Practice Lead, Natural Sciences & Forestry
Technical leadership of PRI's combined Natural Sciences & Forestry practice
Location: Toronto, ON
Full-time • Senior leadership
About the opportunity
PRI is seeking an experienced Practice Lead to provide technical leadership for our combined Natural Sciences & Forestry practice. This is a senior leadership role for a seasoned natural-resource professional, from either a biological sciences or a professional forestry background, who is energized by raising the technical bar, mentoring practitioners across disciplines, and building a practice known for the quality, rigour, and integrity of its work.
As Practice Lead, Natural Sciences & Forestry, you will own the technical excellence, quality, and capability of two closely related natural-resource science disciplines: our biology, ecology, and environmental sciences work, and our professional forestry work. These disciplines share clients, field programs, and projects, and bringing them together under one practice lets the firm serve natural-resource and land clients seamlessly. You will be a senior technical authority for the practice, the mentor who develops emerging practitioners into confident registered professionals, and the standard-bearer who ensures every deliverable reflects sound science and stands up to regulatory and professional scrutiny. You will work in close partnership with our commercial leaders, who own client relationships and business growth, so that you can focus your energy where it matters most: the quality of the work and the strength of the team.
PRI's Natural Sciences & Forestry practice partners with First Nations and Indigenous tenure holders, provincial and federal agencies, licensees, developers, utilities, municipalities, and industrial clients across British Columbia and beyond. On the natural sciences side, the practice delivers biology and ecology, habitat and species assessments, aquatic and terrestrial studies, vegetation and wildlife work, and environmental field programs. On the forestry side, it delivers forest management planning, silviculture prescriptions and surveys, timber development and cruising, forest health, and wildfire and fuel management. Together they form an integrated natural-resource science capability.
How this role works at PRI
PRI operates through a matrix of technical practices and commercial sectors. Practice Leads own the technical axis: technical excellence, quality management, discipline capability, staffing, and people development. Commercial sector leaders own client relationships, pursuits, and business growth. This structure means our Practice Leads can concentrate on what drew them to the profession in the first place, excellent work and strong teams, while being genuinely supported on the commercial side. As Practice Lead, you'll be a senior technical resource on major pursuits and client relationships, but you won't carry sales targets or sole commercial accountability.
What you'll own
Technical leadership and quality
Serve as a senior technical authority for the Natural Sciences & Forestry practice, providing expert oversight on complex projects, professional submissions, and technically challenging assignments across both disciplines.
Provide, and ensure through senior discipline leads, rigorous technical review and professional sign-off across natural sciences deliverables (habitat and species assessments, ecological studies, monitoring programs) and forestry deliverables (forest management plans, silviculture prescriptions, timber development, forest health and wildfire assessments).
Ensure all deliverables meet PRI's quality standards, professional practice requirements, and applicable provincial and federal regulatory frameworks.
Own and continuously improve the practice's technical standards, field protocols, methodologies, and quality management systems across both disciplines.
Establish and lead consistent technical review processes at key project milestones, working alongside Project Managers who own project delivery.
Discipline capability and resourcing
Own the technical capability of the practice across both disciplines, the field expertise, methods, and skills the team needs to deliver excellent work now and as the practice grows.
Lead the practice through senior discipline specialists. Where your own registration and expertise sit in one discipline (biology or forestry), you will rely on, develop, and empower a senior lead in the other, ensuring both disciplines are held to the same high standard.
Maintain labour forecasts, utilization targets, and workload planning across offices and field seasons, in coordination with commercial sector leaders and Project Managers.
Coordinate technical resources across multidisciplinary teams, partner firms, contractors, and seasonal field crews to staff projects for success.
Lead regular practice meetings that build technical community across both disciplines, share knowledge, and maintain alignment across offices.
People and team development
Mentor, coach, and develop biologists, ecologists, environmental scientists, foresters, forest technologists, and field staff across multiple offices and specializations.
Develop and support senior discipline leads who provide technical depth in their respective areas, building a leadership bench within the practice.
Support recruitment and hiring of technical staff, and lead succession planning for key technical roles across both disciplines.
Support emerging professionals toward R.P.Bio., R.P.F., R.F.T., and other relevant registrations, including articling, mentorship, and professional development.
Identify training needs and contribute to internal technical training and field-safety programs.
Foster a collaborative, accountable, high-performing team culture that unites both disciplines and aligns with PRI's values.
Technical support to business development
Serve as a senior technical resource on major pursuits and proposals, providing technical strategy, credibility, and content across both disciplines that helps win work.
Support strong client relationships as a trusted technical advisor, working alongside the commercial leaders who own the client relationship and the pursuit.
Support the firm's Indigenous partnerships as a technical resource on First Nations natural-resource, forestry, and stewardship initiatives, in coordination with the firm's Indigenous Partnerships function.
Identify emerging technical service opportunities and capability gaps across the combined practice, and advise leadership on where to invest to grow.
Contribute to thought leadership and marketing that showcases PRI's natural sciences and forestry expertise and multidisciplinary capabilities.
Innovation and continuous improvement
Champion the adoption of new methods, tools, and technologies, including remote sensing, LiDAR, drone-based inventory and survey, and AI-enabled approaches to analysis and classification, that improve the quality, efficiency, and value of the practice's work across both disciplines.
Stay current with evolving legislation, professional practice standards, and industry best practices in both natural sciences and forestry, and bring that knowledge back into the practice.
Who we're looking for
We are looking for a natural-resource science leader, grounded in either biology/ecology or professional forestry, who combines deep technical expertise, a genuine passion for developing people across disciplines, and the judgment that comes from years of registered practice. You care about the quality of the science and the growth of the team, and you are comfortable leading a discipline adjacent to your own through a strong senior specialist.
Required qualifications
Professional registration as an R.P.Bio., R.P.F., P.Ag., P.Biol., or equivalent in British Columbia, or eligibility for registration.
Bachelor's degree in Biology, Ecology, Forestry, Forest Sciences, Environmental Science, Natural Resource Management, or a related discipline. Graduate degree an asset.
Minimum 10 years of natural sciences or forestry experience, with progressively increasing technical responsibility.
Minimum 5 years of technical leadership or team leadership experience, including mentoring, technical review, resource planning, or practice development.
Strong knowledge of natural-resource and/or forestry legislation, professional practice standards, and regulatory frameworks in British Columbia.
Demonstrated experience leading technical teams and providing senior review across multiple concurrent projects and field programs.
A collaborative leadership style and the maturity to lead a discipline adjacent to your own by relying on and developing senior specialists.
Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, and a genuine commitment to technical excellence, professional integrity, and client service.
Preferred qualifications
Experience spanning, or working closely across, both biological sciences and forestry disciplines.
Experience working collaboratively with First Nations on natural-resource, forest tenure, and stewardship initiatives.
Experience across multiple service areas, including habitat and species assessment, ecological studies, forest management planning, silviculture, forest health, or wildfire and fuel management.
Familiarity with GIS, remote sensing, LiDAR, and drone-based field data collection and analysis.
Experience supporting multidisciplinary environmental, land development, infrastructure, or natural-resource projects.
Experience developing quality management systems, technical standards, and internal training programs.
