Project and Science Associate

Location: Remote; Western US required; California, Oregon, or Washington preferred
Reports to: Science Manager

Salary: $72k-$78k

Travel: Travel up to 25%-40% of the time, primarily within the Western U.S. 

Preferred Start Date: January 5, 2025

Employment Status: Full-time, non-exempt

Priority Application Deadline: October 24th, 2025

About Blue Forest

Blue Forest is a conservation finance nonprofit founded in 2015, focusing on advancing ecosystem restoration through scientific research, financial innovation, and collaborative partnerships. Since 2018, Blue Forest has managed investor capital through its flagship financial product, the Forest Resilience Bond (FRB), which deploys private capital to finance forest restoration projects to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. More recently, Blue Forest has also established Blue Forest Asset Management (BFAM), an investment management platform that connects investors to compelling, mission-aligned opportunities in a broader set of asset classes, including private equity and private credit investments, beyond FRB projects.

Blue Forest is made up of an interdisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, foresters, finance professionals, and communications professionals committed to the mission: “To accelerate ecological restoration through conservation finance, enabling climate resilience for ecosystems and communities.”

Employees at Blue Forest are:

• Committed to Continuous Learning

• Driven by Collaboration

• Thoughtful Innovators for Impact

• Grounded in Science

• Passionate about Restoring Earth’s Ecosystems

Position Summary

Project and Science Associates at Blue Forest play a critical role in advancing innovative conservation finance projects, often focused on wildfire resilience, watershed health, and community benefit. This role typically combines multiple workstreams, including coordinating and contributing to science efforts, communications, education and capacity building, partnerships, and stakeholder engagement. The Associate will support 2-4 projects concurrently, and over time, will develop a specialization (e.g., geographic, issue area, modeling, communications, etc.) that advances project development and science across the organization.

Position responsibilities include leading execution and day-to-day operations for individual projects, fostering and managing relationships with project partners, facilitating the advancement of beneficiary engagement, and partnering with Managers and Directors to support long-term project strategy and cross-functional coordination, ensuring progress across all workstreams and deliverables.

Associates play a key role on the project development and science teams by developing written materials, giving presentations, and developing relationships with partners in coordination with the rest of the project team and Blue Forest leadership. Associates also spend their time as the lead coordinator for special projects within other departments at Blue Forest. This Associate will play a key internal role in bridging the project development and science teams—identifying opportunities to streamline collaboration, improve workflows, and ensure scientific insights are effectively integrated into project design and delivery.

The ideal candidate will be comfortable working independently, facilitating collaborative discussions, managing complex relationships, and navigating ambiguity—while maintaining alignment with Blue Forest’s broader goals and mission.

Responsibilities & Duties

Individual FRB Project Development (50-70%)

• Support the development of multiple FRB projects from conception to execution, including bringing structure and processes to innovative and ambiguous projects. Project workstreams include:

  • Partnering with land managers (such as the Forest Service) on implementation strategies for priority restoration projects

  • Supporting or leading the development of project agendas, timelines, and work plans

  • Researching and engaging potential project beneficiaries

  • Quantifying and communicating project benefits with internal and external science partners

  • Developing proposals and helping secure funding commitments from beneficiaries

  • Engaging community stakeholders, Native nations, and potential project collaborators

• Identify and propose solutions to bottlenecks and coordination gaps across assigned workstreams

• Develop and execute high-quality project materials such as presentations, two-pagers, and memorandums to support project development and partner engagement

• Foster relationships with project development partners across a portfolio of project assignments

• Integrate and enhance DEI and tribal engagement across all workstreams.

Science Modeling + Benefit Evaluation (20-30%) 

• Support ecosystem benefit scoping and modeling (e.g., wildfire risk reduction, water benefits, carbon).

• Contribute to science-based deliverables such as geospatial assets, research summaries, model outputs, coding, and decision support tools.

• Work collaboratively with internal teams to generate and communicate outcomes/ insights from benefit modeling.

• Identify and propose solutions to bottlenecks and coordination gaps across assigned workstreams.

Partnerships, Cross-team Collaboration, and Communications(10-15%)

• Support site visit planning with project partners, execute grant reporting, enhance internal knowledge sharing, and develop system processes and organization

• Develop communications materials like 2-pagers, story maps, and explainers for projects, initiatives, and research project deliverables

• Contribute to the newsletter and other email and social media campaigns where appropriate and where material can elevate key partners and/or project visibility

• Act as a liaison between the science and project development teams
  

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

An ideal candidate will have 1-3 years of relevant work or equivalent experience. Blue Forest will prioritize the following qualifications in the hiring process; however, we do not expect candidates to fulfill all criteria and encourage all interested candidates to apply.

• Active Contributor: Ability to work independently with minimal supervision; is detail-oriented, executes and follows through on assigned tasks, manages time effectively, and owns workstreams. Identifies and communicates bottlenecks with Managers and Directors, proactively researching and identifying solutions to bring to the team.

• Communication: Strong written and oral communication skills, including distilling and communicating complex ideas into presentations and written memos for non-scientific audiences, facilitating collaborative discussions, creating effective storytelling products, etc.

• Partnerships & Collaboration: Developing experience collaborating with internal and external stakeholders and Native Nations. Strong, active listening skills, inclusive approach, and values engaging diverse perspectives to design effective solutions and projects.

• Conservation Finance, Ecosystem Services, Utilities, or Forestry Expertise: Passionate and some understanding of conservation finance, modeling ecosystem services, water and electric utilities, forestry, or other relevant fields. Experience working with the USDA Forest Service or utilities is a plus but not required. 

• Continuous Learner: Committed to continuous learning, including seeking opportunities to incorporate feedback and learn from others; learning, listening, and engagement that understands historical place-based context for projects and empowers and supports diverse communities within the conservation and financial communities.

• GIS and Science Modeling Experience: One to three years of experience or advanced education in ecology, forestry, environmental sciences/engineering, or related fields in research and/or modeling of ecosystem processes. Some experience with GIS is required. The ideal candidate will have familiarity with a range of modeling approaches, understand their strengths, weaknesses, and sources of uncertainty, and be comfortable thinking holistically about mechanisms driving ecosystem processes.

Benefits

• 100% employer-paid health, dental, and vision coverage; subsidized coverage for dependents

• Access to a 401(k) retirement plan with a 5% employer match

• 4 weeks paid vacation and 17 paid holidays; paid sick time and volunteer time

• 3 months of paid family leave

• Employer-paid life and long-term disability insurance

• Access to Dependent Care FSA and Health FSA

• Public Lands Exploration stipend (reimbursements for visits to National Forests, county parks, etc.)

• Monthly Home Office stipend or co-working space provided

• Dependent care costs are subsidized for business travel

• Additional stipends for health & wellness, home internet, and cell service

• Financial support for professional development

Additional Information 

Blue Forest is a fully remote company with staff located across all four continental U.S. time zones. While we value flexibility in work schedules, you should expect to have some overlap with Pacific Standard Time working hours in order to collaborate with partners and team members. Blue Forest also hosts an in-person team retreat each year.

HOW TO APPLY 

To apply to this position, please submit a resume and cover letter for your application through Recruitee. People from historically underrepresented populations and candidates with non-traditional career paths are especially encouraged to apply.

If participating in the interview process would require you to incur additional expenses to participate, such as childcare, please let us know, and we are happy to reimburse for reasonable costs incurred up to $30/hour for twice the length of each interview in which you participate. There will be space to request this reimbursement upon offer of an interview.