Advanced Projects Advisor

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air District) is a regional government agency, committed to achieving clean air to protect the public's health and the environment. The Air District accomplishes this goal through regulation of industrial facilities and various outreach and incentive programs designed to encourage clean air choices.

The Air District's jurisdiction encompasses all of seven counties - Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Napa, and portions of two others - southwestern Solano and southern Sonoma.

The Air District is currently accepting applications for the position of Advanced Projects Advisor in the Emissions and Community Exposure Assessment Section of the Assessment, Inventory & Modeling Division (AIM). This is an open recruitment for one (1) full-time, represent position. 

About the Division

The Assessment, Inventory, and Modeling (AIM) Division prepares comprehensive source emission inventories for the Bay Area and conducts air quality modeling at both regional and community scales. AIM prepares technical assessments that evaluate equity in air pollution exposures and health impacts in support of District programs. AIM coordinates and implements programs to improve and report estimates of emissions of criteria pollutants, toxic air contaminants, and climate forcing pollutants. AIM assesses emissions, modeled concentrations, and exposures of toxic air contaminants, particulate matter, ozone and their precursors, to support targeted strategies that reduce impacts of air pollution both regionally and within communities, especially where Assembly Bill (AB) 617 community action plans are being developed and implemented. AIM reviews and provides guidance on environmental health risk assessments within environmental review documents prepared pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

About the Position

The Advanced Projects Advisor leads and works with staff in the Assessment, Inventory, and Modeling (AIM) Division and other Divisions at the District to design, create, and evaluate air pollution emissions inventories and exposures using data processing and analysis tools (primarily R and Python). The Advanced Projects Advisor works with other District staff to develop methods to integrate emissions estimates into modeling systems processing streams and to extract air pollution measurements for emissions and modeling evaluation purposes. This position will lead in developing emissions estimates for complex categories, creating and reviewing programming scripts to streamline database queries, and conduct air dispersion and health risk analysis for community-scale exposure assessment. The position coordinates with other District staff to advance agency objectives to improve air quality and promote equity and inclusivity.

Definition

Under direction, provides a variety of technical and administrative support to the District; conducts specialized studies and projects; serves as the District's liaison with other agencies; performs related work as assigned.

Distinguishing Characteristics

This specialized class performs complex technical and administrative work in a variety of areas for the District. Assignments tend to be project oriented and require significant independent action and judgment. Incumbents may represent the District in strategic situations and speak with the authority of the District, when so assigned. Supervision of others may or may not be assigned to this classification. This class is distinguished from Senior Advanced Projects Advisor in that the latter has managerial responsibilities.

Examples of Duties for this Position

(Illustrative Only) 

Conducts complex and specialized studies involving technical, administrative and policy matters, often sometimes of a confidential or sensitive nature; prepares and presents reports of findings; develops policies, procedures and issue statements and papers as assigned.

Provides assistance to the District and its executive and management staff in technical and administrative matters.

Represents the District with industry, governmental agencies, the legislature, regulatory agencies and the public for a variety of purposes; speaks with the authority of the District when so assigned.

Prepares requests for proposals and monitors contractors' activities.

Tracks, reviews and analyzes current and proposed policies, regulations and legislation; notifies the District of significant activities and implications.

Writes, compiles and coordinates a variety of technical and administrative reports.

Analyzes concepts, technological developments and industrial procedures related to air quality control and recommends courses of action.

Minimum Qualifications

Education and Experience:

A typical way to obtain the knowledge and skills is:

Equivalent to graduation from a four-year college or university with major coursework in environmental studies, engineering, business or public administration or a closely related field and three years of experience in air quality management.

Desirable Qualifications 

• Solid experience with emissions data management of criteria pollutants, greenhouse gases, and toxics air contaminants from stationary and mobile sources.
• Strong experience in data analysis/management, automated data QA and visualization, and issues tracking/documentation (e.g., GitHub, SQL Server, Power BI, Python, and R) to improve emissions inventory development, update, and impact assessment work.
• Strong communication (both verbal and written) and interpersonal skills and ability to work with people of varied backgrounds and perspectives.
• Experience in regulatory air dispersion modeling (e.g., AERMOD), exposure/health risk assessment, and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is a plus.