Broadcast Technician

Position Title: Arctic Acoustic Technician

Position Type: Full-time

Term: January 6, 2025 to March 31, 2026

Level: 7

Program: Western Arctic

Location: Whitehorse, Yukon (Hybrid)

Date written/revised: November 14, 2024

Reports to: Dr. William Halliday, Conservation Scientist, Arctic Acoustics Program Lead

Supervises: N/A

Salary: $65,000 to $75,000 annually based on experience

Start Date: January 6, 2025

Position Contact: Dr. William Halliday, Conservation Scientist, Arctic Acoustics Program Lead

Benefits: 4 weeks’ vacation, Paid sick and Personal emergency leave, Self-care days, Northern Travel Allowance, Health and Dental care, Life insurance, RRSP match, DEIJA Team, Weekly Wellness sessions, Mentorship program.

Application Closing Date: Monday, December 2, 2024 at 6pm EST.

Position Summary

We are seeking candidates for an acoustic technician position to support the Western Arctic Program’s ongoing work using passive acoustic monitoring to study marine mammals, fish, and underwater noise in the Canadian Arctic. The acoustic technician would work closely with Dr. William Halliday and Dr. Stephen Insley with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada (www.arcticnoise.ca). This position would be based in WCS Canada’s office in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.

The Western Arctic Program currently collects roughly 8 TB of underwater acoustic data every year that must be processed. This acoustic technician position will focus on processing ocean passive acoustic data collected by WCS Canada to detect marine mammals and fish and measure underwater noise levels from vessel traffic. Other responsibilities will include fieldwork in the Canadian Arctic to help maintain the acoustic monitoring network, community meetings with Inuvialuit partners, data management, and managing and maintaining oceanographic equipment.

The successful candidate must have at least a BSc in Biology, Oceanography, Physics, or a related field and strong computational skills, ideally with experience coding in Python, R, or Matlab. Experience in underwater acoustics and statistical analyses is considered an asset but on the job training can be provided if necessary. Firsthand experience with oceanographic equipment, both in the lab and the field, is considered an asset.

WCS Canada provides an annual Northern Travel Allowance to employees that reside in a Northern Zone for the purpose of employment with WCS Canada. 

Position Objective

This position supports the WCS Canada Western Arctic Program with the following objective:

• Processing passive acoustic data to detect marine mammal and fish vocalizations and measure underwater noise levels from vessel traffic.

Principal Responsibilities

• Processing passive acoustic data with deep learning detectors for marine mammal vocalizations.
• Manually processing passive acoustic data to validate detectors.
• Processing passive acoustic data to measure vessel noise.
• Conducting statistical analyses.
• Writing reports and manuscripts.
• Preparing oceanographic equipment, recovering, and deploying oceanographic moorings.
• Managing acoustic data management.
• Management and maintenance of oceanographic equipment.
• Attending meetings with Inuvialuit partners and other organizations.
• Support WCS Canada’s goal of transforming WCS Canada’s conservation practice through reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. 
• Contribute to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that promotes engagement and belonging. 

Required Qualifications/Skills/Experience

• MSc or BSc in biology, oceanography, physics, or a related field with a strong computational/ analytical background. MSc preferred.
• 2 years minimum of relevant experience.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

Other Desirable Qualifications/Skills/Experience

• Experience in a coding language such as Python, R, or Matlab.
• Knowledge of underwater acoustics, including sound propagation and the impacts of underwater noise on marine life.
• Strong skills in signal processing, spatial analyses, acoustic propagation modeling, and statistical analyses.

Office Safety Plan Compliance

WCS Canada is committed to providing and maintaining a safe environment for our employees, contractors, and partners. As part of this unwavering commitment to safety, it is a condition of employment that all WCS Canada employees be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with a COVID-19 vaccine series approved by Health Canada or the World Health Organization. This condition is subject to the requirements of applicable human rights legislation.

How to apply

Please submit your CV and a cover letter explaining your interest in this position and relevant skills and experience.

For questions regarding the position, please contact Dr. Bill Halliday at whalliday@wcs.org.

For questions regarding the application process, please contact Okechukwu Ezibe at oezibe@wcs.org.

Application Closing Date: Monday, December 2, 2024 at 6pm EST.

About WCS Canada

WCS Canada (www.wcscanada.org) was established as a Canadian conservation organization in July 2004. We are committed to championing accessibility, diversity, and equal opportunity. Our mission is to save wildlife and wild places by improving our understanding of and seeking solutions to critical problems that threaten key species and large wild ecosystems throughout Canada. We implement and support comprehensive field studies that gather information on wildlife needs and then seek to resolve key conservation problems by working with a broad array of actors. WCS Canada has a track record of our science being recognized as relevant, credible and legitimate by researchers, NGOs and agencies. WCS Canada is independently registered and managed, while retaining a strong collaborative working relationship with sister Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) programs in more than 60 countries.

Diversity and inclusion are core WCS Canada values. We value the diversity of the people we employ and work with and we strive to provide an inclusive and equitable workplace in which we recognize the unique characteristics, skills and experiences of all employees. We are committed to engaging our employees in our diversity, equity and inclusion work and together we aim to create a workplace where all staff feel they belong and can grow.

WCS Canada’s programs occur on the homelands of Indigenous Peoples whose relationships various governments are described in historic (numbered) Treaties, modern land claim agreements, and negotiations around unceded lands. We recognize and support the international ecological and social commitments and responsibilities to Indigenous Peoples that Canada has signed, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Our commitment to engagement with Indigenous Peoples ranges from notification of research to the provision of scientific advice, to co-creation of research. We respect Indigenous knowledge systems and include this knowledge in our research and conservation programs where possible. We engage in land use planning and impact assessment processes that affect Indigenous Peoples, seeking ways to advance conservation as well as opportunities to sustain the livelihoods and cultures of Indigenous communities. We seek to motivate positive conservation outcomes by supporting effective governance and decision-making processes by Indigenous communities, particularly by supporting Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas.

WCS Canada is committed to contributing to the field of conservation science and the professional development of its employees. Employees are encouraged to participate in professional societies and present their research at conferences and meetings, as well as participate in relevant workshops and training opportunities. Employees are likewise encouraged to mentor graduate students, participate in relevant graduate student committees, and pursue adjunct status with universities as appropriate.