Full-time (hybrid/remote)

6 months/year at projects in West Africa

About Rainforest Builder

Rainforest Builder is Africa’s leading forest restoration company, on a mission to restore one million hectares of degraded land to tropical forest. We bring together world-leading science, forestry, and tech, to deliver high-quality forest restoration at unprecedented scale. Backed by some of the largest companies and investors in the world, we remove millions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere, restore globally threatened biodiversity, and deliver equitable economic growth to rural communities. We currently operate four projects across three countries in West Africa and are continuing to expand to new areas within the region.

Role overview

As Rainforest Builder’s Lead Restoration Scientist, you will be the driving force behind our ambitious experimental research program. You will design, implement and analyze field trials that underpin continual improvements to our operational practices. You will oversee cutting-edge nursery research to advance our understanding of native rainforest tree seedlings and unlock the production of highly diverse species mixes at scale. You will lead on our programme of seed collection and storage, applying what we learn in our trials to ensure that each project is provisioned with a high-quality seed stock for highly diversified native tree planting at scale.

This is a career-defining role with responsibility for generating insights that will shape the outcomes of land restoration across thousands of hectares throughout tropical West Africa.

Key Responsibilities

Field Silvicultural trials: You will design and manage the running of field trial programs across all Rainforest Builder’s active projects, answering key questions concerning how to cost-effectively re-establish native forests. You will provide regular reporting of trial-based insights, and deliver evidence-based recommendations to improve operations across our project areas.

Tree Improvement & Site-Species Matching: You will oversee a variety of research streams to help understand the drivers of mortality and growth in different species, unravelling the effects of climate, soils, pests and pathogens to understand how to optimally match different species to different environments. You will develop a long-term program of tree quality research to identify high-performing species and individuals, with the potential to include genomic screening and multi-trait selection. You will generate actionable recommendations on seed and seedling sources that will improve the growth and long-term resilience of our restored forests.

Seed collection and storage: you will oversee our seed collection programme, ensuring that we collect the seed that fuels our operations. This requires collecting high-quality seed in the right quantity, and from the right species, and ensure that we achieve multi-year viability in storage.

Team Building and Leadership: you will support the growth and development of Rainforest Builder’s Research & Development teams across all projects. This will include finding and recruiting talented researchers, as well as providing training and mentorship to our existing teams. You will promote and instill a working culture of the highest standards of productivity, integrity and curiosity, supporting the growth of the next generation of leaders in West African forestry.

Candidate requirements

PhD in a relevant field
Minimum of 5 years of research management experience in one of the following areas: research and development in forest restoration; forestry operations; restoration R&D and tree breeding
Experience working in tropical forests, with a strong grounding in tropical forest ecology
Proven leadership skills, with effective team management and operational organization, including leading large teams to a tight delivery schedule in challenging field settings

Strong experience in designing, conducting, and analyzing experimental research, and interpreting research data

Highly self-motivated, and excited by the challenge of maintaining scientific rigor across a large field operation.

Excellent problem solver- able to identify problems and challenges as they emerge and resolve appropriately

To apply

Please email simon@rainforestbuilder.com with a CV and covering letter, including the job title in the subject line. Applications via LinkedIn will not be reviewed.

Lead restoration scientist

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