BACKGROUND:

African Parks is a non-profit conservation organisation that takes on the complete responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of national parks in partnership with governments and local communities. We currently manage 18 national parks and protected areas in 11 countries covering over 14.1 million hectares in: Angola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

JOB OVERVIEW:

Garamba National Park is looking for an experienced, resourceful, and highly organized Research & Development Director to oversee the following departmental activities:

a. Research and monitoring

b. Technology

c. Collection node

d. Analysis

The Research & Development Director is expected to uphold a standard of excellence in protected area management, to have a deep ecological understanding and to support appropriate management interventions. In addition to ecological research and monitoring, the Research & Development Director will manage teams examining sub-regional poaching and conflict dynamics as well as a full-fledged technology office.

MAIN ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

· Manage the research and monitoring activities including elephant monitoring and collar deployment, giraffe monitoring and ossi-unit deployment, development of monitoring strategies for carnivores and chimpanzees, and implementation of fisheries management;

· Analyse sub-regional conflict dynamics;

· Investigate criminal activities in and around the Garamba Complex;

· Maintain existing technologies utilized, including collars, VHF and so on;

· Develop emerging technologies for the benefit of conservation;

· Write internal research papers and provide recommendations to the Park Management Unit (PMU), including the General Manager.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

· At least a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, or 5-years of related field experience (e.g. game management, veterinary work);

· At least eight years of working experience in conservation;

· Experience in natural resource management and habitat restoration;

· Excellent command and understand of English;

· Understanding of French will be an advantage; and

· Ability to work in a remote area.