Groundwater Program Analyst

Environmental Science Associates (ESA) seeks an early-career Groundwater Program Analyst with 2-7 years of experience in groundwater management and water resources to join our Technology Services team. The successful candidate is ideally located in the Sacramento area, but we are open to candidates located near another ESA California hub. This is a hybrid position that supports conducting most work from a flexible location of your choosing. ESA’s delivery teams have typically meet in person a few times a month and often choose to work together in ESA’s office a few days a week. We are therefore seeking candidates located in proximity to Sacramento or near another ESA California office. Travel to client locations across California may be required up to a few times per month.

You are an early-career water resources professional with either a Master’s degree in water resources, hydrology, environmental science or management, environmental policy, or a related field, or 2-7 years of experience working in groundwater management in CA — who wants to help groundwater agencies put sustainable management into practice on the ground.

You bring solid foundation in understanding groundwater management and California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), including concepts such as groundwater allocations, demand management, sustainable yield, and reporting and compliance. You are curious about how policy decisions become the rules that agencies and growers actually operate under.

You are comfortable working with data. You are proficient with spreadsheets and have an aptitude for data QA/QC and systems thinking, and you have experience with geospatial tools such as QGIS or ArcGIS and parcel or other spatial data. Familiarity with SQL or scripting languages such as Python is a plus. You are tech-savvy and eager to learn new tools and platforms quickly.

You are a natural communicator and relationship builder. You can explain technical concepts about water resources clearly to non-technical audiences — growers, agency staff, advisory committees, and Boards — and you are comfortable providing support and helping to facilitate meetings, workshops, and trainings for diverse audiences. You proactively identify issues, contribute constructively to problem-solving, and advocate for client needs within an interdisciplinary project team.

You hold a master’s or bachelor’s degree in a water resources related field and are able to pass a federal and/or state background check for project-based assignments. Coursework or a certification in GIS is a plus.

As a Groundwater Program Analyst, you will help groundwater agencies operate transparent, trustworthy water accounting programs on ESA’s Groundwater Accounting Platform (GAP). Working alongside our project managers, water resources specialists, and software developers, you will help turn groundwater policy into working systems that agencies and growers can understand, trust, and rely on.

• →Configure groundwater management programs within GAP under direction — establishing geographies, zones and management areas, water accounts, and water measurement types such as evapotranspiration, precipitation, and metered extraction.
• →Assemble, integrate, and perform QA/QC on the data behind groundwater accounting, including third-party meter and telemetry data, OpenET evapotranspiration data, self-reported extraction, allocation records, and parcel spatial data.
• →Prepare and process parcel and spatial data for parcel-level accounting using GIS tools.
• →Help translate allocation rules, carryover and transfer provisions, true-up procedures, and other demand management policies into platform configuration and accounting logic, and document the assumptions used.
• →Build and validate dashboards and reports that give agencies and growers a clear view of usage, allocations, deadlines, and compliance status.
• →Support development of data management strategies, including analyzing current data workflows, inventorying data sources and systems, and synthesizing pain points and dependencies.
• →Prepare workshop materials, training guides, and platform demonstrations, and help facilitate stakeholder workshops, Technical Advisory Committee and Board meetings, grower training sessions, and the GAP user community.
• →Draft sections of proposals, scopes of work, findings memos, and technical documentation that are clear, concise, and well-supported.
• →Grow, over time, toward independent ownership of program configuration and client and stakeholder support.

Groundwater is one of California's most important and most stressed resources, and under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, agencies across the state are being asked to bring basins back into balance. Our team builds and operates the Groundwater Accounting Platform (GAP) — an open-source system that helps Groundwater Sustainability Agencies and their growers do exactly that: track allocations, report and verify pumping, manage demand, and administer their programs transparently and defensibly.

What makes this work different is that we sit at the intersection of policy, data, and people. We work shoulder-to-shoulder with NGO partners, agency staff, Technical Advisory Committees, Boards, and the growers whose livelihoods depend on these decisions — translating complex sustainability rules into systems they can actually understand, trust, and operate. We also help lead a nationwide community of practice across groundwater management agencies, state funders, the consultant community, and NGO partners, sharing what works and continually improving the platform. Together, we turn groundwater policy into working tools that make a real and lasting difference for California's water future.

What’s Special About ESA

Joining ESA means becoming part of a close-knit team of environmental professionals who contribute to outstanding projects, improve environmental stewardship, and advance a more sustainable and resilient future for our communities and wild places.

At ESA, we provide benefits such as medical, dental, and vision insurance (paid at 70% for you AND your family), annual allocations of company share through our ESOP, a 401(k) plan with company match, and paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays, to name a few.

We also provide specific programs whether you want to further your technical expertise, sharpen your business acumen, or help lead the next generation of employee-owners. We want to support you in reaching your career goals through tuition reimbursement, professional development bonuses, and attendance at conferences.

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ESA is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to a diverse and inclusive work environment. (EOE M/V/F/D)