Careers at
NATURAL STATE
A career at NATURAL STATE means working hard to catalyse large-scale restoration globally by revolutionising impact monitoring, developing new financial mechanisms and supporting local leaders. Our team of diverse people, ideas and skills help us achieve our impact goals and values.
Who We Are
Our goal at the NATURAL STATE research centre is to develop technology and financial systems that will catalyse large-scale restoration globally as well as help train future leaders for this sector. In the short term we are revolutionising impact monitoring for carbon, biodiversity and human-wellbeing, so that the success or failure of restoration efforts can be clearly defined. We are using this technology to help test a broad range of innovative financing mechanisms that aim to support large-scale restoration, sequester carbon, and provide benefits to local communities.
About Our Team
NATURAL STATE's mission is brought to life every day by our talented team of individuals with unique perspectives and a deep passion for the natural world.
A career with us means working hard together to achieve our goals. From species diversity studies at the NATURAL STATE research centre, located at the base of Mt. Kenya, to analysing data to help trigger investment in the nature economy.
NATURAL STATES staff are lifelong learners, continually developing new approaches and new skills. We fail fast and learn fast with a “lean impact” approach. NATURAL STATE provides skill development opportunities through all career stages, and we do this in an inclusive and respectful environment. We pride ourselves at NATURAL STATE for our passion, dedication, and diverse backgrounds.
OPEN OPPORTUNITIES
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Position:Field Research Scientist
About Natural State
Natural State is an international NGO based in northern Kenya, dedicated to laying the
groundwork for a resilient restoration economy. We design and develop the technologies and
scientific methods required to support credible, nature-based financial mechanisms. By reducing
technical barriers and improving access to high-quality ecological information, we are building
monitoring tools and systems that offer cost-effective, reliable measurement of biodiversity,
carbon, water, and social indicators.
The Research & Monitoring (R&M) Department leads all scientific data collection, ecological
monitoring, verification, and analysis across landscapes. As Natural State deepens its R&D work,
we are expanding our scientific capabilities to design and refine monitoring tools that support
restoration and conservation across diverse ecosystems.
Location: Natural State’s Research Center (located next to Lewa Conservancy, in Meru
County, Kenya)
Department: Research & Monitoring
Reports to: Head Biometrician
Direct reports: Field Implementation Leads, Field Botanist
Role Overview:
We are seeking a highly motivated and talented Head of Field Research to join our team focused
on revolutionising the monitoring of carbon and biodiversity, with an initial focus on African
rangelands but broadening to other biomes. The Head of Field Research will work with Natural
State’s Head Biometrician to coordinate the successful delivery of research activities and ensure
the timely achievement of the department’s milestones. As a young organization, Natural State
requires employees to be flexible, quick to learn new skills, and ready to tackle evolving
responsibilities and challenges.
Duties and Responsibilities:
1. Scientific
• Manage, train, and mentor the Field Implementation and Botany teams in the
implementation of their data collection and research activities to meet Natural State’s
goals and commitments to donors and partners.
• Work with the heads of the Biometrics, Carbon Sciences, Technical Delivery, and Lab
Science teams, other NS scientists and specialists, and external partners and
collaborators to design and implement state-of-the-art field research projects aimed at
improving how we cost-effectively monitor biodiversity and carbon stocks.
• Work with the Head Biometrician and Head of Project Implementation to translate
research projects into widely applicable tools to underpin financial mechanisms for
restoration and conservation projects.
• Ensure that all field data collected are accurate,properly categorised and labelled, and
in the format required by NS protocols, including designing automated Quality Control
workflows.
• Contribute to the development of Natural State’s ecological intactness index and other
monitoring tools and services.
• Coordinate with team heads and leads to write reports to partners and donors on the
activities undertaken by the Research & Monitoring department.
• Coordinate with team heads and leads to develop and optimise sampling protocols and
data models for collecting field observations including writing and reviewing survey
design documents, standard operating procedures, and field manuals.
• Work with other scientists to write and publish scientific articles on Natural State’s work in
peer reviewed publications and present scientific outputs at conferences and workshops.
2. Logistical
• Coordinate with team heads and leads on the planning and logistics of research
activities.
• Foster and maintain partnerships and collaborations with external stakeholders,
organisations and institutions.
• Attend meetings with landowners and stakeholders to build and maintain collaborations
across focal landscapes.
• Act as a point of contact for academic partners and students.
• Assist with budgeting, procurement and logistical planning of the Research & Monitoring
department’s work.
• Work with the Director of Research & Monitoring to manage resources and ensure timely
completion of activities, documentation, and communication of funding and reporting
deadlines.
• Represent the Research & Monitoring department with visiting donors, partners, and
researchers.
3. Operational
• Assist Natural State’s fundraising team in developing funding pitches and grant
applications tailored to research and development projects of specific interest to the
Research & Monitoring team.
• Coordinate with Natural State’s Operations department to facilitate the procurement of
field equipment for the Research & Monitoring department.
• Coordinate with Natural State’s Operations department on permitting requirements for all
fieldwork activities. This will include supporting the preparation, submission and renewal
of research permits, facilitating the acquisition of export permits for biological samples
and import permits for equipment while also ensuring that Natural State’s fieldwork
complies with all location-specific guidelines.
4. Human Resources
• Contribute to a productive, positive and inclusive culture in the team.
• Practice Natural State’s core values.
• Contribute to the professional development of direct reports and their teams.
Required qualifications & experience
• Postgraduate degree in biology, ecology, conservation or related discipline.
• 3 years of experience leading field research with exceptional organisational and planning
skills.
• Fieldwork experience in African rangelands.
• Experience interpreting and analysing scientific data.
• Experience managing large data sets.
• Fluency in English and Kiswahili.
• Good writing skills.
• Proficiency in open-source data management and statistics software, such as SQL,
Python, and R, and the ability to rapidly learn new software programs. At a minimum, the
Head of Field Research will need to develop basic proficiency in ODK, Markdown,
Apache Superset, Earth Engine, and Data Build Tool in addition to the aforementioned
programs.
Desirable skills
• A PhD in Ecology or another related discipline.
• An understanding of the permitting requirements relevant to fieldwork in Kenya.
• Familiarity with digital earth observations through passive and active sensors such as
camera traps, bioacoustic recorders, soil sensors, and aerial or satellite-borne sensor
platforms.
• Experience with relational databases.
• Experience working with spatial data.
• Strong presentation skills.
• Fluency in additional languages common in the northern rangelands of Kenya.
• Publication record, including papers published as first author.
• A valid driver’s license.
What we offer
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A competitive salary, commensurate with experience and qualifications.
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22 days of annual leave, additional office closure days in December, all public holidays, a pension scheme, and comprehensive medical cover.
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Negotiable periodic remote work
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Opportunity to shape and lead a new division at the forefront of conservation monitoring.
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Close collaboration with mission-driven scientists, technical specialists, and conservationists, both internally and through collaborations with world-class academic institutions.
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A dynamic and supportive work environment committed to scientific integrity and ecological restoration.
Position:Head of Project Delivery
About Natural State
Natural State is an international NGO based in northern Kenya, dedicated to laying the groundwork
for a resilient restoration economy. We design and develop the technologies and scientific methods
required to support credible, nature-based financial mechanisms. By reducing technical barriers
and improving access to high-quality ecological information, we are building monitoring tools and
systems that offer cost-effective, reliable measurement of biodiversity, carbon, water, and social
indicators.
The Research & Monitoring (R&M) Department leads all scientific data collection, ecological
monitoring, verification, and analysis across landscapes. As we expand our MRV delivery portfolio,
we are establishing a dedicated Project Delivery Division to ensure consistent, world-class
implementation across all projects that involve monitoring, reporting, and verification.
Location: Remote, with at least 5 hours of overlap with East Africa Time (EAT)
Department: Research & Monitoring
Reports to: Director of Research & Monitoring
Direct reports: MRV Specialist, Project Managers, Project Data Officer
Role overview:
The Head of Project Delivery will lead Natural State’s MRV implementation across all project types,
including credit-generating projects, donor-funded conservation programs, compliance
monitoring, and government or partner reporting.
This role combines strategic oversight with operational leadership and scientific acumen. It requires
someone who can build systems, interpret complex scientific data, manage teams, coordinate
complex field and lab workflows, and engage confidently with technical partners, auditors, verifiers,
and land stewards. A strong technical foundation in biodiversity MRV is essential, with additional
MRV experience in carbon, social, or water monitoring considered highly desirable.
The role will also work in close collaboration with the Nature Finance Department to ensure MRV
implementation aligns with project crediting requirements, feasibility assessments, and emerging
nature-finance mechanisms, while maintaining scientific rigor and operational integrity.
Duties and Responsibilities:
1. Strategic leadership and division establishment
• Pursue Natural State’s mission of transformational nature restoration through project
partnerships underpinned by cost-effective, transparent, and robust impact monitoring
using best-in-class technological solutions.
• Establish and lead the Project Delivery Division responsible for delivering all MRV-
dependent projects, including credit-based MRV cycles, compliance monitoring,
donor/funder reporting, ecological baselines, and landscape performance monitoring.
• Develop scalable workflows, management systems, and operational standards suitable for
diverse project types and partner requirements.
• Contribute to departmental planning, pipeline prioritization, and decisions related to
capacity growth and resource allocation.
• Work with the Conservation Technology division to ensure data quality, build data
pipelines, and generate robust and informative metrics of performance.
• Work with the Biometrics and Lab Science divisions to iteratively improve and expand
monitoring capabilities and to package these capabilities for project partners.
• Survey the credit framework landscape to identify the best standards and frameworks to
robustly and cost-effectively capture project impact and build partnership with
certification bodies.
2. Project oversight and execution
• Coordinate closely with the Biometrics, Conservation Technology, and Lab Science
divisions to ensure project delivery aligns with analytical models, digital pipelines, sensor
systems, and laboratory workflows used across Natural State.
• Coordinate closely with the Nature Finance division to ensure MRV delivery supports
crediting pathways, verification cycles, feasibility assessments, funder expectations, and
project structuring needs.
• Oversee planning, budgeting, and execution of MRV activities for existing PV Nature
(PVN) projects and other active MRV workstreams, ensuring high-quality delivery against
scope, timeline, and financial targets.
• Develop operational capabilities, systems, and workflows to support future delivery of
MRV solutions across a broader set of frameworks
• Monitor project risks and performance; develop mitigation plans where needed.
• Lead project close-out activities, including financial reconciliation, deliverables
submission, partner reporting, and lessons-learned reviews.
3. Partner coordination and external engagement
• Serve as the primary liaison with project partners, including project developers,
conservancies, community organizations, NGOs, government agencies, funders, and
research collaborators.
• Represent Natural State in technical discussions with auditors, verifiers, donors, and other
external stakeholders.
• Communicate project expectations, deliverables, timelines, and technical requirements
clearly throughout the project lifecycle.
• Coordinate verification cycles, audits, and compliance reviews with standard bodies,
government agencies, and independent verifiers.
• Conduct technical evaluations of project capacity and determine the technical feasibility
of prospective projects.
4. Team leadership and management
• Supervise and mentor the MRV Specialist, Project Managers, and Project Data Officers.
• Build a culture of integrity, excellence, scientific rigor, and accountability within the
Project Delivery Division.
• Develop KPIs, performance systems, and professional development pathways for staff.
Required qualifications and experience
• Master’s degree or PhD in ecology, conservation biology, environmental science, natural
resource management, geography, or a related field.
• Significant professional experience leading conservation, ecological monitoring, or MRV
projects across diverse landscapes, with proven ability to manage complex teams and
workflows.
• Strong technical knowledge of biodiversity MRV methods (e.g., ecological field surveys,
bioacoustics, eDNA, camera traps, remote sensing-derived indicators).
• Proficiency in data science and ecological statistics using open source software (e.g., R,
Python, Julia, SQL).Proven ability to build and manage multidisciplinary teams.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
Desirable skills
• Experience in one or more additional MRV areas (highly desirable):
o Carbon MRV (forest carbon, soil carbon, biomass sampling, standards)
o Social MRV (impact indicators, perception surveys, monitoring frameworks)
o Water MRV (water quality sampling, hydrological indicators)
• Experience with monitoring standards (Plan Vivo, Social Carbon, Verra, or similar) is an
advantage.
• Familiarity with GIS, remote sensing, and digital data collection tools (ODK, Survey123,
Kobo).
• Understanding of data governance, QA/QC systems, machine learning, and digital
monitoring pipelines.
• Experience with donor reporting, contract management, or partner negotiation.
• Comfort working in distributed teams across time zones.
Working conditions
• Fully remote position with at least 5 hours of daily overlap with East Africa Time (EAT).
• Preferred location: East or Southern Africa. Other locations may be considered with
strong EAT overlap. The successful candidate must already have the right to work in the
country where they reside.
• Frequent travel required (30–40%+), including visits to project sites in remote locations.
• Occasional work outside typical business hours to accommodate partners in multiple time
zones.
What we offer
• A competitive salary, commensurate with experience and qualifications.
• 22 days of annual leave, plus additional office closure days in December. An additional
benefits package is dependent on the location of employment
• Opportunity to shape and lead a new division at the forefront of conservation monitoring.
• Close collaboration with mission-driven scientists, technical specialists, and conservation
practitioners.
• A dynamic and supportive work environment committed to scientific integrity and
ecological restoration.
Position:CLOUD ENGINEER (Data Ops and Analytical Workflows)
Line manager: Natural State - Head of Conservation Technology
Location:Cape Town or Remote (depending on the applicant)
Employment Type: One year Contract, Renewable
Terms: Consultancy contract, full-time (40 hrs per week)
Salary: Negotiable
Travel: Occasional travel to Kenya (1-3 times a year)
Benefits: Consultants do not qualify for a benefit package
About Natural State
Natural State is a not-for-profit headquartered in the northern rangelands of Kenya. Our goal is to develop technology and financial systems that will catalyse large-scale restoration globally and train future leaders for this sector. In the short term, we are revolutionising impact monitoring for carbon, biodiversity and human-wellbeing, so that the success or failure of restoration efforts can be clearly defined. We are using this technology to help test a broad range of innovative financing mechanisms that aim to support large-scale restoration, sequester carbon, and provide benefits to local communities.
Position overview:
We are seeking a highly skilled Cloud Engineer to join our dynamic Conservation Technology team and lead the operationalisation of scientific and analytical processes that drive our impact.
Responsibilities:
Principal areas of interest include:
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Design, deploy, and maintain robust and scalable data and ML pipelines using Azure cloud services and Databricks.
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Operationalise analytical/statistical models developed by Natural State’s Biometrics team, ensuring reproducibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency.
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Use dbt (Data Build Tool) to build and maintain modular, production-ready SQL-based transformation workflows.
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Develop automated workflows and CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions to enable continuous delivery of analytical models and metrics.
Collaborate closely with:
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Natural State’s Conservation Technology team to integrate analytical products into core technical systems.
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Natural State’s Biometrics team to translate analytical needs into scalable, cloud-native workflows.
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Lead the data engineering and orchestration aspects of analytical delivery: defining input data requirements, transformation logic, and output pipelines.
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Leverage Azure Machine Learning for model training, evaluation, and deployment where relevant.
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Apply Great Expectations to automate QA/QC checks and monitor data integrity and model performance.
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Support data governance and metadata management using Databricks Unity Catalog.
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Act as a bridge between scientific domain experts and engineering teams, ensuring that analytical intent is faithfully executed in technical implementation.
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Continuously evaluate and optimize system performance, cost, and maintainability.
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Contribute to web-based analytical tools by supplying APIs or output data that serve operational dashboards and reporting systems.
Requirements:
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Cloud Computing, or related field.
• Demonstrated experience operationalising machine learning or statistical workflows in production environments.
• Proficiency in Azure, Databricks, and dbt is essential.
• Familiarity with Great Expectations, GitHub Actions, and Apache Spark.
• Experience with Azure Machine Learning and related ML lifecycle management.
• Solid understanding of data modelling, orchestration, and cloud-native architecture principles.
• Ability to independently translate scientific or statistical requirements into robust engineering solutions.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills to work across technical and non-technical teams.
• Experience working with tools like Terraform, Helm, and Kubernetes is advantageous but not required.
Why Join Us:
• Play a critical role in transforming scientific insights into operational conservation impact.
• Work with a mission-driven team leveraging the best of modern data and ML tooling.
• Collaborate with world-class scientists and engineers to solve global environmental challenges.
• Opportunity for professional growth and experimentation with modern data stack technologies.
• Flexible working arrangements and a culture of innovation.
How to Apply:
Interested candidates are invited to submit their resume and cover letter (pdf format only) describing your aptitude and interest in the position at this link.We look forward to reviewing your application and learning about how you can contribute to our mission.
Natural State is an equal opportunity employer and are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or age.