Managing Consultant - Biodiversity

ERM is the world’s largest specialist sustainability consultancy, with over 50 years of experience helping organizations navigate complex environmental, social, and governance challenges. We bring together a global community of experts to deliver meaningful impact for our clients and the planet. 

Our Consulting Delivery Hub (CDH) in India is a critical part of ERM’s global consulting model enabling scalable, high-quality delivery across regions and service lines. CDH teams work in close partnership with regional consultants to support global client projects, providing specialist expertise, driving consistency, and enhancing delivery efficiency across our most important programmes. 

As part of the Consulting Delivery Hub, you will collaborate with colleagues worldwide, contribute to complex sustainability projects, and play a key role in shaping the future of global consulting delivery.

Why this role matters?

As a Biodiversity Managing Consultant, you will lead and technically oversee desk-based biodiversity workstreams supporting ERM's global Capital Project Delivery portfolio. You will translate complex ecological evidence into robust, decision-ready advice for major infrastructure, renewables, transmission and distribution, hydrogen, carbon capture, mining and diversified energy projects. Working within the CPD Nature & Biodiversity sub-team, you will partner with regional ecology leads, project managers and multidisciplinary teams to shape scope, manage delivery, assure technical quality and strengthen the capability of the CDH team. This is a desk and office-based, globally connected role; field survey work is delivered by regional teams. 

What your impact is?

• Lead complex biodiversity and ecological baseline, constraints and impact-assessment workstreams, integrating protected-area, designated-site, habitat and species data from public and licensed sources.

• Author and technically review EcIA/ESIA chapters, critical habitat and natural habitat screening, technical appendices, scoping reports and biodiversity management or mitigation inputs to internationally recognised standards, including IFC Performance Standard 6 and the Equator Principles.

• Provide senior technical oversight of desktop habitat mapping, constraints and buffer analysis, and preliminary wetland and habitat delineation, working closely with GIS specialists and regional technical experts.

• Apply the mitigation hierarchy and guide proportionate approaches to biodiversity metrics, net gain, no-net-loss, offsets and monitoring requirements, recognising applicable regional policy and project context.

• Manage multiple workstreams from scoping and resourcing through delivery, review and close-out, maintaining control of quality, programme, budget, dependencies and risks.

• Serve as a trusted technical and delivery contact for regional project and ecology leads, communicating findings, limitations, risks and recommendations clearly.

• Build team capability through coaching, technical review, knowledge sharing and development of consistent methods, templates and quality controls.

What will you bring?

• Bachelor's degree in ecology, zoology, botany, wildlife science, environmental science, conservation, forestry, biological sciences or a closely related discipline; a relevant Master's degree is strongly preferred.

• Typically, 7-10 years of relevant experience in environmental or ecological consulting, EIA/ESIA, applied research, or an NGO or government body, including substantial responsibility for biodiversity assessment on infrastructure, energy or development projects.

• Demonstrable experience leading biodiversity workstreams, coordinating multidisciplinary inputs and producing technically robust deliverables within agreed scope, budget and programme.

• Strong working knowledge of environmental impact assessment processes and biodiversity assessment methods, with experience of India's EIA regime and/or international lender and regional frameworks. The ability to work across multiple regulatory contexts is essential.

• Advanced technical writing and review capability in English, with the judgement to turn complex evidence into clear conclusions, limitations, mitigation commitments and practical recommendations.

• Working knowledge of ArcGIS Pro and/or QGIS sufficient to direct spatial analysis, interrogate mapping outputs and quality-check figures and supporting datasets. Specialist GIS production may be delivered with ERM's GIS teams.

• Strong stakeholder management, commercial awareness and communication skills, with the ability to influence across cultures, disciplines and time zones.

• Proven commitment to technical quality, professional ethics, inclusive teamwork and safe delivery.

Preferred qualifications, skills & competencies

• NABET-QCI accreditation or experience as an EIA functional-area expert in Ecology & Biodiversity, or an equivalent recognised ecological credential.

• Experience with major infrastructure and lender-led regimes, such as IFC PS6, critical habitat assessment, biodiversity action planning, lender due diligence, NSIP/DCO or comparable frameworks.

• Applied experience in one or more specialist areas such as wetlands and waterbodies, threatened species and habitats, biodiversity net gain, ecosystem services, offsets, nature-related risk or TNFD-aligned screening.

• Experience contributing to proposals, scope and fee development, delivery planning, change control and client-facing technical discussions.

• Experience mentoring consultants and reviewers, supporting competency development and building consistent delivery practices within a global team or hub environment.

• Familiarity with remote sensing, automation, AI-enabled tools or digital approaches that improve biodiversity baseline, assessment, review and reporting workflows.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the technical delivery of biodiversity scoping, baseline, impact assessment, mitigation and reporting workstreams.

• Define proportionate methods, data needs, assumptions, review points and interfaces with regional teams and other disciplines.

• Undertake and document technical and quality reviews, ensuring outputs are accurate, evidence-based, traceable and fit for client and regulatory use.

• Plan resources, allocate work, monitor progress and manage risks, dependencies, scope and budget across concurrent assignments.

• Guide and coach consultants, providing clear feedback and supporting the development of stronger technical judgement and delivery ownership.

• Support bids and proposals through technical approach, scope, resourcing, schedule, assumptions and level-of-effort inputs.

• Contribute to thought leadership, communities of practice and the standardisation of templates, methods, review checklists and tracker tools.

• Maintain current knowledge of relevant biodiversity policy, guidance, standards, metrics and emerging nature-related frameworks across the regions supported by ERM.

• Adhere to ERM's Health & Safety, ethics, information-management and quality-management requirements in all project work.