Program Manager, Fisheries Monitoring

Start Date: April 15, 2025

Position status: Full time (32 hours/4-day work week Mon-Thurs). Generous benefits package after three months

Location: Masset, Daajing Giids (but will consider applications from elsewhere)

Compensation: $75,000-90,000 annually, commensurate with experience

About Ecotrust Canada’s Fisheries Program

For over 20 years, Ecotrust Canada’s Fisheries Programs have been deeply rooted in community-driven solution-building on the coast of BC. Our fisheries vision is for resilient fisheries – fisheries that meet the immediate social and economic needs of adjacent communities, without compromising ecological integrity, or the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Notably, we are also a Designated At-Sea (ASOP) and Dockside (DMP) monitoring service provider and have been delivering biological sampling and catch monitoring programs since 2010.

Position Summary

We are looking for a hands-on, strategic thinker to lead our community-based fisheries monitoring programs. This role is ideal for someone who is keen to work alongside fishermen on the dock, while also excelling in program management, strategic planning, professional writing, and public speaking.

The Program Manager will oversee Ecotrust Canada’s fisheries monitoring programs for Indigenous-led fisheries, including programming developed in partnership with First Nations implementing Community-Based Fisheries.

The successful candidate will play a pivotal role in managing program objectives, timelines, and budgets, while ensuring high-quality data collection and reporting in line with Ecotrust Canada’s Quality Management System. This position involves supervising a team of monitors, working closely with technology partners to support data collection efforts, and identifying opportunities to expand fisheries monitoring programs. The Program Manager will also assist in the development of contracts, proposals, and funding applications.

The role requires a strong background in project management, an understanding of fisheries in BC, and experience collaborating with First Nations and industry partners. This position involves fieldwork, including dockside monitoring and vessel-based activities, and requires travel as needed throughout the fishing season.

Note: The Program Manager must not hold a fisher’s registration card, purchase fish for resale, or be affiliated with a business that catches, cultures, processes, or transports fish.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead program and project management, including setting objectives, activities, timelines, and managing budgets.
• Serve as Ecotrust Canada’s Security Clearance Officer to maintain corporate designation with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).
• Assist the Director of Community Fisheries with contracting, proposals, and funding applications.
• Work with technology partners to ensure electronic monitoring data and dockside monitoring data meet the needs of the fishery.
• Identify and pursue opportunities to expand Fisheries Monitoring Programs.
• Supervise and mentor the monitors to ensure high-quality data collection, entry, and reporting under Ecotrust Canada’s Quality Management System.
• Conduct on-the-ground duties, including conducting training and offload validations as required.
• Complete all of the above in a regionally and culturally sensitive and informed manner that ensures the well-being of the community and individual partners.
• Valid Class 5 driver’s licence and access to a vehicle.

Skills and Qualifications

• Strong project management and organizational skills.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Self-motivated and results-oriented, with the ability to take initiative and work independently or collaboratively as part of a team.
• Comfortable working on docks, fishing vessels, and handling fish.
• Experience in fisheries, fisheries management, or fisheries monitoring.
• High level of proficiency with technology, including the ability to work with fisheries data management systems, electronic monitoring tools, and digital reporting platforms.
• Ability to maintain professional relationships with First Nations and stakeholders.
• Willingness to travel as required throughout the fishing season.
• Ability to obtain Reliability Status Security Clearance from Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
• Post-secondary education in environmental/biological sciences or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Understanding of Canada’s colonial history, its ongoing impacts on Indigenous communities, and a commitment to Decolonization, Reconciliation and justice-seeking endeavours.

 Preferred

• Lived experience in rural and Indigenous communities in Coastal BC.
• Familiarity with commercial fisheries monitoring (At-Sea, Dockside, and Electronic Monitoring).
• Experience in adult training, with cultural competency considerations.
• Experience in relationship-building and partnership development.
• Experience in community engagement, facilitation and/or leading group processes.

If you are a strategic, hands-on leader who thrives in dynamic environments and is passionate about fisheries monitoring and Indigenous-led resource management, we encourage you to apply.

Work-life Balance and Well-Being

Our small team is ambitious – both in and outside of Ecotrust Canada – with our own passion projects. To support these ambitions we offer flexible hours, locations, and the ability to work time-in-lieu. We want this position to support your life goals, rather than detract from them. That said, we prioritize our community partners’ needs, their annual calendars (i.e., harvest seasons, festivals, etc.), and our project deadlines. Through strong communication and mutual support, we strive for a healthy work-life balance that benefits personal and professional growth.

About Ecotrust Canada

Ecotrust Canada is an enterprising non-profit that works with rural, remote, and Indigenous communities toward building an economy that provides for a healthy and resilient natural environment; sustainable and abundant energy, food, and housing; prosperous and meaningful livelihoods; and vibrant cultures and inclusive societies. We call this approach building an economy that provides for life. Our on-the-ground work and systems approach is entrepreneurial, partnership-based, and relentlessly practical. To learn more visit ecotrust.ca.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We will prioritize someone who self-identifies as First Nations for this role and who is from a rural, remote community in British Columbia – someone who understands first-hand our program’s mission, to nurture a vibrant and culturally relevant monitoring system.

Ecotrust Canada is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and our employees are people with different strengths, experiences and backgrounds who share a passion for our mission. Diversity includes not only ethnicity and gender identity but also age, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, religion, and many other parts of one’s identity. All of our employees’ points of view are key to our collective success, and inclusion is everyone’s responsibility. 

Reconciliation

Ecotrust Canada is committed to building respectful and reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities and peoples. We are committed to upholding and respecting Indigenous governance, rights, and title in the places we live, work, and dream together. For more information, please see our Framework for Advancing Reconciliation here.

Job Application - Program Manager, Community Based Fisheries Monitoring

Please submit resume and cover letter as one PDF file with ‘Program Manager, Community Based Fisheries Monitoring” in the subject line by midnight on March 13, 2025. Resumes will be reviewed prior to closing date.