Water Conservation Intern

Vail, CO 81657

Water Conservation Intern

Ready to turn your passion for sustainability into real-world impact in one of Colorado’s most iconic mountain destinations?

Eagle River Water and Sanitation District’s Water Conservation department develops and leads environmental stewardship and water conservation initiatives that empower customers to use water more efficiently throughout the Eagle River Valley. As a Water Conservation Intern, you will spend approximately 50% of your time visiting customers to evaluate residential irrigation systems and provide recommendations for irrigation and landscaping as part of our outreach and concierge program. The remainder of their time will be spent supporting a variety of data-driven and outreach-focused water conservation projects. Depending on the selected candidate’s skills and experience, you may work closely with a data mentor or take on more independent responsibilities.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is equally passionate about working in the field and having conversations with our customers about water conservation as they are about crunching data. The ideal candidate for this role must be committed to environmental stewardship, have excellent communication skills, and have experience or interest in developing their data analysis skills. Being able to think outside the box, manage multiple project requests, and collaborate with a highly productive, fun, and friendly team will provide an amazing and rewarding internship experience.

The Day-to-Day:

  • Work with external stakeholders, nonprofits, landscapers, and customers to perform irrigation evaluations and support a partner-run rebate program.
  • Perform analyses of customer data related to water use trends and account metrics using R coding language.
  • Develop and manage interactive dashboards, charts, and reports using PowerBI.
  • Occasionally staff the community outreach events to talk to customers about water conservation.
  • Visit ERWSD’s facilities and learn about water production, storage, and distribution, and wastewater collections and treatment to understand the importance and operations of a modern water and sanitation utility.
  • Participate in a variety of internal staff trainings, company events, and extra-curricular recreational outings like mountain biking, climbing 14ers, river and highway cleanups, and much more!

Competencies and Qualifications:

  • EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:
    • Previous related work experience in environmental sciences, natural resources management, science communications, water resources, water treatment, wastewater treatment, watershed science or a related field required.
    • Must be pursuing or have completed a Bachelor's degree from four-year college or university in a related field, or technical degree from a technical, scientific, or trade institution in a related field.
  • Strong customer service skills and able to effectively present information in one-on-one and small group situations to customers and co-workers.
  • Able to tactfully, directly, and professionally communicate in English, both written and verbal. Able to write reports and communicate research clearly and succinctly.
  • Experience using Microsoft Office, SharePoint, R, and PowerBI to assist water conservation staff with organizing and tracking data. Computer proficiency and experience with Excel is required. Experience with data cleaning and visualization in R is preferred.
  • Working knowledge and understanding of water conveyance systems, science communication techniques, irrigation system efficiency, and native and adapted landscape design is preferred.

The Schedule

This position will work up to a maximum of 1,000 hours or six months. We prefer a candidate who is available to work 30 or more hours a week for a six-month time period from May through October but will consider alternative schedules. This will be a hybrid internship with the expectation to work onsite 2-3 days per week.

Pay Range and Benefits

This role is a paid internship with the pay range of $23.96 - $33.55/hour. We value life-work balance and are leaders in the industry with our seasonal employee benefits package, which includes but is not limited to: 

  • $522 Employee Housing Stipend
  • Wellness program 
  • 457 Retirement savings plans 
  • Paid Holidays and PTO
  • $800 Annual Recreation Benefit

All District employees must submit to a pre-employment drug screen and extensive background check.

For a full classification specification, email erwsdjobs@erwsd.org.

All applicants must apply online by March 15 in order to be considered.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer
We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, genetic information, or any other status protected by law or regulation. Selection decisions are based on job-related factors.

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