Conservation Monitoring Coordinator

About Us

Space for Giants is an international conservation organisation, based in Africa, founded in 2011. Our mission is to protect the natural ecosystems on which Africa’s large wild animals depend, ensuring they are valued by local people. We currently work in 11 countries across Central, East and Southern Africa, focusing on some of the most pressing challenges facing the conservation of megafauna today. We have three thematic pillars of work to achieve our mission which are: 1) The protection and management of natural ecosystems and associated value creation for local citizens; 2) Combating the illegal wildlife trade; and 3) Promoting Human-Wildlife Coexistence. We pride ourselves on our highly collaborative approach with national governments, recognising the importance of being relevant to elected leaders and their constituents, striving to ensure that our conservation work is aligned with their priorities. Grounded in world class science, we bring high quality technical expertise and experience to inform and deliver our conservation programmes, wherever we work. We also pride ourselves on being adaptable and nimble to respond quickly to emerging opportunities and evolving challenges in a very dynamic space.

We have grown rapidly since we were founded – from working to study, protect and manage elephants in a single landscape in central Kenya; to engaging in policy and strategy development across international, national and landscape-level environments. To better position Space for Giants for current conservation challenges and opportunities, we developed a new five-year strategic plan in 2021. This broadened the focus of the organisation beyond African elephants, which are still an anchor and symbol for our work, to the critical ecosystems on which they and other large wild animals, and indeed all of us, depend. To read more visit: www.spaceforgiants.org

Your Position with Space for Giants

With strong experience in conservation technology systems and methodologies, a proven track record in capacity building amongst field based teams (e.g. rangers, researchers, etc.), and ability to oversee the integration of various types of data and information into a central point. The Conservation Monitoring Coordinator will have a proven track record working with Earthranger and SMART along with a strong GIS background. The Conservation Monitoring Coordinator will be responsible for implementing various conservation monitoring tools to collect, analyse and disseminate data across the conservation programmes that will feed into Space for Giant’s M&E strategy. To achieve this, the selected individual will work closely with conservation programmes and country leads, to implement the necessary data collection and monitoring interventions that will feed into and organisation wide Data Hub. The Conservation Monitoring Coordinator will report to the Director of Conservation, with oversight from the Managing Director for Conservation. Moreover, this position will collaborate closely with all SFG divisions including Carbon, Wildlife Justice & Rule of Law, Conservation Investment, and Conservations Science. This position will ideally be based at the Space for Giants HQ in Nanyuki, Kenya, but other locations may be considered.

Responsibilities & Scope

• Drives data collection, storage, visualisation, and reporting (social, ecological, and spatial) and associated protocols necessary to ensure Space for Giants can track project implementation and impact;

• Lead the implementation of existing mobile-phone monitoring across our portfolio of projects including the training of stakeholders, storage/management/analysis/reporting of data to relevant stakeholders (conservancies, wildlife authorities, donors etc.) and ongoing oversight and mentorship for partners and Space for Giants staff;

• Driver innovation and conservation technology integration to establish a Space for Giants Data Hub that will incorporate varied streams of data from across our portfolio of projects in an efficient way – using Earthranger as a key component;

• Conduct Rapid Technology Needs Assessment across our portfolio of projects to guide management on appropriate technologies to adopt;

• Work closely with the Conservation Impact Manager to develop and implement appropriate monitoring technology to document Space for Giants conservation impact;

• Work with the Space for Giants Conservation, Fundraising, Communication & Finance teams to support grant proposals, reporting, presentations and wider communication (including project reporting as necessary for donors and funders);

• Work closely with the Director of Conservation to develop appropriate strategies and develop project concepts and budgetary components for Annual Planning purposes;

• Actively build relationships and partnerships with Conservation Technology providers (e.g. SMART Partnership, Vulcan, ESRI, Motorola, etc.) and Conservation Partners to achieve synergy, economies of scale and standardise data collection, management and reporting;

• Heavy focus on capacity building and training field teams on use of appropriate technology, protocols and systems;

• Always upholds and promotes Space for Giants’ core values

• Requires willingness to travel regularly both domestically and internationally, and to occasionally work weekend and evenings

Minimum Qualifications

• At least five years of work in conservation project management, ideally in the conservation sector focused on hands on implementation of M&E strategies, field based capacity building and

• Educated to at least Master’s degree level or equivalent experience in a relevant field

• Excellent written and oral communication skills

• Ability to multitask and meet deadlines

• Demonstrated ability to lead, inspire and mentor a team

• Proven proficiency and working experience implementing impact measuring systems, data and information management from multiple streams and associated analyses

• Excellent analytical skills and excellent attention to detail

• Proficient in GIS and related software packages

• Excellent proficiency in conservation monitoring technology and methodologies with specific reference to SMART, Earthranger, Cybertracker, (please do not apply if you do not have experience in these) camera traps, GPS collars, scocio-economic surveys, aerial surveys, cloud based systems, remote sensors, etc.

• Knowledge and experience of social science methodologies and analyses

• Ability to write complex funding proposals including budgetary elements

• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to interact with Government, private sector, research and third sector organisations

• Demonstrated experience in conservation-related research

• Ability to spend extended periods of time in the field away from the office to conduct training & capacity building;

• Willingness to go the extra mile to get the job done

• Demonstrated ability to think critically about conservation problems

• Valid driving license

Desired Qualifications

• Multi-lingual (Swahili and/or French desirable) and multicultural experience appreciated

• Experience with remote sensing and field-based analyses of habitat types and change over time

• Experience implementing LoRa WAN, digital radio systems,

• Familiar with statistical analysis programs, including “R”

• Experience with undertaking socio-economic surveys and analysis of associated data

• Strong team player who can build relationships and work collaboratively across the organisation, including with Space for Giants’ senior leadership and partners

• Self-starter with ability to generate work products with limited support

Place of Work

You will be based in Nanyuki, Kenya, working at the Space for Giants Office. Your office hours will be from 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Reporting and Delivery

The position will report to the Director of Conservation

Contract Term

This is a permanent position. Remuneration is negotiable subject to experience and skills.**