners who are working to better integrate climate information into their regular work activities, spanning environmental media. Through its network function, RCAN seeks to leverage program and regional office expertise, build capacity, and develop a holistic understanding of the priority climate needs across Regions. RCAN provides access to a network of experts within ICSD and across ORD, EPA, and other federal agencies. Through both ongoing research activities and technical support for regional requests, RCAN is building a library of climate information and services. RCAN work products are often tailored to specific regional needs but can also be used to build capacity and inform future activities. For instance, RCAN place-based, community-engaged research efforts inform local responses to climate change and environmental justice issues and can later be exported to inform responses in other areas.

Organizationally, RCAN is an initiative that spans multiple branches within the ICSD, including the Regional Climate Assistance Branch (RCAB) and the Integration and Evaluation Branch (IEB).

As a team member, you will support the ICSD RCAN Program Lead, and staff within the ICSD, on a wide range of program and project management assignments, administrative support services, and communication tasks to support RCAN projects and processes. In particular, the team member will support RCAN’s request and response system for managing regional requests for climate-related technical information and services including curated climate information tailored to regional needs; access to a network of subject-matter experts spanning scientific disciplines; facilitation of connections among stakeholders through workshops; and training on ORD research, climate assessments, tools, and other resources. The team member will also support the tracking of climate-related technical support; communication and synthesis products to highlight RCAN activities; ongoing outreach and engagement activities to build and maintain relationships with EPA Regions; and integration and evaluation efforts to support RCAN. The team member will report to an RCAN project manager in the ICSD IEB.

Project Management Support will include:

• Reading EPA regional climate adaptation plans to determine relevance and provide input to program building activities
• Researching websites, technical reports, and scientific manuscripts to inform implementation activities of the RCAN
• Organizing and tracking information through spreadsheets, relational databases, and other mechanisms, including regional contacts, ORD subject-matter experts, and incoming information requests and science questions
• Gathering and visualizing data using tools such as Microsoft Power BI to analyze, share, and promote data insights, and generate reports related to regional information requests and technical assistance needs
• Developing summary information to present regional requests for assistance and ORD responses over time in both quantitative and qualitative formats.

General Project Management Support will include:

• Assisting project managers in the creation of information workflows to track and manage incoming regional requests for climate-related information and services
• Developing project timelines and schedules, as well as metrics to track product status and delivery
• Assisting with the management and tracking of incoming requests, utilizing tools such as Microsoft Forms and Excel
• Assisting staff with the use of project management tools
• Gathering updates on project status from project managers and technical leads
• Tracking product status and delivery and generating status reports
• Supporting synthesis of lessons learned from research projects to inform integration and evaluation efforts.

Administrative Support and Communications will include:

• Organizing and tracking outreach and other communication efforts with EPA regional offices and tracking the status and schedule of action items
• Supporting communications efforts through generation of outreach materials including talking points, newsletters, and status reports
• Providing logistical and administrative support for meetings and workshops, including scheduling, notetaking, maintaining meeting records, and tracking action items
• Supporting correspondence through tracking and answering phone calls and emails and connecting with appropriate ORD subject-matter experts to respond to regional inquiries or requests for technical assistance
• Maintaining effective communications with the project team
• Coordinating logistics for internal training webinars including communication with speakers and the preparation of briefing materials
• Building and maintaining resources, trainings, and other information to include on the RCAN intranet and SharePoint pages
• Developing and conducting special analyses or projects as directed.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education

• Experience relevant to environmental science, climate change, and/or environmental justice;
• Experience developing data visualizations or dashboards using tools like Power BI or Qlik;
• Experience in technical scientific writing and editing as evidenced by a technical writing sample;
• Experience with Microsoft products, including use of Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Word, Outlook, Forms, Planner, and SharePoint;
• Experience reading and summarizing scientific information;
• Strong oral communication skills;
• Strong organizational skills and experience in successfully handling multiple assignments with competing deadlines;
• Experience working well as a part of a team; and
• Excellent interpersonal skills.

Desired Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education

• Experience with project management software and tools relating to scientific research activities.

Location:  This job will be located EPA’s facility in Research Triangle Park, NC.

Salary: Selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU and will receive an hourly wage of $23.84 for hours worked.

Hours: Full-time.

Travel: No travel will be required.

Expected start date: The position is full time and expected to begin December 2024. The selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU working as a contractor to EPA.

For more information, contact EPANSSC@orau.org. Do not contact EPA directly.

• Be at least 18 years of age and
• Have earned at least a bachelor’s degree in a field related to environmental science, biology, ecology, climate science, social science, science communication, or project management from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months and
• Be a citizen of the United States of America or a Legal Permanent Resident.

EPA ORD employees, their spouses, and children are not eligible to participate in this program.