The hydro-biogeochemistry group at the University of Washington in Seattle has an opening for a full-time, field technician position starting May 2022 and ending January 2025. The technician will be a University of Washington employee based out of Fairbanks, Alaska. They will be working at a permafrost-thaw bog complex located in the Bonanza Creek LTER research forest. The site is well-instrumented and actively studied by multiple research groups. The technician will be working on a project aimed at understanding how methane emissions from permafrost-thaw bogs are affected by climatic change.
Position responsibilities include independently making routine field measurements (e.g., gas flux, water levels, snow depth, active layer depth, etc.), assisting the field efforts of a graduate student researcher, processing and analyzing field samples in the laboratory, and digitizing, cleaning, and quality-checking data. Much of the technician’s work will be conducted independently. The graduate student researcher and other project personnel will visit Fairbanks and the site regularly over the project duration. It is anticipated that fieldwork will dominate the technician’s time for nine months of the year (March – November) with the winter months spent doing lab and computer-based work. The technician must be comfortable visiting the site daily, carrying heavy loads of equipment to and from the site (~1-mile distance), driving on dirt roads, operating a snowmobile (after appropriate training), walking on boardwalks, and working in an outdoor environment with mosquitoes and a wide range of temperatures (below freezing to >80 °F).
The field technician will earn $43,860 per year and the position is benefits eligible. They will be responsible for finding and paying for housing in Fairbanks. Travel to and from the field site will be conducted with a project vehicle. The project will pay for the technician to travel to and from Fairbanks from their current location at the start and end of the employment period.
If you are interested, please contact Rebecca Neumann (rbneum@uw.edu) with:
1) A cover letter expressing why you are interested and qualified for the position
2) A CV or resume
3) Names and contact information of three individuals able to provide a letter of recommendation
