Senior Wildfire Risk Mitigation Consultant

About this role

At Jensen Hughes, we are dedicated to fire protection engineering, fire science and risk management, with a legacy that dates back to 1939 solving complex fire safety and risk-challenges, ensuring our clients can protect what matters most. Through technology, expertise and industry-leading research, we remain dedicated to our purpose of making our world safe, secure and resilient. Today, our expertise extends broadly across closely related fire safety and risk-based fields, from fire safety code consulting, accessibility and wildfire risk analysis to process safety, forensic investigations, security risk consulting, emergency management, digital innovation and more.

We are hiring a Senior Wildfire Risk Mitigation Consultant with Technical Leadership experience. Ideal candidate will reside in Los Angeles, CA or Remote if located in Western US. Relocation assistance offered within the US only. This role is essential in leading our initiatives in California, particularly in the greater Los Angeles area, and other high fire prone regions.

The ideal candidate will have a minimum of ten (10) years leading and managing wildfire preparedness, planning and risk mitigation projects for commercial/residential property owners, energy and utility clients and government agencies. The candidate will be a subject matter expert and demonstrate high technical capabilities across wildfire/fire behavior modeling, geospatial analysis, fire ecology and/or related environmental sciences, quantitative wildfire risk and vulnerability assessments, emergency evacuation modelling, public communication planning, and related wildfire engineering and planning disciplines. This position requires leadership experience and a deep technical expertise, project management skills, and the ability to mentor junior staff while fostering a collaborative environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Project Leadership: Lead and oversee complex wildfire risk mitigation projects, ensuring timely execution and alignment with stakeholders. This includes managing project timelines, budgets, and deliverables to meet client expectations. Provide hands-on technical direction and quality oversight from planning through delivery.

• Service Line Development: Support the growth and development of our wildfire risk mitigation service line, identifying opportunities for innovation and improvement in our offerings. Provide technical expertise to proposals, pursuits, and client relationships.

• Mentorship: Provide mentorship and senior leadership to junior staff members, fostering their professional growth and development within the team. Provide coaching, technical direction, and accountability while promoting high-quality delivery and collaboration.

• Technical Analysis: Conduct comprehensive, technical reviews and detailed analyses related to building codes, fire/wildfire codes, and planning to ensure compliance and best practices are followed

• Hazard and Risk Modeling: Conduct or provide technical oversight of fire/wildfire behavior modeling, smoke modelling | dispersion, land resource management, fire safety engineering analyses at parcel and neighborhood-scales, post-fire hazard analyses, landscape-scale fuel treatment opportunities and prioritizations, utilizing advanced tools and methodologies to assess risks and develop mitigation strategies

• Mitigation Planning: Evaluate a broad set of wildfire hazard, risk and vulnerability analytics to develop a comprehensive, effective and sustainable action plan and/or mitigation strategies to reduce wildfire risk. This may include understanding wildfire/fire regulations, codes & standards, environmental review, healthy forest management practices, ignition sources and probabilities, utility wildfire mitigation plans , social vulnerabilities and human behavior, evacuation planning, critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, operations and maintenance constraints, building construction practices and urban planning concepts, latest research in wildfire risk mitigation and planning. This systems approach to understanding wildfire hazards, risks and developing associated mitigation activities may be applied across the entire disaster cycle and for a variety of sectors and Client types.

• GIS & Geospatial Analysis: Manage or prepare GIS mapping, geospatial analysis, and visualization products using ArcGIS/QGIS or comparable tools to support wildfire planning, hazard analysis, risk and vulnerability assessments, and mitigation strategies

• Post-Fire Evaluations and Forensics: Support post-fire studies, detailed multi-scalar fire and smoke modelling | reconstruction, in-field data collection and assessment, and other relevant technical and legal support on wildfire forensic investigations.

• Environmental Assessments: Undertake or manage wildfire environmental assessments and environmental reviews, including healthy forest, land resource management, and post-fire recovery considerations

• Reporting and Outreach: Prepare and present technical reports and community outreach programs, effectively communicating findings and recommendations to diverse audiences. Prepare wildfire fire protection plans, risk mitigation strategies, environmental assessments, GIS/geospatial visualization products, and technical presentations.

Required Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Disaster Risk Management, Fire Engineering | Fire Science, Electrical Engineering | Electrical Utilities, Environmental Sciences | Engineering, Forestry, or a related field

• Experience: 10+ years of experience in a combination of the following: wildfire preparedness and planning, wildfire/fire behavior modeling, wildfire/fire safety strategy and/or risk mitigation strategy development, electrical utility wildfire risk management, environmental reviews, urban planning, healthy forest management, land resource management, post-fire recovery, fire/wildfire investigations, and code consulting and performance-based designs

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