Practice Lead, Natural Sciences & Forestry

PRI operates through a matrix of technical practices and commercial sectors. Practice Leads own the technical axis: technical excellence, quality management, discipline capability, staffing, and people development. Commercial sector leaders own client relationships, pursuits, and business growth. This structure means our Practice Leads can concentrate on what drew them to the profession in the first place, excellent work and strong teams, while being genuinely supported on the commercial side. As Practice Lead, you'll be a senior technical resource on major pursuits and client relationships, but you won't carry sales targets or sole commercial accountability.

Technical leadership and quality

Serve as a senior technical authority for the Natural Sciences & Forestry practice, providing expert oversight on complex projects, professional submissions, and technically challenging assignments across both disciplines.

Provide, and ensure through senior discipline leads, rigorous technical review and professional sign-off across natural sciences deliverables (habitat and species assessments, ecological studies, monitoring programs) and forestry deliverables (forest management plans, silviculture prescriptions, timber development, forest health and wildfire assessments).

Ensure all deliverables meet PRI's quality standards, professional practice requirements, and applicable provincial and federal regulatory frameworks.

Own and continuously improve the practice's technical standards, field protocols, methodologies, and quality management systems across both disciplines.

Establish and lead consistent technical review processes at key project milestones, working alongside Project Managers who own project delivery.

Discipline capability and resourcing

Own the technical capability of the practice across both disciplines, the field expertise, methods, and skills the team needs to deliver excellent work now and as the practice grows.

Lead the practice through senior discipline specialists. Where your own registration and expertise sit in one discipline (biology or forestry), you will rely on, develop, and empower a senior lead in the other, ensuring both disciplines are held to the same high standard.

Maintain labour forecasts, utilization targets, and workload planning across offices and field seasons, in coordination with commercial sector leaders and Project Managers.

Coordinate technical resources across multidisciplinary teams, partner firms, contractors, and seasonal field crews to staff projects for success.

Lead regular practice meetings that build technical community across both disciplines, share knowledge, and maintain alignment across offices.

People and team development

Mentor, coach, and develop biologists, ecologists, environmental scientists, foresters, forest technologists, and field staff across multiple offices and specializations.

Develop and support senior discipline leads who provide technical depth in their respective areas, building a leadership bench within the practice.

Support recruitment and hiring of technical staff, and lead succession planning for key technical roles across both disciplines.

Support emerging professionals toward R.P.Bio., R.P.F., R.F.T., and other relevant registrations, including articling, mentorship, and professional development.

Identify training needs and contribute to internal technical training and field-safety programs.

Foster a collaborative, accountable, high-performing team culture that unites both disciplines and aligns with PRI's values.

Technical support to business development

Serve as a senior technical resource on major pursuits and proposals, providing technical strategy, credibility, and content across both disciplines that helps win work.

Support strong client relationships as a trusted technical advisor, working alongside the commercial leaders who own the client relationship and the pursuit.

Support the firm's Indigenous partnerships as a technical resource on First Nations natural-resource, forestry, and stewardship initiatives, in coordination with the firm's Indigenous Partnerships function.

Identify emerging technical service opportunities and capability gaps across the combined practice, and advise leadership on where to invest to grow.

Contribute to thought leadership and marketing that showcases PRI's natural sciences and forestry expertise and multidisciplinary capabilities.

Innovation and continuous improvement

Champion the adoption of new methods, tools, and technologies, including remote sensing, LiDAR, drone-based inventory and survey, and AI-enabled approaches to analysis and classification, that improve the quality, efficiency, and value of the practice's work across both disciplines.

Stay current with evolving legislation, professional practice standards, and industry best practices in both natural sciences and forestry, and bring that knowledge back into the practice.

We are looking for a natural-resource science leader, grounded in either biology/ecology or professional forestry, who combines deep technical expertise, a genuine passion for developing people across disciplines, and the judgment that comes from years of registered practice. You care about the quality of the science and the growth of the team, and you are comfortable leading a discipline adjacent to your own through a strong senior specialist.

At PRI, we believe exceptional consulting begins with exceptional people. We empower our technical leaders with meaningful responsibility, the support to succeed, and the opportunity to shape the future of their practice, without asking them to carry sales quotas at the expense of the work they love.

As Practice Lead, Natural Sciences & Forestry, you'll find:

A structure designed to let technical leaders lead technically, with genuine commercial support so you can focus on the work and the team.

The opportunity to build and shape an integrated natural-resource science practice, uniting biology, ecology, and forestry under one roof.

A practice with deep and genuine First Nations partnerships and meaningful stewardship work.

A multidisciplinary environment that encourages collaboration across natural sciences, forestry, environmental, geomatics, and engineering disciplines.

A firm that is actively investing in innovation, including remote sensing, LiDAR, and AI-enabled tools that make our people's work better.

Competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits, and genuine support for ongoing professional development.

PRI is a multidisciplinary engineering and natural sciences consulting firm with offices across British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario. We are an equal-opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates, and we particularly encourage applications from Indigenous professionals.